Is Ministry of Health encouraging the marginalisation of minority languages?

[Confuseous]

In one of my visits to the Khoo Teck Puat Hospital, I noticed that the clinic was labeled in English, Chinese and Malay. The lack of labels in Tamil for all the clinics alarmed me as Tamil is one of the four official languages and yet it was not given its rightful place among the other languages. This cultural insensitivity made me feel marginalized by association.

I had written to the hospital’s feedback unit and I received a reply from a Mrs XXX, the Chief Operating Officer/Quality Service Manager, on the 12 April 2011. The letter stated that they had taken note of my concern and they would work with the relevant departments to look into the matter.

However, about 3 months after the letter, I had visited the clinic in Khoo Teck Puat Hospital again and to my absolute horror, they had taken care of my concern in a unexpected manner. They had removed the Malay wordings from the clinics. This is aninsult to my query and both languages

- http://theonlinecitizen.com/2011/09/moh-encourage-marginalisation-minority-languages/

 

[Wang Ye]

Interestingly enough non-Tamil indians feel otherwise. Some even to the extend of sending their kids to learn malay rather than Tamil.

 

[halsey02]

The writer would have got a fit if the hospital had replaced Malay with, Tagalog, Hindi ( official India), Vietnamese, these are the official languages now.. ha ha ha

 

[NoNewsGood]

The writer would have got a fit if the hospital had replaced Malay with, Tagalog, Hindi ( official India), Vietnamese, these are the official languages now.. ha ha ha

Long time ago, when you go to tourist attraction like the Zoo or Sentosa, you already see Japanese but no Tamil.

 

[NoNewsGood]

However, about 3 months after the letter, I had visited the clinic in Khoo Teck Puat Hospital again and to my absolute horror, they had taken care of my concern in a unexpected manner. They had removed the Malay wordings from the clinics. This is aninsult to my query and both languages

Complain some more, they will remove the Chinese wordings.

 

[groinroot]

With LKY now complaining that the standard of English has dropped in Singapore, relevant agencies should take note and replace their multi-language sings with English only.