Promote Mandarin Council
{{Short description|Singaporean language regulator of Mandarin}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2019}}
{{EngvarB|date=January 2019}}
File:Promote Mandarin Council logo.svg
The Promote Mandarin Council ({{langx|cmn|讲华语运动|Jiǎng huáyǔ yùndòng|Speak Mandarin Campaign}}) is a Singaporean organisation established in 1979 as part of then-PM Lee Kuan Yew's programme to promote Mandarin as the preferred language amongst Chinese Singaporeans.
Background
In 1966 the Singapore Government institutionalised a bilingual education policy, under which Singaporean students were required to learn both English and their "designated mother-tongue". For ethnic-Chinese Singaporeans, the designated language was Mandarin, in line with the national language policy pursued in both Nationalist and Communist China. The Goh Report, an evaluation of Singapore's education system by Dr. Goh Keng Swee, claimed that less than 40% of the student population managed to attain the minimum level of competency in two languages.{{Cite web |url=http://libguides.nl.sg/content.php?pid=57257&sid=449203 |title='The Goh Report' |access-date=1 February 2014 |archive-date=2 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131002204442/http://libguides.nl.sg/content.php?pid=57257&sid=449203 |url-status=dead }} The Government then alleged that learning of Mandarin amongst the Singapore Chinese was hindered by the home use of various varieties of Chinese. These varieties included Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese and Hakka.Manfred Wu Man-Fat, "[http://www3.telus.net/linguisticsissues/singapore.html A Critical Evaluation of Singapore's Language Policy and its Implications for English Teaching] {{Webarchive|url=http://arquivo.pt/wayback/20091016073611/http%3A//www3.telus.net/linguisticsissues/singapore.html |date=16 October 2009 }}", Karen's Linguistics Issues. Retrieved 4 November 2010Bokhorst-Heng, W.D. (1998). "Unpacking the Nation", in Allison D. et al (ed.), Text in Education and Society, Singapore: Singapore University Press, pp. 202–204. {{ISBN|978-9971-69-222-3}}. Since then, the Singapore Government has pursued a hostile stance against these varieties, and has promoted the use of Mandarin as a universal mother-tongue amongst Singapore Chinese.
Establishment
In 1979, then-PM Lee Kuan Yew decided to establish the Promote Mandarin Commission as an organisation focused entirely on the promotion of the Mandarin language, with the initial goal of eliminating all other Chinese varieties in Singapore within the next decade. In 1998, the Commission was officially renamed as the Promote Mandarin Council.
References
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External links
- [http://www.mandarin.org.sg/ Official site]
Category:Language policy in Singapore