"Heart" is the first Chinese talk show broadcast in Singapore, and it has remained the most popular, charming many hundreds of thousands of listeners. According to statistics of the Singapore Telephone Bureau, the northern relay station set its record of receiving more than 25O,000 calls in one hour when the program was being aired.

When the phone rings, there is a girl who wants to reveal her secrets or a wife who wants to talk about her husband's affair. "No, not tonight," Pong says politely. Somewhat anxiously, she looks at Angus Tung's single "Actually, You Don't Know My Heart," which is nearly finished being played.

Bilingual Mediocrity?: Finally a boy's voice comes on the line: "I'm one of those students good in Chinese and weak in English." He says that in taking last year's Cambridge GCE O-Level Exam, he had originally wanted to enter a junior college and develop his Chinese ability, but because his English was not up to snuff, he was forced to enter a Polytechnic and suffer through a curriculum for which he has no interest. Now he is studying English once more, hoping that he can pass the test next year.

"On the one hand our government is forcefully promoting the Chinese movement, but on the other hand it is lowering the level of Chinese in the schools and cutting the number of hours it is studied," he says in amazement. "I believe that there are many students strong in Chinese who have been forced to study English and thus have no time or opportunity to practice Chinese. In the end neither language is studied well. . . ."

Bilingual Mediocrity. But can emphasizing Chinese impede the studying of other courses?

"No way. It would only be to the detriment of English."

He suggests that students with below-par Chinese should also not be allowed to advance to junior college--"then, it would be fair."

"Tell me," asks Siew-moi, "why should Chinese be emphasized so much?"

"Because we are Chinese."

"A plus! In fact there aren't too many reasons for speaking Chinese other than it being our own language. Are there any other reasons you can give?"

"Only by so doing can we know the traditions of our ancestors that go back thousands of years, their values...," says the voice over the phone, slightly quavering.

Coming to Taiwan to Study "Man-darin": The second caller is Mr. Pong. He blurts out immediately, "In Taiwan it's difficult to communicate using our Chinese. For example, they say 'old outsider' [foreign friend]. I had thought it meant someone from the mainland, and then I found out it meant a foreigner. I don't know if they studied this from books, or it's just their own way of saying it." He goes to Taiwan every month on business. "It's strange, when I call a friend, the member of his family answering the phone knows right away that I'm from Singapore."

"On the one hand, it's that we don't speak Chinese very often and have an accent," analyzes Siew-moi. "On the other, it's that we mix in dialect words and English constructions, such as 'you go first' or 'you eat first' [instead of 'you first go']."

Envious of the Taiwanese, Mr. Pong says, "Because they use Chinese in every aspect of their lives, they speak much more correctly. There is an intimacy in the way they speak. It's much more pleasant sounding. I always tell them I want to go to Taiwan to study Mandarin."

Changing subjects, he suddenly asks Siew-moi, "Your Chinese sounds very correct--its sounds like a Taiwanese. Are you really a Singaporean or are you from Taiwan?"

Siew-moi laughs in surprise, "I'm a native, born and bred in Singapore. Perhaps it's because I have many friends from Taiwan."

Immediately people call in protest. Is the Chinese spoken in Taiwan standard? Not necessarily. In reality, there will always be different accents in different places.

A Knowledge that Requires Being Pushed: A women caller brought the discussion back to the topic of studying Chinese: "I have to thank my sister-in-law for it. My marks in sixth grade were pretty good, and as a result my sister-in-law helped me choose a SAP(Scholastic Aptitude Program) School. Right away I was forced to study Chinese history. I had no experience in memorizing, and my scores were lowest in the class on every test. The school forced me to take classes at a Chinese language center."

After being forced, did she still have any interest in Chinese? "Afterwards, I slowly got on track. In my third year there, I selected some electives in Chinese literature, for which I read some poems and collections of prose."

She reveals that her family uses English. If her English isn't good, she'll be made fun of. With this kind of pressure, what can you do? "Now I don't care what they say. Although I haven't had opportunities to use my Chinese since leaving junior high, I still read some collections of prose in my spare time and occasionally go to the Chinese library."

Hence, perhaps sometimes a little pressure isn't so bad after all--perhaps one can take from it a love of language and culture?

"It's true."

Without our realizing it, the program's two hours have been used up, and an Indian comes into the room for a Tamil program. Hsiu-mei says hello in English. Listening to him rip through his opening monologue, she gives him a thumbs up. Is this brief encounter an encapsulation of this multiethnic country?

[Picture Caption]

Singapore is broadcasting a number of radio talk shows in Chinese. "Heart" is prominent among them. (photo by Diago Chiu)

The revisions to the "primary four streaming" educational system have been the source of some good news: Chinese and English are to be of relatively more equal import ance. (photo courtesy of Singapore Press Holidays Group Lianhe Bao Limited)

The revisions to the "primary four streaming" educational system have been the source of some good news: Chinese and English are to be of relatively more equal import ance. （photo courtesy of Singapore Press Holidays Group Lianhe Bao Limited）