译⊙林方伟
日本作家新井一二三（Arai Hifumi）精通中日英文，同时以这三种语文书写。她几个月前应“世界书香日暨文学四月天”活动之邀来新演讲，从本地政府官员口中获知，许多新加坡年轻华人如今对中文不感兴趣，华文学习的推广面临重重困难，让她有感回国写了篇《新加坡的尴尬》。
透过精通中文的日本人的观点来看新加坡的语言尴尬，她说的有哪些只流于表面，不适合我们的国情，而哪些又值得我们借镜？
新加坡的双语政策面临危机，也是当初把语言当作工具所致。如果政治是一个连环的工程，任何一个环节都可当作零件或工具，需要的时候拿来用，不需要则换掉算了。
On the other hand, Singapore's bilingual policy is in a crisis precisely because the policy makers have regarded languages as mere tools. If politics were viewed as an interlocking system, any of the links can be treated as parts or tools to be used when they are needed, and to be replaced when they are no longer useful.
主持人向听众说：很清楚的是，新加坡的华语教育出问题，并不是教学方法出的问题，而是华语的社会定位出的问题；我们以前也讨论过，语言到底是工具还是文化的一部分，今天这一点也很清楚了，学好华文的外国人都对华夏文明着迷。
The moderator concluded at the end of our talk that, clearly the fault in Singapore's Chinese education doesn't lie in the teaching methods, but in the language's social status. We have discussed before if language should be a tool or a part of our culture, and we have figured out that foreigners who have mastered Chinese are first and foremost deeply fascinated by the Chinese culture.
记者问起怎么吸引人学华语：“不能强迫任何人喜欢任何东西。语言是活的，要自然而然，看的不是教科书，而是通过旅游、读书、玩游戏等管道，成为生活的一部分。”
When asked by a journalist on how to get people to learn Chinese, Arai said: Don't ever force someone to like something. Language is a living culture which you have to be drawn to naturally, not through textbooks, but through travels, reading and games that make the language an organic part of life.
