would be stupid for any Singapore agency or NTU to advocate the learning of dialects, which must be at the expense of English and Mandarin.’ A week later, Lee reiterated the point at the 30th anniversary launch of the Speak Mandarin Campaign. In his speech, he described his personal experience with "language loss". "To keep a language alive, you have to speak and read it frequently. The more you use one language, the less you use other languages. So the more languages you learn, the greater the difficulties of retaining them at a high level of fluency. I have learned and used six languages – English, Malay, Latin, Japanese, Mandarin and Hokkien. English is my master language. My Hokkien has gone rusty, my Mandarin has improved. I have lost my Japanese and Latin, and can no longer make fluent speeches in Malay without preparation. This is called "language loss." Renewed interest in learning other Chinese varieties Since 2000, there has been an renewed interest in other Chinese varieties among Singaporean Chinese. In 2002, clan associations such as Hainanese Association of Singapore (Kheng Chiu Hwee Kuan) and Teochew Poit Ip Huay Kuan started classes to teach other Chinese varieties. This was in response to an increased desire among Singaporeans to reconnect with their Chinese heritage and culture through learning other Chinese varieties. In 2007, a group of 140 students from Paya Lebar Methodist Girls' Primary School learnt Hokkien-Taiwanese and Cantonese as an effort to communicate better with the elderly. The elderly themselves taught the students the varieties. The programme was organised in the hope of bridging the generational gap that was formed due to the suppression of these dialects in Singapore. Likewise, third-year students from Dunman High can now take a module called "Pop Song Culture". This module lets them learn about pop culture in different dialect groups through pop songs from the 70s and 80s performed in different varieties. Besides this, students can also take an elective on different flavours and food cultures from various dialect groups. Although the Singapore government appears to have relaxed its stance towards Chinese varieties in recent years, the fact is that they still did not actively support the widespread use of other Chinese varieties especially in the Singapore mainstream Television media. Recently, the Singapore Government allowed some local produced mini "chinese dialect" shows to be broadcast in Hokkien-Taiwanese and Cantonese dedicated to the Singapore