Singaporean Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew Talks About Chinese Learning

XINHUA, Singapore, June 26th (By Gao Chuan, Ding Qilin) In the evening Singaporean Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew met with more than 100 Confucius Institute delegates who are currently participating in the Asian Confucius Institutes Assembly 2010, exchanging and sharing experience on the learning of Chinese.

Lee Kuan Yew explained that he had received a British education in his youth, yet he began to learn Chinese in 1942 when the Japanese occupied Singapore; he managed to learn over 2,000 Chinese characters through self-study. In the beginning it was very tough, the most difficult subject was learning tones, which required face-to-face practice with friends and teachers every day; otherwise he would soon have become rusty. During the election in Singapore in the 1950s, Lee put even more effort into improving his Chinese proficiency.

86-year-old Lee Kuan Yew still persists in the learning of Chinese now. He said that two years ago he was determined to improve his Chinese speaking proficiency and had made progress gradually through continuous practice. Lee watches the "Chinese Bridge" and the "Five Millennia of Chinese Characters" program every now and then, he thinks that the Confucius Institute will tell people all over the world about the current climates of modern Chinese ideology, society and economy: not just teach them to speak Chinese.

When it comes to the bilingual policy in Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew believes it is of significance to maintain Chinese education. He said that it seems to him that it was a risk for many parents in the 1960s to transfer their children from Chinese schools to English schools; therefore he has since been determined to implement the bilingual policy in Singapore. Lee also commented that even if we ask all Singaporean students to learn in a completely English speaking learning environment; despite the fact that they can speak fluent English, westerners still consider them to be ethnically Chinese. If the ethnically Chinese cannot speak the Chinese language and understand Chinese culture, "it would be too late for regret", "they would disengage themselves from their roots"

Asian Confucius Institutes Assembly 2010 unveiled in Singapore on 26th, attracting over 100 delegates from 10 prestigious Chinese universities and 49 Asian Confucius Institutes.