My Lifelong Challenge: Singapore's Bilingual Journey

by Lee Kuan Yew

In My Lifelong Challenge, we learn of the many policy adjustments and the challenges Lee Kuan Yew encountered – from Chinese language chauvinists who wanted Chinese to be the preeminent language in Singapore, from Malay and Tamil community groups fearing that Chinese was being given too much emphasis, from parents of all races wanting an easier time for their school-going children, from his own Cabinet colleagues questioning his assumptions about language. We learn of the pain of teachers forced to switch from teaching in Chinese to teaching in English almost overnight, and of students who were caught in the transition from a Chinese medium of instruction to an English one. My Lifelong Challenge is also the story of Lee’s own struggle to learn the Chinese language. This book describes vividly his steely determination to improve his Chinese and reclaim his Chinese heritage, right up to the present when he is well into his 80s. Lee distils his experiences of 50 years into eight precepts that he spells out at the end of his narrative.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Biography, Politics, Biography Memoir, China, Linguistics

388 pages

First published November 1, 2011

About the author

Lee Kuan Yew was born in Singapore in 1923. He was educated at Raffles College, Singapore and Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, England. He was called to the Bar, Middle Temple, London, in 1950 and practised law in Singapore. He became advisor to several trade unions.

In 1954, he was a founder of the People's Action Party and was Secretary General up to 1992.

Mr Lee became Singapore's Prime Minister in 1959, serving successive terms until he resigned in November 1990, when he was appointed Senior Minister by Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong. He was re-appointed again after the 1991, 1997 and 2001 general elections.

In August 2004, Mr Lee was appointed Minister Mentor by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, and was reappointed again after the 2006 general elections. He stepped down as Minister Mentor in May 2011, and was appointed Senior Advisor to the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation.

Reviews

[Nelson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good job, Harry! You've successfully created a bilingual nation. You hated being called Harry because you were the only kid in your school with an English name, so you re-registered as Kuan Yew.

You were English-educated, and saw how English-educated Chinese-Singaporeans had better job prospects than Chinese-educated Chinese-Singaporeans, so you made English Singapore's primary language. However, the English-educated had no confidence in themselves and were too psychologically crippled to challenge British supremacy. I love your line: No matter how well you speak English, you're not an Englishman. So you learned the importance of staying connected to your roots, and consequently required Singaporeans to learn their "mother tongue." Great!

You efforts to calm racial tensions in Singapore were successful by making Malay and Tamil official languages too, in spite of your racist policy of promoting immigration from Hong Kong to keep the Chinese majority at 75% throughout the years. Try that in the United States. You've always admired Hong Kongers for their ruggedness. And now that you've run out of Hong Kong people, you're importing migrants from China to maintain a "high level of Mandarin" and a "Chinese cultural elite" in the country. No, no, that's not racist at all.

I'm an American-educated (and raised) Taiwanese. From reading your other book, I got the sense you weren't too fond of Taiwanese people, and never tried to poach Taiwan for talent the way you did Hong Kong and China, because we were a completely useless coterie of Japanese puppets and our president one crazy samurai. I learned in this book that you've actually recruited engineers from Taiwan.

The accounts of Singaporeans experiences with bilingualism initially made me believe Singaporeans were a confused people. But then I could relate. My family moved to the USA when I was six years old, and my parents spoke English with me so I'd catch up in school, and also so they could learn to speak it better as well. So when you said many Singaporeans wanted their kids to go to "English-stream" schools, that resonated with me.

You wiped out "dialects" and forced Mandarin down everybody's throats. Dialects aren't the connection to your cultural heritage, you argue, because when a French diplomat (or whoever) asked you what 福 meant on some insignia, you were able to tell him that that meant "luck." Well, that settles it! As your fellow Hakka, I commend you for that airtight argument.

You say Mandarin is important because China has a 5,000 year glorious history. Actually, it's only 3,000 years, and mind you, Mandarin is much younger than that. And Mandarin became "Mandarin" when foreigners, the Manchus, were ruling China. And Mandarin has foreign has Manchu/Altaic influence. But it's all good, you're building a nation, not nitpicking over linguistic details.

The personal experiences section was rich. Some English-educated trying to learn Mandarin, some Chinese-educated trying to learn English. One grumpy lady who resents the fact that immigrants from China are making her a foreigner in her own country. Hahaha.

Well, look at Singapore. World center for banking, finance, shipbuilding, and logistics. People confident in themselves, sorta connected to their cultural roots. Nice work.

[Yk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mr Lee Kuan Yew shares the story of his life and his decision in the midst of the turmoil life he had throughout his life vividly and clearly. The most important thing I learnt from this book is that you can never truly become an English man even if you tried to live like them, therefore, you should accept and be proud of your own identity, and you shall earn other's respects by doing so! It is also a great book for you if you are interested in the history of South East Asia.

[Karla Reyes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read, written by someone utterly and passionately involved in his country multilingualism.

[Tok Cliff · Rating 5 out of 5]

My Lifelong Challenge is one of Lee Kuan Yew’s less popular books, compared to Singapore Story, Third World to First and Hard Truths to Keep Singapore Going, I assume because this is much more policy oriented and the entire book is just discussing this one issue, Singapore’s language environment. I mean, how many people would actually think this book sounds interesting bar me? Probably not a lot. But this book doesn’t disappoint with its in-depth look and logic behind Singapore’s major policy decisions regarding bilingualism, mainly, Nantah University, Speak Mandarin Campaign and SAP Schools. This book is mainly focused on the Chinese demographic, because I assume LKY is Chinese himself so he can exert more direct control over the demographic compared to like Malay or Indian where it might seem more politically insensitive. I assume he left those to others of that race.

Firstly, throughout this book, it seems that this bilingualism policy is something like a pet project of LKY. He seemed to be unusually involved in this, and the reason he even started this whole bilingualism thing isn’t even because of economic reasons, but more of “cultural” and “emotional” reasons. In his early life, he lived as if he was a faux-Englishman, speaking English and not his Chinese, however, he became quite disillusioned with this when he went to Cambridge and realized that he will never be a true Englishman, and at his core, he felt kinda “hollow”, which is why he wanted to be more Chinese, to imbue a stronger sense of character in himself. He wanted to be called by his Chinese name, Kuan Yew, and not his English name Harry. Which is kinda funny if you see how many Chinese Singaporeans have an English name today.

He admired the Chinese-educated greatly for their culture, and despite disliking communists, he really looked up to certain aspects of the Chinese-educated, that being that fervour and communal spirit. He was very disappointed in the English-educated student because they just lacked that fire in them compared to the Chinese, and the Chinese-educated had a much greater sense of pride, regardless of their economic status. They had that cultural backbone the English-educated lacked. Honestly, his reasons for this entire bilingual policy did seem kinda emotional, in that he didn’t want Singaporeans to be a cultureless amalgamation of people or something, but the logic was there. It was not because of economic gain or anything, China at the time was very weak, if anything it would be better to just let everyone speak English and neglect trying to protect the Chinese culture as much as he had as seen from the book, he had the political power, if everyone spoke English, there would be much more social cohesion and less spent on bilingual education.

His largest chapter in the book was dedicated to Nanyang University, not NTU but NanTah, the Chinese-medium university. Some pretext is that, at that point in time, Chinese-medium primary and secondary schools were decreasing in enrollment every year, not because the government forced it or what but because of market forces, and that an English education is looked upon much more favourably in Singapore given the large number of foreign investments. Compared to in the past where people just weren’t getting even that baseline of education, so it didn’t matter if it was English or Chinese stream. Once people had that baseline of education, there is much more economic benefit in having an English education in places like the civil service and also the numerous amounts of foreign companies, whereas the Chinese educated would be confined to only the smaller companies or banks where Chinese is the main language. Parents recognised it and more and more of them were sending their child to English stream schools, students themselves also recognised it since a huge portion of the Chinese educated students chose to enroll in the English University of Singapore rather than the Chinese Nanyang University.

At that point in time, it was clear that Chinese medium schools were going to die a natural death, many ministers supported just letting them die naturally but LKY was adamant in forcefully merging NanTah and NUS, and also forcefully switching all Chinese schools to be English schools with a few concessions in the beginning to accomodate the shift and its impacts, he did that because he didn’t want any more graduates to suffer from poor economic prospects due to their Chinese education.

Contrary to popular belief, NanTah had full governmental support, with all the subsidies and scholarships and what not, but the writing was on the wall, the enrollment numbers were decreasing and subsequently, the quality of education was also declining, NanTah just could not maintain the proper standards of a university once the students stopped coming and the staff began resigning one by one. Despite last ditch measures like introducing bilingual streams and courses, it was too little too late, the branding and culture was already there. The current NTU acts as a spiritual successor to NanTah despite NanTah merging with University of Singapore forming NUS, with a total rebrand of its curriculum.

This was a hard pill to swallow from many in the Chinese community, like former UOB Chairman Wee Cho Yaw, since they put their blood, sweat and tears into it and it was the pride of the Chinese community, but LKY said that they could continue if they want to, but they had to bear all responsibility to what happen to the graduates, whatever that means, but it seemed to put the matter to rest. And that was the end for all the Chinese-medium schools.

So that is the case in Singapore, but what about in Malaysia, where Chinese schools are still reigning with strong community support. This is my personal opinion, but firstly, Malaysia has a larger Chinese community over there, despite being the minority, and also, they had more “Chinese” Chinese over there, which spoke little to no English compared to Singapore, which had a larger proportion of Straits Chinese and Chinese who spoke English more. This means that at the start, the political support for Chinese education was much greater. Even today, the overwhelming majority of Malaysian Chinese send their kids to a Chinese-medium primary school. Also, on the economic front, it isn’t as harmful sending your kids to a Chinese school compared to Singapore, since you learn English the same amount of time in a Chinese school compared to a Malay school, so in terms of proficiency in English, it’s not good but it isn’t worst compared to if you attended a Malay school. Malay as a language just isn’t as economically useful unless you intend to work in the government sector, so the economic benefit isn’t there. In regard to English education, as mentioned earlier, Malaysia from the start has a much more Chinese Chinese demographic compared to Singapore, so the home language is much less likely to be English, furthermore, English-stream schools have been abolished and if one wants a predominantly English education, they will have to attend an international school, which is economically and also geographically out of reach for a lot of Malaysians, which is why most Malaysians revert to a Chinese education compared to Singapore.

The economic environment is also much friendlier towards Chinese monolinguals in Malaysia, where the races have unofficially segregated themselves into various districts, so it is easier to just deal with purely your race compared to Singapore surprisingly enough. Also, as mentioned earlier, Malaysia’s Chinese demographic even in the beginning is much more Chinese compared to Singapore, which naturally leads to more of these Chinese businesses and Malaysia has A LOT of Chinese-owned businesses, much more than Malay-owned ones. Since Malaysia is geographically much bigger too, for example, a lot of people in say Penang or Johor could not give a shit about how English-speaking jobs in KL pay higher, when it’s so far away and Chinese-speaking jobs at their place give the same or even HIGHER salaries compared to Malay-speaking jobs. All these, the lack of more mainstream English education and the limited economic prospect of the Malay language have resulted in Malaysia Chinese opting for a Chinese education, and that is not even taking into account racialist tendencies yet. Malaysia’s language problem would be much harder to solve compared to Singapore, but perhaps Singapore can provide a sort of blueprint.

Since we have now worked out why Chinese education is destined to fail in Singapore since education, the book also touched on another rather controversial topic, SAP schools. Why SAP schools were established is not because LKY wanted to placate the Chinese communities or whatever, he actually could not care if they disliked him, he established the SAP schools because he recognised the beauty of distinct cultures and wanted to retain some of the values in those Chinese-educated schools. He wanted to create a sort of “Chinese” elite. This met with quite a bit of resistance back in the day, similar to today where they said these SAP schools were creating bubbles and segregating people. Notably, K Shanmugam was actually against the formation of SAP schools compared to just normal schools, but LKY’s stance is that segregation isn’t that bad since it was only at this level, in NS, University and at their neighbourhood, they will have plenty of chances to interact with other races. Also, the number of Chinese enrolling in these SAP schools is also not that much, a majority of the elite still opted for normal elite schools. Note that the government initially has trouble with maintaining the intake of these SAP schools since they still had the reputation of Chinese-medium schools, and since only people with good results can enter, the intake is lower than the government expected. Only after the first batch of SAP students graduated with stellar results did the intake gradually improve. The nature of these SAP schools being English-medium also makes a difference, since they can still communicate with the other races at a high level compared to Chinese school students in the past.

From the book, it actually gave me the impression that the government fully support establishment of Malay and Indian SAP schools too and invited community leaders to spearhead it with full government support, but it seems that no one stepped out to lead the charge. It did make me wonder whether the government tried hard enough to establish Malay and Indian SAP schools since Chinese schools had the privilege from the start of being directly converted over to SAP. Malay-medium schools were still a thing with the introduction of the SAP scheme, so it is weird that those weren’t directly converted to SAP school to. Maybe at the time, the SAP scheme was fully directed towards the Chinese schools, but when the government became open to SAP schools from other races, the Malay-medium schools have already shut down so trying to start them up again would be a greater challenge. Maybe LKY didn’t want to start up SAP schools if they did not have enough community support.

I am more inclined to agree with LKY’s reasoning, all of the SAP schools today are government affiliated, meaning it is actually managed by one of the Chinese organizations, so why can’t a Malay or Tamil organization step up? One of the pre-requisites of an SAP school is that it has to be “elite” in only taking the top students, and Malay students at the time were by far the weakest students, in 2000, only 221 Malay/Muslim students came in the top 10%, and I presume this might be diluted with Indian Muslim students so actual number of Malay students might be even lesser. The cutoff for SAP is a bit lower, with some language requirements in PSLE, but I think the number will only increase a bit more for Malay students. Furthermore, I think the “supply” would be divided between Madrasahs too. This is also not taking into account those who would rather go to the non-SAP elite schools. On the Indian side, I assume the numbers are even more dire due to the small population, further being divided since a significant minority of Indians take non-Tamil Indian languages. Indians are also much more “English” in Singapore compared to the Chinese since Singapore’s founding, so it is even questionable if there will be enough demand for a Tamil SAP School. That might be why there aren’t any Malay or Indian SAP schools, there just might not be a demand but I would like to believe if one of the ethnic organizations actually step up, the government would be willing to make some concessions provided there isn’t a massive gulf in standards compared to the Chinese SAP schools. Higher Chinese was initially intended for the SAP schools, and Higher Malay and Tamil are already in place, so I assume designing the curriculum wouldn’t be the problem.

One modern problem of Singapore’s bilingualism is that we are actually becoming less and less bilingual, and LKY has acknowledged that. The SAP schools of today are not the SAP schools of the past, where in the past, SAP schools still preserved the strong Chinese culture of the schools due to the staff’s Chinese education, but nowadays, most of the staff is English educated, so the “Chinese-ness” of the school is greatly diminished, but most importantly is that it is still there. SAP schools have a more “Chinese” atmosphere, without needing to worry about inclusivity, so they can more easily speak Chinese. Technically, SAP schools can have a much bigger portion of their time dedicated to just speaking Chinese, like other than the core subjects, there is actually no limitation with all the assemblies or homerooms being all done in Chinese. I assume the same with “non-important” subject like art or FCE in O levels lower secondary, but during my time in an SAP school, it wasn’t done to that extreme, all lessons were still being done in English while assemblies were occasionally in Chinese. Maybe MOE needs to nudge the SAP schools in that direction more, but then the staff needs to be capable too in teaching in another language or even attempting to. It’s probably a challenge.

He also emphasized that Chinese cannot just be a subject to be learnt but also a culture, he says it is not enough to be bilingual, we need to be bicultural also, which is why I guess there were so many Chinese related events in my SAP school, and these SAP schools also provided the resources for higher studies in a language like with Chinese Literature.

Now that I understand the logic and reasoning behind SAP schools, LKY starts to talk about the Speak Mandarin Campaign. Some context before this is that LKY strongly believed that the brain has a limited space to learn languages, and learning languages is like a skill. Learning 2 languages to high fluency is already very hard, let alone 3 or more. Learning more languages will take away “brain space” for your main languages and reduce your fluency in those languages unless you are a genius. Also, he believed language learning to not be related to IQ, and his grandson Li Hongyi took CLB.

People might not know that the Speak Mandarin Campaign was originally heavily directed towards dialect speakers. Back then, dialects, especially Hokkien was VERY heavily used outside of educational and institutional settings. Much more than Chinese, which was being actively taught in schools. Interesting fact but around 5% of Malay/Indian passengers spoke to the Chinese bus driver in Hokkien and 1% of Malay/Indian passengers spoke to the Malay/Indian bus driver in Hokkien. Why LKY pushed for the Speak Mandarin Campaign is because the external environment outside schools in Singapore was overwhelmingly dominated by Hokkien, Mandarin was only among the intelligentsia. There’s a reason why people say immersion is key to being fluent in a language, and in Singapore, if you want to be fluent in Mandarin at that time, the environment was not friendly to immersion since it was Hokkien, negatively impacting Mandarin or English fluency. So he decided to stamp out dialects once and for all and promote a more “Mandarin” environment.

Thus came the reforms, and with every reform, that includes sacrifices, which in the previous Chinese stream to English stream change, included students who were caught in the middle which resulted in a very messy education and in this case, the sacrifices were monolingual dialect speakers. Many people agreed with the idea logically, but on an emotional level, many had reservations about it, including very high-level ministers like Toh Chin Chye. They were more inclined to just let it die a natural death as it was already happening, but LKY wanted none of that. For a language to be successful in spreading, there has to be a critical mass of people using that language, which is why Cantonese is still the main language of Hong Kong. LKY noted that Cantonese in Guangzhou is still very strong, but this is not the case today, since the large number of non-speakers has flooded the city, breaking the Cantonese environment.

They tried to “Mandarinize” Singapore society in other ways like via name changes and changes to place names, but they decided to scrap that plan in the end since the result really wasn’t worth the cost, as these dialect names don’t really affect the speaking of Mandarin itself.

Throughout all this, the standard of Mandarin has been decreasing as Singapore becomes more English, however, I do agree with the government policy of introducing things like “CLB” and now, subject-based banding. In the past, many people were unfairly penalized due to their poor mother tongue grades despite how hard they tried, but through lowering of standards, it allows these students to achieve their full standard rather than being artificially limited by mother tongue, which according to LKY, isn’t even correlated to intelligence.

As long as we have learnt Mandarin from young, we will instinctively grasp the overall tones and structure of the language. LKY acknowledges that it is difficult for the majority of the population to be decent at two languages, but he knows that if the need arises, we can always use our latent Chinese skill and improve it when the time comes. It is much easier compared to starting from scratch and many have succeeded.

Actually, what’s happening in Malaysia can be a rather good example of what might happen if Singapore didn’t embark on its language policies. The different societies are just very segregated, being unable to properly understand each other. The Malay newspapers scold the Chinese and the Chinese newspapers scold the Malay, and the English-educated with their own newspapers. They are jus

[Seng Wee Wong · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a valuable asset to those who wish to learn more about Singapore’s history. It made me understand Singapore’s uphill battle to build a multicultural society better. As I was schooled in English-medium schools throughout my life, I had no idea of the struggles of those receiving education 50 years ago. Lee Kuan Yew’s foresight of making English language a priority for all Singaporeans was commendable. He knew the importance of English language in helping people get a job and hence building a prosperous economy. People educated in Chinese-medium schools had less job prospects compared to those English educated graduates. It's the sad truth. The decision to make all the subjects (with the exception of Mother Tongue) to be taught in English is a vote losing one yet imperative to grow Singapore into an economic powerhouse it is today.

The late Mr. Lee Kuan Yew was adamant about Singaporeans learning both English and their Mother Tongue well. I always assumed that Mr Lee was supportive of Singaporean Chinese to learn Chinese because of the rising economy of China. It was more than that. He was firm that learning the language cultivates the values and culture associated with the language. I was surprised to see Mr Lee Kuan Yew commenting on the Western culture as being "laidback" or "sloppy" in contrast to the Eastern culture where it promotes diligence and efficacy. Back in the 70s and 80s, Singapore needed a pool of citizens to be productive and contribute to the country's economic activities. The Western way of living had no place in Mr Lee's 'building-Singapore' blueprint.

As a young Singaporean who grew up in a Mandarin-speaking family, I am grateful for my parents whom groomed me to have a good command of Mandarin. Chinese is not an easy language to pick up. It is not phoenetic unlike English. You may not know how to write a Chinese character even if you know how it sounds. The ability to pick up a new language deteriorates as you grow older. Based on my personal experience, many people treat Chinese langauge as their second language instead of a tool to communicate their thoughts and feelings. Even though I understand the rationale behind having every student to learn every subject in English, it is saddening to see people to be apathetic towards their roots.

The book covers how Singapore's billingual policy came about. It was insightful and enlightening to learn more about my country's history. I am thankful for what my forefathers did for my generation and I hope to reciprocate by helping the next generation of Singaporeans. Strongly recommend this book to all Singaporeans and those interested to know how Singapore's billingual policy came about!

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

LKY：
教育政策的基本原则，归根究底是源于政治目标和立场。

我说，你看着吧，他们到了高中就不会再看华文报。果真到了高中，他的孩子一个接一个都不看华文报了。高中生得和同学以好成绩竞争大学奖学金，要兼顾中英，必然吃亏，事情就这么简单。

我认为华校不存在，并不表示华文将在新加坡消失。我不相信我们不以第一语文水平来教导华文，便会失去文化的根。语言和文化有关联，却不等于文化。一个种族的语言和文化必须不断变革，才能解决新的问题。事实上，一个种族的语言和文化的潜在力，是在于它能否帮助这个种族随机应变，适应时代需求。

我认为华族文化的前途，不能只依赖对爆竹声和特制的新年糕点或食物的美好回忆。在我们的生活中，应该还有更多基本的华族文化特质，如子女和父母的关系，兄弟姐妹的关系，夫妻的关系，父母和子女的权利和义务，这些都是文明社会继往开来的关键要素。一旦男女草率离婚，他们的子女像足球那样，被踢来踢去，那时，即使我们会说华语，甚至还能引经据典也没有意思。华人把社会和家庭利益放在个人之上，还有孝敬父母、奉养父母等富有意义的华人传统价值观，才是更值得保留的。

虽然传统英校如莱佛士书院和英华中学正在努力提升华文水平，但是与特选学校相比，有些事是他们做不到的，也不可能做到的。例如在特选学校的任何时间，任何地点都可以高层次地学习华文，但在非特选学校，下了华文课，就必须用回英语了。非特选学校的校长要以华语讲话，学生会回家告诉父母，第二天，网络论坛里就怨声载道了。这就是非特选学校和特选学校的差异，这个差异将一直存在

但是我还是要奉劝新加坡的家长，学华文不要学过了头，对新加坡人来说，英文还是最重要的，新加坡人不能掌握英文，还有什么价值？新加坡人的价值，不在于我们能说和中国人一样好的华语，而在于我们能掌握英文，能够用英文和世界联系起来，这是我们必须牢记的。

一个人无论怎样聪明，头脑的“兆字节”是有限的，不能无限量储存记忆。方言学得越多，占据的记忆容量越多，能储存华文字、英文字、乘数表、数学、物理或化学方程式的空间也就越少。
要以英语、华语和方言牢记足够的词汇，在必要时立刻应用，这对资质中等的学生来说已经非常困难，更别说资质差的学生。

通常，一种语言用得越多，就意味着其他语言用得越少。用得多就变得流利，用得少的渐渐生疏。这是个“零和游戏”的概念。
人脑不像电脑，可以随意删除不再需要的东西，来为新资料腾出更多储存空间。烙印在人脑中的字句，并不是那么容易删除。深植在脑中的语言，特别是那些自小学习的语言，不可能完全除去。从小学习的语言，是特别容易唤回记忆。

我的意见是我们应该尽量提升华语水平，而不是停留在“新加坡式华语”的层面。这也是为什么我不赞成“新加坡式英语” 的原因，它会使这个语言的错误使用方式持续下来。这对语言学者来说也许很有趣，但对社会发展没有丝毫价值。我们学英语是为了沟通，为了让世界了解我们，也为了让我们了解世界，为什么我们需要一个属于自己的特别语言？华语也一样。我们应该尽量达到标准的水平，让所有的人，不管在香港、台湾、中国还是美国的华人都听得懂，而不是保留一个只有新加坡人才听得懂的语言

回顾这些年来的政策，我对双语教育的思考经过了两个阶段：
第一阶段，在20世纪70年代中，我认为一个人是无法达到双语同样流利的地步，一个人只能掌握一种主导语言，也就是他用以思考的语言。我这个信念成为制定双语政策的基本思路。
第二阶段，后来我终于了解到一个人的智力跟他的语言能力并不相关，我曾经以为一个智商高的人有能力掌握两种语言，所以，我认为聪明的学生学习语文的水平应该比成绩一般的学生更高。我很多年都有这样的看法，一直到有一天我的女儿玮玲，她是一个脑神经专科医生，改变了我的想法。她告诉我，一个人的语言能力和智力并不相等，因两者关系到人脑的不同部分。

我因此认为华文第二语文，不应该以“认识丰富的词汇和运用语文的高度技巧”，作为教学目标。

我们希望华社明白，双语教育是一项政治性政策，政府在维护它时，要付出一定的政治代价。在新加坡这样一个多元种族多元语言，即使华族中也有讲华语和讲英语之分的民主社会里，一项强制每个孩子学习华文的母语政策肯定是要涉及政治妥协的。而任何一个民选政府的政治资本并非无限，所以在推行涉及政治妥协的政策时，不能忽略选民对政策的反应和反对的声音，华社因此必须理解政府为什么要同时打开华文B和高级华文的两道门。

LHL: My personal experience learning the four languages leads me to a few conclusions. First, our master language is fixed early. It is not necessarily the language that you put the most effort in, but the one which you think in. Second, it is possible to learn, and get quite good, at a second or even a third language, but not quite at the same level as the first language. Third, language abilities vary from person to person, depending on individual ability, environment and interest. We can encourage students to study languages, and do a lot to help them do well, but we cannot force every student to become good at it. Finally, we need to use a language or lose it.

[Chaitat · Rating 5 out of 5]

English and Chinese languages are the most important subjects we must keep learning and improving through out our lives.

[Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

本书讲述李光耀把新加坡从多语混乱社会到1+N多语环境的艰辛和努力。一步一步说来为什么和怎么做到的。 我很喜欢前半段。清晰有力。后半段像是凑字数。把前半段的故事又重复啰嗦说了一遍。

[Brit Cheung · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are some out there who perhaps deem the book tiresome and full of plain narratives but I think otherwise. The book influenced me actually by compelling me to embark on a journey attempting to be more bilingual.The inspiration I drew from the book made it so special .

I felt it an enormous regret for not having read this cautiously before. I remembered looking it through once in a sloppy way by fliting from pages to pages. All the details eluded me now. But that is no matter .Different time, Different perceptions about the same book. New insights may emerge when a book is read for a second time.

Once again, I camnot get an English copy . There is only a few Chinese hardcovers available out there, so I thought I have no other choice but to understand it vicariously by reading a translation copy.

The book didn't offer me direct answers for a few questions haunting me for the last couple of months, but the glows from it indeed gave me some lights on them.

These questions are:
Why the president of the Chinese mainland and the president of Taiwan both aquiescintly choose Singapore as the destination for their historical meeting? Why not H.K or any other city in mainland or Taiwan?

Why Mark Zukerberg ,the CEO of Facebook insisted that he shoud deliver his speech in Chinese,even not quite fluently,in his tour to Tinghua university, a very prominent university in China?

And the last one, what an essential role Singapore is playing in the Sino-Us relationships as well as the Sino-ASEAN connections？And a less important one, why the annually hosted Shangri-La dialogue becomes a beneficial mechanism in mitigating East Asia pressure?

The fundamental thread of the book is apparently on how and why Singapore choosed bilingualism as a national policy.But from reading those lines, I guess I can deduce something for the questions above and have got some clues now.

As the name implied,to advance and implement the bilingual policy is a“life long” challenge and there must have been moments that really exhausted Mr Lee. The challenge could be harsh, the obstacles immense and he must have used both compromises and “iron fist” to make it happen. The first language of the nation must be English, through which most of advanced technologies and cultural fruits are transmitted. But the root of the nation's cultures is Chinese , an inseparable link to the thousands of years of civilization. If Singapore wants to survive in the global world, English language is a must and more important than Chinese. If it wants to maintain the source river of its culture, Chinese is also vital and the nation cannot afford to lose it. So Singapore becomes a singular bilingual country like no other one by its national choice.

As explicitly put in the book, this bilingual national policy is one of the undermining factors contributing to Singapore's rapid full rise and emergence.

The book mentioned that when China determined to carry out its reform and opening up, the bestmodel for China to emulate and learn is no other but Singapore. It supplied China with talents who are both versed in western technologies ,brilliant managerial skills and at the same time, fluent in Chinese and who knew Chinese culture well.

Though China have been sending its talents to the west to learn what they need and bring them back, it still needs several decades to truly understand the west as well as Singapore did. The culture barriers and gulf are immense and the process of mutual genuine understanding is gonna take a very long time . Now that a city state Singapore would need a “life long” arduous efforts to get a full understanding of the west, there shall be no sensible reason to expect China, a giant country,to accomplish the feat in a short period.

If Singapore can still play the role as an Nexus to help China and the United States to understand each other better and worked as a catalytic agent between China and its neighboring nations of ASEAN, it will continue to demonstrate its unique and singular values,which serve the maximum interests for Singapore. And I kinda agree with this statement.

But another thing to be concerned about,will Singapore always evolve with the time and make its policy adjustable to any changes. ? Will it survive any vicissitudes in the future just as they brilliantly advanced its bilingual policy in the first place.?Perhaps I shoud have every confidence about that because that policy,as we know it, is a perfect paradigm which integrated wisdom from both east and west. Why we don't expect better things to happen.

[Eric Li · Rating 3 out of 5]

Several interesting takeaways:

1. Lee Kwan Yew's pragmatic positioning of language education. His education philosophy is flexible, practical, and economy/society-oriented. An education practitioner, I appreciate Lee's candor, and 80% buy in this approach.

One counterargument to Lee's position is that you cannot predict everything. Singapore implement Chinese/Mandarin education for the purpose of preserving national/ethnic/cultural identity, but it is the rise of Chinese economy that helps Singaporean students who learnt Chinese. If we take this philosophy further, it's basically planned economy versus market economy. While the former has merits, the policy makers instead of market will effectively take the responsibility for potential failure.

2. Singapore's unique demographics and geographic position also shapes Lee's policy making. Singapore's education policy is based on the fact that it is a small island Southeast Asian country.

If you want to read a book on education philosophy, this one is too specific and shallow. If you want one on education policy, I don't think Lee goes in too much depth on the thinking, law-making, and policy framework. Only recommend to ppl who are interested in Singapore's education policy history.

[Seán · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is really part of LKY's memoirs and the canary in the coal mine for Western education. From the quantity of reviews and ratings across several sites it looks like a chronically small number are listening. I am more inspired by his lifetime of hard work and ability to write books at almost 90 years old than to argue and dispute his historical education policies. Even though there are a large number of expats living and working in Singapore(and respective international schools), this book is about Singapore Public Education past, present and future. Like all his books it includes some wisdom about life in general and his philosophy.

[NJ Wong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mastering 2 languages as diverse as English and Chinese is not easy for general folks who are not language-gifted. Although it is difficult, I agree with many of the thinking of LKY that it is absolutely necessary for Singaporeans to learn 2 languages - a mother tongue for cultural reasons, and English for social, business, education, commercial reasons. LKY is one of the most brilliant thinkers in the world, and the ideas in this book should be mandatory reading for any Singaporean.

[S · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first part of the book was interesting for me because it explored the development of the education system in Singapore. It felt like LKY was talking to me directly as it followed his style of speech relatively accurately.

The second half of the book is a compilation of the language journey of several people.

[WR · Rating 4 out of 5]

A personal look at Singapore's bilingual education system, and how it has evolved over the years, in tandem with political developments. Perhaps just one man's view, but definitely an important one. Some of the other stories by the various contributors were interesting, but still, just a sideshow.

[Asyraf Sahar · Rating 3 out of 5]

All are about politic and strategy. I could see the courage and bold action taken by the former No.1 of Singapore to instill English in every heart of his people. Similiarly to PPSMI, I think, there's blessing in disguise, but, yup, the data which is the fact, has shown the otherwsie.

[Clement Ting · Rating 3 out of 5]

The contents are great but as far as the book title goes, the subject can be pretty dry. The book basically details down the journey of how LKY diminishes the usage of dialects among its people and promotes English and Mandarin in a dialect populated country.

[Arlene Yanxiang · Rating 4 out of 5]

筚路蓝缕 胼手胝足

[Feng Zihan · Rating 4 out of 5]

关于为何实行双语制度，以及西学为用中学为体的思想

[Shu · Rating 4 out of 5]

小国大智慧，星加坡多亏了李先生