A bilingual society is wasteful
wchao37  Updated: 2004-03-23 09:21

A bilingual society is wasteful -- just imagine all the extra paper work that needs to be done to have all documents printed in two languages. Some people suggest that bilingualism be adopted as a stop-gap and transitional measure until the status of Chinese as a true lingua franca can be promoted in the world, but this is baloney. Once established in a population, bilingualism is hard to eradicate.

There are no half-way scenarios possible. Bilingualism at the national level must be stopped in its tracks.

I am sure the Chinese leadership meant well in their original policy of urging the people of the whole nation to study English, at least for the purpose of hurrying to catch up with India and Philippines in English-based software industries.

But they really haven't scrutinized the fiscal and social cost of the national program, and now we are facing this Hobson's Choice.

If we adopt English as a must-learn second language, where would the incentive for the Anglos to study Chinese come from in the future? It would be a victory for the Anglos in China without firing a shot. If the Hispanics can succeed in their refusal to adopt English as their language in America, why would it be that difficult to refuse to let Anglos make inroads in our own Chinese nation? If they come to china, they have to learn our language. That should be the attitude of all Chinese men and women. If we go to visit Anglo nations, we should learn English but only as a second language, not as a kid in an all-English environment.

Already you can see the bad influence of our coercive policy around the world and the hefty social cost such a language policy has engendered. We always have to think globally about our long-term interests when adopting such policies.

A recent study in Singapore shows that fewer and fewer Singaporeans find it necessarily to learn Chinese despite the fact that the majority of the local population have ancestral roots in China and even as late as the 1980s he percentage of teenagers who spoke Chinese at home was appreciably more.

No more. Young Singaporeans today all flock to learn English and fewer and fewer bother to learn Chinese. When they saw the human rights of Indonesian Chinese trampled with impunity in 1998, and that the mainland itself is de-emphasizing the study of Chinese, how can they not lose heart in such studies in their own city-state?

One must have self-respect before others will respect you - that is one of the few truisms in life.

I am also thinking of how the present unhealthy trend in putting English first is stifling China's healthy growth in other urgently needed areas, such as vocational schools for high school graduates (like the system they have in Germany). Not everyone needs to go to college, study English and end up working for a joint venture enterprise.

The government might be thinking of solving the unemployment problem by attracting middle and small enterprises to China, and maybe its reasoning is that these foreign enterprises will need English-speaking work force.

But these businesses are in China to make money. They will come whether the workforce speaks English or not. They should be encouraged to learn Chinese just like the Americans encourage foreign immigrants to learn English. We have made them feel it is a privilege to live in China, not a right.

Fostering an all-English environment in the work place in China is ridiculous. It will make the average Chinese feel ashamed to speak Chinese in his own country.

The present unhealthy trend reminds me of the 1950s when everyone was encouraged to study Russian. My aunt could speak like a Russian but all through her life she never could find any opportunity to use it.

It is ridiculous to ask the whole nation of a billion people to enroll their kids in an all-English environment to get a head start in the job market when the Chinese themselves are the engines of global economic growth.

Hell, we need to encourage other people who want to do business with us to learn Chinese and charge them a hefty tuition to learn Chinese, not the other way round.

That's the momentum of the global market economy. That's why I say in some people's mind, especially in those Chinese who do not speak or write English too well, they conjure up this false image of English as the lingua franca of the future in science and business, when all they need is to let a small percentage of their scientists learn the language real well and translate the material into Chinese.

Japan is a nation with few fluent English speakers, and yet this is not having a damping influence on their high-tech industries. In fact, they do better in some high-tech areas than the Anglos, which go to show that national proficiency in English is not necessary for modernization.

It is much more important to have self-respect and the determination to build up one's country using one's own language, just like Japan did after the Meiji Restoration.

If China adopts bilingualism as its national policy, I won't blame the Japanese for looking down on us again. A nation that fails to have self-respect does not deserve respect from others. If our kindergarteners are goaded onto living in an all-English environment then don't blame our foes and friends alike in looking down on us

I have lived in three continents and traveled to forty-two countries including all the major geopolitical centers of the world. Other than Tib*t and three states north of Boston, I have been to all of China and the United States.

I am telling you English is going down in importance relative to other languages and America itself is forced by her proximity to Mexico and other Hispanic countries like Cuba to become a bilingual, bicultural nation fast.

Does that mean that in the future we have to add Spanish as another "must-learn language" for our kids to suffer through?

Let every kid have a firm foundation in Chinese before he ventures into other languages. Studying a second language should be through choice and not coercion.

Finally, I don't know how many foreign spies have now been planted in China in the name of teaching English to our kids. These guys should be watched very carefully especially if they had worked previously as celibate Catholic priests in the United States.

The above content represents the view of the author only.

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