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SINGAPORE, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Singapore's former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew announced a fund to promote bilingualism on Monday.
The Lee Kuan Yew Fund for Bilingualism will be used to fund initiatives to teach children English and their mother tongue, especially in their pre-school years.
"However difficult to learn the mother tongue, especially Chinese (together with) English, if children start early enough from Kindergarten 1 or even nursery, by primary six, they will be bilingual, with a strong foundation in the mother tongue for life, " Lee said.
The establishment of the fund was announced at the launch of a new book by Lee entitled My Lifelong Challenge: Singapore's Bilingual Journey. Lee will donate 10 million Singapore dollars to the fund, with another 2 million Singapore dollars from the sale of special editions of his new book.
Property tycoon Philip Ng and hotelier Ong Beng Seng pledged 5 million Singapore dollars and 2 million Singapore dollars, respectively.
Lee said he was hoping for the fund to eventually reach 100 million Singapore dollars. The fund will be administered by the Ministry of Education.
In the book, which came in separate and slightly different Chinese and English editions, Lee recounted the journey of Singapore towards bilingualism, including the challenges and resistance he ran into, including the closure of Nanyang University and its eventual merger with the University of Singapore, as well as his personal discovery of how important learning Mandarin was to his identity as an ethnic Chinese.
Editor: Fang Yang
The Lee Kuan Yew Fund for Bilingualism will be used to fund initiatives to teach children English and their mother tongue, especially in their pre-school years.
"However difficult to learn the mother tongue, especially Chinese (together with) English, if children start early enough from Kindergarten 1 or even nursery, by primary six, they will be bilingual, with a strong foundation in the mother tongue for life, " Lee said.
The establishment of the fund was announced at the launch of a new book by Lee entitled My Lifelong Challenge: Singapore's Bilingual Journey. Lee will donate 10 million Singapore dollars to the fund, with another 2 million Singapore dollars from the sale of special editions of his new book.
Property tycoon Philip Ng and hotelier Ong Beng Seng pledged 5 million Singapore dollars and 2 million Singapore dollars, respectively.
Lee said he was hoping for the fund to eventually reach 100 million Singapore dollars. The fund will be administered by the Ministry of Education.
In the book, which came in separate and slightly different Chinese and English editions, Lee recounted the journey of Singapore towards bilingualism, including the challenges and resistance he ran into, including the closure of Nanyang University and its eventual merger with the University of Singapore, as well as his personal discovery of how important learning Mandarin was to his identity as an ethnic Chinese.
Editor: Fang Yang
