I REFER to Wednesday's article, 'MM Lee wants learning of Chinese to be fun', in which Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew was reported to have reiterated that no one can master English and Chinese at the same level.

He also said that in the past, we had started the wrong way, with too much emphasis put on character writing and dictation.

The teaching method must be re-examined and modified. Perhaps more important is the need to reset realistic goals for learning Chinese in schools in our unique setting.

If we cannot master English and Chinese, would it not be better for most Chinese Singaporeans to acquire verbal and reading proficiency over writing skills?

How many of us must write in Chinese in our work?

Some may write e-mail messages in Chinese, but to most, speaking proper Chinese is more important than writing.

Perhaps O-level students should be required to comprehend and discuss current affairs benchmarked on articles carried by national Chinese daily Lianhe Zaobao.

Reading, comprehension and oral tests should account for the bulk of the examination marks, where students are required to read a couple of articles and have the three skills thoroughly tested.

Currently many school-leavers cannot speak Chinese properly and pepper their communication with English words. We must re-examine the teaching method of the language from Primary 1 to Secondary 4 and set fresh targets for reading and verbal proficiency at each level.

We must improve the standard of oral Chinese in preschool classes too. Preschool teachers should emphasise the teaching of Chinese characters and phrases closely related to daily life so that young children can use them early.

With students having more time reading and speaking Chinese, we could set higher targets for reading skills and verbal vocabulary - including idioms, and geographic, scientific and other technical terms - than now.

For students who wish to learn more, such as literature and Chinese history, special classes could be opened for them at selected schools.

Ng Ya Ken

This article was first published in The Straits Times.