Why it makes increasing sense to learn mother tongue

My answer to last week’s VoicesTODAY topic, “Mother tongue: Can the decline be stopped?”, is ‘yes’. But, what is mother tongue?

I doubt the French, German, Italian or Spanish have to grapple with these questions because it is only natural that they speak their respective language. And they generally speak at least another language, usually English, if not more.

In multiracial Singapore, we need a common working language. English serves that purpose, and is also a language of commerce. However, it is not nor should it be our mother tongue, unless one has English ancestry. And even that is a subject for a separate debate.

To understand why the learning of mother tongue is in decline, we must understand our socio-economic environment.

Parents of children today grew up in the 1970s and ’80s, and saw the economic and social value of English, whether it was access to well-paying jobs, being plugged into English-language media or bonding with English-speaking friends.

Hence, they believe it is important for their children to be good in English, even at the expense of the mother tongue. This vicious cycle will continue unless we take pride in our own language and culture.

With regard to the Chinese language, as China grows stronger economically and exerts more influence in the region and the world, I believe that more people will appreciate the language or, in Singapore, at least appreciate it as a mother tongue.

There are 1.3 billion people in China, 1.2 billion in India and close to 300 million Indonesians and Malaysians. Given their large, growing middle-class and in this Asian century, learning these mother tongue languages will make increasing sense.

It is only natural and right that Singaporeans learn their own mother tongue. English should be another language so far as it helps one to connect to the wider world.