Mandarin serves S'poreans too

MS JAYANTHI Govindarajoo ("Unfortunate perception of messages in Mandarin"; Thursday) may be unaware that there are many Chinese Singaporeans who are not conversant in English at all.

It should also be pointed out that many station names in Mandarin are very different from that of English. Hence, Mandarin announcements are necessary.

Looking beyond our shores, we should reconcile ourselves to the fact that conversational Mandarin is as important as English in daily life, and we would be at a disadvantage if we are in denial about such a development.

Albert Tye