INTELLIGENCE does not necessarily translate into a flair for languages.

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You need some intelligence lah. Otherwise, how to master all the different grammar, syntax and pronnounciation.

Picking up languages is about exposure and determination. Picking up a language is also learning more about the culture, and languages are a treasure.

It's a pity SM didn't feel that way about dialects (Teochew, Hokkien, Hakka). I could speak dialects as a kid but have lost this - can understand but cannot reply in dialect. So sad! Bring back rediffusion! We should have Hokkien, Teochew radio channels.

Dialects is a beautiful language..

It was killed by our Speak Mandarin campaign.

As a result it created a division between the younger generation with the older generation. Trying to understand each other properly.

When you are bilingual or trilingual it doesn't matter what policy you impose.
Those that suffer are those that have no basic education and only know the dialect. They are the one that had been deprive of the entertainment in the media.
They are left out of the society not knowing the new laws imposed, the happening around our country and other parts of the world.
They can only rely on coffeeshop talk and woed of mouth.
Being English educated I could not easily understand the Chinese news in the TV let alone the old who would only stare at the screen and waiting for the pictures to understand something.

Speaking dialects actually help in the learning of Mandarin. Dialects is the mother-tongue, spoken to, at birth, immersed in and grow up with, culture, values and all. In China, Mandarin is spoken as "official" language, but people in general speak their own dialect when they are with their own fellow province/city/village-men.

the bilingual policy is right

the method of teaching was wrong

make no mistake about it

the big mistake was to kill dialect due to the wrong method of support measure to aid teaching mandarin

There are several countries in the world which are trilingual. Granted, the languages are similar in nature and not as different as Mandarin and English. Making both languages compulsory for all Singaporeans should be studied.
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It amazes me how so many smart people can be so stupid, approving a nation-wide policy of teaching something using mean which assume you already know the 'thing'. Like teaching someone to drive a car, assuming they already know terms like 'brake' and 'clutch'. How on earth could Lee Kuan Yew be so stupid as to support a Mandarin teaching curriculum where teachers only spoke Mandarin to students who dont know Mandarin???

I believe that it is extremely difficult to be truly bilingual. We should strive to master English, but have proficiency in Mandarin as a Second Language. To attempt to master both will leave many S'poreans as 'half-buckets', who speak mangled English & sub-standard Mandarin, with Singlish as their Second Language.

Even the French is stepping up their learning of English .......