New Beginnings

“My fellow Linguafoureans …”

Singapore is unique in having four official languages, each from a different language family. Linguafour celebrates this linguistic treasure and reflects on what more we might do with it.

As Singapore turns 60, the nation begins a new era. We must take stock of what we have and decide what to do with it as we move forward into the next chapter. We must be willing to look at ourselves and the world around us with fresh eyes, and to give space for new beginnings. That means having the courage both to lay old things and down and to pick new things up.

This is the seventh of our newsletters and with it we will rest for now. Since national day last year, we have proposed a way to reframe how we think about Singapore’s linguistic heritage in order that the nation might become more united and stronger together. If in Linguafour we have indeed identified something useful, then there is much more we can do with it. We would love to put together talks and programmes to help more Singaporeans appreciate the linguistic wealth they have. We would love to to develop AI tools to help more people to leverage that wealth. And we would love to facilitate discussions and provide more people with opportunities to share.

For our part, we can only make our proposal and offer to develop it further if the nation believes that would be valuable. We hope that through our posts and newsletters we have clearly articulated, amply illustrated and practically demonstrated what our proposal is. We leave it with you to share and discuss with those around you, and we stand ready to build on it if we are invited to.

What do you think?

The Mother Tongue programme in our schools was introduced to ensure that Singapore did not lose its unique linguistic heritage as a nation. The potential downside is that it also arguably separates Singaporeans from each other from an early age, rather than uniting them. Might it be helpful to reconsider how we present the four official languages in school, as a treasure that all Singaporeans share?

Although you have been receiving our newsletters, you may not have seen our other posts so below we close with a summary of what you may have missed.

Why

In “Why Change The Lens?” we recognised that we face many challenges in today's interdependent globalised world which require us to look at what is in front of us from multiple different perspectives. Singapore’s official languages give us four different lenses through which to view things.

How

In “How Do We Change The Lens?” we called for all Singaporeans to use all four official languages in order to see things from different perspectives. Doing so gives us a fuller picture and helps us to spot things we would otherwise have missed. That in turn helps us to work better to together, solve problems and build solutions.

What

In “What Can We Do To Change The Lens?” we encouraged people to talk to those around them from different backgrounds. Ask them what they see, what connections they make, and how they are thinking. And then to use AI tools not just to translate but to find out what has been lost in translation.

The key is to move away from thinking about languages as a private code for exclusive communication within ethnic groups, and to move towards thinking about the four official languages as a treasure that belongs to all Singaporeans and offers them a 360° view.

About

In About we introduced that Linguafour as an online community celebrates Singapore’s unique linguistic heritage as a treasure that belongs to all Singaporeans, and we issued a “call to arms” for others to join and share.

Name

In “Name and Logo” we explained that the name Linguafour rhymes with “Singapore,” with “Lingua” meaning languages and “four” referring to both the four official languages of the nation and the four different language families they represent.

The Linguafour logo is a stylisation of Singapore’s national flower. The design sits in a “Red Dot,” incorporates the colours of the Singapore flag, and uses pairs of inverted commas in a heart shape to represent love for languages.

Heritage

In Heritage we observed that as the generations go by, heritage is less about looking back to where we came from separately and more about looking forward to where we are going together.  The practical concerns are: “what do we have as Singaporeans?” and “what are we going to do with it?”

We then shared three specific examples of how different languages give us different perspectives on the same thing:

Blue Pea

In Blue Pea we saw that through a Malay lens, South East Asia’s popular flower stands in a category of its own; through an English lens, it is a variety of pea distinguished by its colour; through a Chinese lens, it takes us to the skies on the wings of a butterfly; and through a Tamil lens, it is the creeper rather than the fruit that we are drawn to, seeing it swaying under the waves.

Life Jacket

In Life Jacket an airline safety notice showed us that although different languages may communicate the same message, the various ways in which each language gets that message across reflect different ways that we might see and think and feel about the same thing.

Jalan

In Jalan we noted that different languages categorise things differently, so switching between languages can help us to see connections that we might not otherwise spot. For example, “go”, “street”, “community”, “means” and “behaviour,” which have no semantic connection in English, are linked together in Malay by the one word “Jalan.”

Leadership

In Leadership is language we summarised the lessons learned by David Marquet, an Admiral in the United States navy who had to radically rethink his leadership style when placed in charge of a failing submarine. The key to his success was language. As he put it: “Language revealed our thinking and language changed our thinking.”

Perspectives

In Perspectives we were challenged by an insight from a 1000 year old Chinese poem: not only do we need other’s perspectives better to understand what lies before us; since we cannot see our own heads, we need other’s eyes even to see ourselves clearly.

With the ground thus prepared, in preparation for national day last year we published this video inviting people to subscribe for our newsletter:

And here are the newsletters we have sent out between last National Day and this Chinese New Year:

1. Happy Birthday: official launch on Singapore's 59th birthday

2. Majulah Singapura: let our voices soar as one

3. Identity: unity in diversity not uniformity

4. Together: we need each other’s eyes

5. Peace: joy to the world and peace on earth

6. Hope: finding light in the darkness

We do hope you have found the journey so far interesting, illuminating and inspiring. We are excited to hear where you think we should go with this next.

With our very best wishes for your own new beginnings!

Have an experience to share?
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Have an suggestion as to what we should do next?
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_{Linguafour is a community based in Singapore. We use a platform from Beehiiv, which is a company registered in New York at the address below.}