BY
Joel Chang

Lead Editor

Hype Issue #76

Published on

Nov 21

2025

Joel Chang investigates the increase in youths losing touch with their Mother Tongues, and whether it matters in today’s day and age.

When Corey Yuen, 19, a full-time National Serviceman, goes to order food at local hawker centres, he often finds himself struggling to understand the stallholder’s rapid-fire Mandarin. “I [speak] Chinese every time I order food, maybe, but that’s about it,” he admitted. Raised in a predominantly English-speaking household, he scored an E8 in his mother tongue for his A-Levels and feels little connection to the language.

“In school, my experience was generally more negative because I wasn’t very good,” Corey lamented. “I didn’t really do much of the homework, and I got scolded a lot.”

Corey’s story is indicative of a wider trend – mother tongue proficiency is declining among younger Singaporeans, especially as English becomes ever more dominant. 

Singapore’s former Minister for Education, Mr Chan Chun Sing, noted at the Mother Tongue Languages Symposium 2023 that proficiencies in mother tongue languages (MTLs) have slipped over the years, particularly amongst Gen Z. The Ministry of Education (MOE) has since refreshed the primary school MTL curriculum to include more games and technology across all MTLs, in a bid to make learning more engaging and relevant.

English Rising, Bilingualism Fading

Singapore’s emphasis on bilingualism has long been a cornerstone of our national identity and economic competitiveness. However, recent data shows a shift in our daily language use. 

According to the Department of Statistics, the number of Singaporeans speaking predominantly English at home has risen from 32.3% in 2010 to 48.3% in 2020. Among those who use English at home, many still speak a MTL or dialect as their second language. However, deep and consistent exposure to their MTL tends to be noticeably diminished when compared to the generation of yesteryear. 

For Corey, while this shortfall has seldom mattered at home, it was rather evident at his workplace. While working banquet shifts at a hotel, his colleagues often conversed in Mandarin. 

“Sometimes it made working harder than it should have been,” he recalled.

Lim Yee Ferng Russell, 20, also a full-time National Serviceman, has had a somewhat different experience with his MTL. A self-described “strong bilingualist,” Russell explains that his family made conscientious efforts to expose him to Mandarin, English and Hokkien from a young age. Today, he uses Mandarin almost daily. 

“It genuinely comes in really handy,” he said. “In a lot of situations, I find myself speaking more Chinese than English”. 

Russell’s bilingualism gives him range. From being able to chat with hawker stall owners, handling service interactions, and even translating for friends abroad, he can do it all. 

“Being able to understand and communicate with more people is definitely an advantage,” he explained. “It broadens my perspective, because I naturally think and process most things in both languages. I can see things and understand problems in different ways.”

What Policymakers and Educators Are Seeing

Mr Zhou Decheng, a former MOE official who helped shape the Chinese literature curriculum at the Junior College and Secondary School levels, has long been watching the trendline.

“This has been an age‑old problem, probably since [Singapore’s] independence,” he stated. “Because Singapore uses English as the official working language, students get less use of their mother tongue, even though we brand ourselves as a bilingual nation”. 

Despite this, Mr Zhou argues that Singapore has managed to slow the language shift better than many immigrant societies. “In America, after one or two generations, you see a sharp drop in mother tongue use,” he noted. 

“In Singapore, we see that the decline is slightly slower, about three generations.” “We still see mother tongues in local media, hawker centres, and supermarkets. We still embrace bilingualism, so the decline is slightly lower.”

Abandoning bilingualism entirely would be “unhealthy,” warns Mr Zhou. “Singapore might lose the advantage of being bilingual. I’m looking forward to a more postmodern world where multilingualism should be the norm.”

His recommended solution? A mix of real-world exposure and culture-first pedagogy. “Learning through culture, through art, and through soft power is more effective in the long term than memorising vocabulary.”

The Mother Tongue Languages Symposium 2023, wherein a new Mother Tongue Languages (MTL) curriculum was announced. (Photo Credit: @Chan Chun Sing / Facebook)

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Policy is certainly also moving in that direction. Beyond refreshing the curriculum, MOE also announced its efforts to broaden pathways in 2023, such as by allowing more students to take Higher Mother Tongue from Secondary 1. This comes alongside efforts to better incorporate MTLs into everyday life.

Culture, Identity, and Belonging

For Russell, languages are more than a tool. “At the end of the day, it’s still your roots…You can’t expect someone to pull up Google Translate when you’re trying to order food at a hawker centre. It’s just really awkward.”

Corey, on the other hand, feels that it does not hold as much weight, but he does agree that he may be missing out on that connection to his heritage. “For some Chinese characters, you have to really understand what the words mean for you to get that sense of connection.”

However, he also feels like there are other ways to make up for this gap, besides bilingualism. “For stuff like Chinese New Year, I think those kinds of events will really help with the connection to your culture.” The same can be applied to other ethnic holidays, such as Hari Raya or Deepavali.

Sociologists worry about the rippling effects. Fading MTL proficiency can dilute traditions, humour and intergenerational bonds, from your grandparents’ anecdotes to the untranslatable idioms and proverbs that carry local wisdom.

Is Technology Good Enough?

With AI translation advancing at a rapid pace, some might question whether MTL proficiency is still important in daily life. Corey is certainly part of this demographic. “Google Translate has been around for a while, and it helps you communicate with people who only speak [your mother tongue].”

The advent of translation technology raises the question of the need to be bilingual. (Photo Credit: SlashGear)

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However, Mr Zhou is more cautious. While machine translation excels at literal and formal text, it may struggle with more nuanced literature that deals with context and social cues, which is a lot more present in instances where these tools may be used in daily life. 

Furthermore, there is still the issue of code-switching in daily conversations. Things like blending Singlish and Mandarin in conversation, using region-specific slang, or mixing multiple dialects in speech will confuse machine translation tools. 

Russell takes an even firmer stance. “It’s never too late to try and re-learn your mother tongue… If you surround yourself with the right resources or the right people, I genuinely think it’s doable.”

What “Proficiency” Should Mean Now

If there is one thing all three interviewees agree on, it’s that we should stop equating MTL proficiency with test scores alone. Mr Zhou argues for a more pragmatic approach. He encourages us to instead consider if we can handle daily transactions smoothly, read a menu, follow a TV drama or have a fluid conversation with a relative.

The new and improved curriculum taps into that. More conversational practice, story-rich materials, and the use of technology are meant to help breed confidence instead of fear.

For Corey, the path back starts small. “It’s scary when you feel very far behind,” he admitted. However, the aforementioned low-stakes practices can help to build momentum and fluency.

Russell agrees. “If you put yourself around the language; music, shows, friends, it starts to click.”

Does It Still Matter?

If the importance of MTL proficiency lies in acing standardised tests, perhaps the answer may be shifting as translation technology improves. However, if it means regular use and being able to understand your elders’ stories, converse with your local hawkers, and being able to consume the traditional media, the answer remains a resounding yes. Technology doesn’t capture the warmth of direct conversation, or even the human element of being able to think, speak and feel in more than one tongue.

For a growing portion of Gen Z, English will unfortunately remain the default. Mr Zhou’s advice is to simply make an effort in using our MTL in our day-to-day lives. For Russell and Corey, their stories are perhaps a reminder that losing fluency happens by accident, but rebuilding it is a choice.