It is the time of the year for the Speak Good English Movement in Singapore!

As I have blogged one year ago, I am glad that I have the ability to command proper English. I grew up in a Mandarin speaking family, and the time when I had the chance to speak English was when I went to school. I succeeded to master my English, and still excel in Mandarin as well.

Fast forward to present. Being in Paris now and not being extremely fluent in French, it is truly a frustration not being able to communicate what I want to say. But it also makes me realise how grateful I am to the education system in Singapore and for the country to decide to use English as a first language. Many a times, I have people (citizens of EU) telling me I speak good English and why is that? In moments like these, I will always proudly announce the language system in Singapore, and secretly, I am happy that I have one advantage over some others.

And so, not talking about how I don't understand why the youngsters find it so hard to be bilingual and to be interested in Mandarin, why can't they speak proper English too?

The debate was that they grew up in an English speaking environment, so they found it hard to learn Chinese when they reached the age to enter school. But if that's the case, they should be perfect in English, but still...

In any case, everyone plays a part to speak properly and to be understood. Maybe children are still too young to understand the importance of mastering a language, so a big part lies in the parents to instill that belief into their offspring.

I also hope the government will not be deterred to bring up young Singaporeans to be bilingual. Knowing more than one language is an advantage, especially a language that has all different characters than A-Z!