Promoting Mandarin in Singapore
This blog post describes how the Mandarin-speaking population is shrinking in Singapore (approximately 40% of households speak Mandarin, while around 60% speak English). The Promote Mandarin Council has filmed a remarkable promotional video of non-Chinese children speaking Mandarin in a very fluid, natural way.
The Promote Mandarin Council launched “The Chinese Challenge” this Spring, which is a series of televised quizzes and games that engage participants in Chinese language and culture.
The chairperson of the Promote Mandarin Council, Lim Sau Hoong, expressed the mission of the event: “We hope that with The Chinese Challenge, we’re able to cultivate our fellow Singaporeans’ passion for the language through active learning and discovery. It is our wish that more Singaporeans would one day be effectively bilingual and bicultural.”
Singapore is a hub for expatriates, so the amazing effects of multiculturalism can be seen in this video, where children from all over the world grow up learning Mandarin as a first or second language.
Underneath the light-hearted, educational mission of the Council are other motives, which are tied to boosting business and social relationships between Singapore and China. An expectation is being forged by the Challenge that urges people to remember that one must be effective at communicating with Chinese-speaking people, which means understanding Chinese culture and language, in order to be successful as a businessperson.
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