Lui Tuck Yew, Acting Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts of Singapore, stated that it is quite difficult to expect all students studying Chinese as a second language to fully comprehend the content of Lianhe Zaobao or Lianhe Wanbao.
Citing his own experience, he mentioned that his own proficiency in Chinese is not high, so he has two Chinese teachers who take turns tutoring him every week. These two teachers also told him that sometimes even they have to consult a dictionary to understand some of the profound vocabulary in the newspapers. "For those students who do not have a bicultural background, did not graduate from Special Assistance Plan (SAP) schools, and are able to meet the academic threshold for university admission, I can understand that they sometimes cannot fully comprehend the content of Chinese newspapers."
It is not only the Singaporean Chinese community, educators, and parents who are concerned about the decline in the Chinese proficiency of ethnic Chinese youth; even foreign immigrants from Western countries are worried about Singapore's mother tongue education.
Johnston, who is from New Zealand, stood up to speak during a dialogue between Lui Tuck Yew and residents of Punggol North on the 18th of this month. He stated that he used to work in public relations and therefore had to pay attention to reports published in Singapore's various language newspapers. Consequently, he hired some university graduates to be responsible for reading Chinese newspaper reports, but found that these graduates often only had a superficial understanding of the reports in Lianhe Zaobao, only being able to understand 60% to 70% of the content.
After Johnston asked his question, Lui Tuck Yew asked him if the "university graduates" he mentioned were graduates of a Chinese department. When Johnston replied "no," Lui Tuck Yew continued: "If they were graduates of a Chinese department, I would be even more worried."
