As Health Minister and co-chair of the Covid-19 Multi-Ministry Task Force, Ong Ye Kung is undoubtedly well-known among Singaporeans.
He has made multiple speeches and addressed crucial questions in English and Chinese. While his bilingualism is impressive, this wasn’t always the case.
During a recent radio programme on LOVE 972FM, Mr Ong shared the obstacles he overcame during his schooling days while learning English.
Source: Mediacorp LOVE 972 on Facebook
Coming from a Chinese-speaking family and school, Mr Ong recounted enrolling at an English school to master the language.
However, the journey hadn’t been smooth sailing at the start, as he recalled “catching no ball” when his classmates were conversing.
Making a guest appearance on LOVE 972FM on Monday (10 Oct), Mr Ong spoke about the Healthier SG initiative and the bivalent Covid-19 vaccine available from Friday (14 Oct).
During the segment, Mr Ong also gave listeners a glimpse into his personal life, particularly his journey to mastering English.
Growing up in a Chinese-speaking family and having attended Chinese schools, Mr Ong described his English proficiency as being “one piece, one piece” then.
But when it was time to attend high school, Mr Ong said he chose to enrol at an English-speaking one to improve his proficiency in the language.
Recalling his schooling days, Mr Ong said he simply “caught no ball” when his new classmates conversed.
One aspect of the English language Mr Ong struggled with was past and present tenses.
In particular, he found it hard to truly grasp the concept, like how “run” in past tense is “ran”, but in past participle, it is still “run”.
Seeing that Mr Ong’s English proficiency wasn’t up to scratch, his mother decided to engage a tutor to help him master the language.
Even though he has improved by leaps and bounds since then, Mr Ong admitted that picking up a new language was challenging.
Now that he’s an esteemed politician who needs to talk to people from all segments of society, Mr Ong shared how his bilingualism has worked out for him.
It’s not that I write a speech in English and have it translated to Chinese. I write them both separately because the manner of delivery is different in both languages.
Asked if he writes his speeches personally, Mr Ong said he usually has his first drafts written by an assistant, but he would make the amendments on his own after that.
“The scripts are not translated versions of each other. We need to make sure that the scripts can be understood well by native speakers in English and Chinese,” he said.
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