Education | Gary Ngai says gov’t is to blame for lack of Portuguese talent

Gary Ngai

The SAR government should be held accountable for the city’s shortage of Portuguese language talent, resulting in challenges when teaching Portuguese to local students, Gary Ngai Mei Cheong, president of the Macau Association for the Promotion of Exchange between Asia-Pacific and Latin America (MAPEAL), told the Times on the sidelines of a talk on Macau’s external role regarding Latino countries.
The Indonesian-born Chinese criticized the local government’s failure to devote more manpower and resources to teaching the Portuguese language, despite the fact that there are many students eager to learn.
“Do we have enough teachers? That is the major issue,” said the MAPEAL president. “We just do not have [enough] teachers. There are no teachers although the students want to learn.”
“Who should take the blame? It should be the local government. They should hire more teachers, there are many teachers from mainland China who teach [Portuguese].”
Asked if the city, given its historic background, needed to import Portuguese teachers from the mainland, the 83-year-old retorted: “Go ask the Education and Youth [Affairs] Bureau as to why.”
Gary Ngai also reckoned that it remains necessary to strengthen Portuguese education among local schools, and even impose related education in secondary schools if possible. “Schools should consider launching Portuguese courses as an elective,” he said, suggesting that students should learn another language in addition to English, which is a mandatory subject in local schools.
Regarding the possible extension of Portuguese language education to elementary schools, the MAPEAL president doubted if the “school authorities” would let the students learn many languages, which might cause confusion. However, he added that learning multiple languages simultaneously would not be as challenging as many believe, citing his personal childhood experiences of learning four languages at the same time.
The association head made a critical remark to the Times last year in August, warning that Macau would only “become another small part of Zhuhai” if the government made no effort to exploit the city’s role as a bridge between China and the world. Staff reporter