Professor Teh Hoon Heng, Vancouver, Canada
Received on 11 June 2001 from

I noted the recent article published in zaobao.com: "Interest in Chinese culture on the wane (in Singapore)". I have no magic answers to the following questions which I raised for people concerned to think about:

1. How important globally will the Chinese Language and Culture be in the next 50 years?

2. What advantages (and disadvantages) the oversea Chinese will have if they are able to master the Chinese Language with the Chinese Culture now or in near future.

3. How to make the parents of the present generation of students aware of this important meassage. It is the parents who needed to be convinced more than the students themselves.

4. How to sound such a message to the leaders of Asian countries so that they will be willing to reflex such urgency in their education policy.

5. Finally, how to use the latest High-Tech tools to make the teaching and learning of Chinese Language and Culture meaningful, interesting, exciting and challeging to the new generation of oversea Chinese.

Editor: My friend David told me that his son who works in a law enforcement department in Texas, U.S.A. is paid extra in salary for being bilingual in English and German. It is refreshing to hear an incentive to be bilingual.

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