I READ with interest the reports on bilingualism and admire Promote Mandarin Council chairman Lim Sau Hoong's tenacity, which shone through in last Saturday's article, 'Don't mock them - help them love the language'.

I am a Secondary 1 boy who scored an A* in English and an A in Chinese in the Primary School Leaving Examination, and I am from a Mandarin-speaking family.

I have a few suggestions on how to be comfortable in two languages.

First, speak Mandarin at home. If you have siblings, converse in Mandarin with them. Do not worry about neglecting English. There will be many opportunities to speak English at school.

Second, read more Chinese books. Composition has a significant weight in exams. In primary school, the focus is on verbs. Thus, it is beneficial to memorise good phrases. It is worthwhile to observe how writers describe the beginning, middle and end of phrases. Also, note the flow and how scenes and characters are described.

Third, I would encourage more pupils to take Higher Mother Tongue (HMT) and stay the course. Many pupils begin in Primary 5, only to drop out in Primary 6 even though they are able to pass. There are many benefits to studying HMT - the most important being exposure to various writing forms.

Finally, get rid of the mindset that learning Chinese is 'tough'. It is curious that many students who take a third language and electives such as Malay Special Programme, Music Elective Programme and Art Elective Programme do not say these are 'tough' - even though they have to learn from scratch.

Try to put in the extra effort to master Chinese. When you start to master Chinese, you will not think of it as 'hard'.

I adore both English and Chinese. I do my best to read voraciously in both. This is not so much for 'economic' reasons but because a language opens up a whole new world.

Foo Jia Ming

This article was first published in The Straits Times.