讲华语运动

Children at home speak dialect; in school they learn English and mandarin. … The majority have ended up speaking English and dialect. …

And if we continue to use dialects, then English will tend to become the common language between Chinese of different dialect groups. …

Two generations of Chinese-educated students have gone through 12 years of Chinese school education since the war. They still do not speak Mandarin fluently because they have reverted to dialect in their daily lives.

孩子在家里说方言，在学校里学英语和华语。……最后，大多数都只说英语和方言。……

如果我们继续说方言，最后，英语将成为说不同方言的人，彼此之间的共同语。

战后两代受华文教育的人，因为平日在家里说方言，上了十二年学，说起华语来，还是不流利。

Only a Chinese Singaporean who cannot speak or read it, and who has been exposed to discomfiture or ridicule when abroad, will know how inadequate and how deprived he can feel.

一个不会说华语，也不懂华文的新加坡华人，只有到了外国，被人嘲弄耻笑时，才能体会心中困窘，悔不当初。

One abiding reason why we have to persist in bilingualism is that English will not be emotionally acceptable as our mother tongue. To have no emotionally acceptable language as our mother tongue is to be motionally crippled. We shall doubt ourselves. We shall be less self-confident. Mandarin is emotionally acceptable as our mother tongue. It also unites the different dialect groups. It reminds us that we are part of an ancient civilisation with an unbroken history of over 5,000 years.

我们坚持推行双语教育，因为心理无法接受英语为母语。用我们心理无法接受的语言为母语，就像瘸子走路一样。我们会怀疑自己的身份，缺乏自信。我们心理可以接受华语为母语。它能让说不同方言的人凝聚在一起。它也让我们记住，我们属于一个延绵五千年的古老文明。

We need to keep our mother tongue alive for our sense of self to understand and appreciate where we come from, the sense of history of Chinese culture, its traditions and its values. These belong to all Chinese, those in China and also those Chinese who have migrated and left their descendants overseas, as in Singapore.

我们的母语必须是活生生的语言，我们才能认同自己，明白自己的根，认同自己民族文化的历史，传统，价值观念。这种种既属于在中国的中国人，也属于移居海外各地的中国人的子孙，新加坡亦然。

The Speak Mandarin campaign now is to encourage parents and students not to switch to speaking English to the children at home. …

The trend is for English to be the home language. In 1980, it was 10.2% of Chinese families. By 1990, it has risen to 20.6%, and by 2000, 23.8%. This year, the number of Primary 1 Chinese students from English-speaking homes has risen to 49.8%,

讲华语运动现在得鼓励家长在家里不要跟孩子说英语。……

现在的趋势是：英语渐渐成为家庭语言。1980年，占华人家庭10.2%，1990年占20.6%，2000年占23.8%。今年入学的小学一年级新生，家里说英语的占49.8%。