So I started telling him about our national anthem as Kai has been asking me during the Olympics and Parlympics, how come the songs and flags are different at the different medal presentation ceremonies. It was a good opportunity for me to use to introduce him to Singapore flag and now I told him about our Singapore National Anthem.
MAJULAH SINGAPURA
Mari kita rakyat Singapura
Sama-sama menuju bahagia
Cita-cita kita yang mulia
Berjaya Singapura
Marilah kita bersatu
Dengan semangat yang baru
Semua kita berseru
Majulah Singapura
Majulah Singapura
The Origin
The national anthem was written in the wake of nationalism during 1956-57. Its composer, the late Encik Zubir Said, had written it on the basis of two words, "Majulah Singapura" which means "Onward Singapore". It was launched on 3 Dec 1959 together with the national flag and the state crest, at the installation of the new head of state, the Yang di-Pertuan Negara. Upon Singapore's independence in 1965, "Majulah Singapura" was adopted as the republic's national anthem.
Kai was asked me. "Why is our national anthem in Malay?". It was a tough question to answer and I have to explain alittle about Singapore History to him that Singapore used to be a Malay village and we are part of the Malay Archipelago. And when Singapore became a state in Malaysia in the 1959, the national anthem was written by a malay composer to use as a state anthem. And it has a significant meaning behind it. I told him when I was little in Singapore, my English Language and Chinese Language teachers taught us about the meaning of the Singapore National Anthem in both English and Chinese and my Indian classmates learnt it in Tamil classes.
And during Music lesson, the Music teacher would take great measure to teach us how to pronounce and sing the anthem properly. I told him in school, we sing it every morning before the beginning of lessons if we are in the morning session and also during end of the day when we are heading home in the early evening if we are in the afternoon session. And it is still being conducted in Singapore schools now. I explained to him that we must take pride in our national anthem and stand still when it is play.
We remembered the time when the Singapore Netball Team was in Vancouver playing all the friendly matches against the different teams in Canada, Daddy and me brought Kai to watch every matches and we felt a sense of pride when our national anthem were played at the different matches. Kai was really young then no even 3 years old and got him to cheer for Singapore in the match. I explain to him the important of being patriotic to our country. We remember how the Canadians were so proud of their country and they aren't afraid to show it and now in Australia, the Aussies are also very proud of their country and they don their national jackets, etc. We do hope that one day, we will be able to get a Singapore National Sport Jacket for each of us as we are proud to be Singaporeans.
Differen Language Translations
Our National Anthem Translation |
English |
ONWARD SINGAPORE |
Chinese |  |
Tamil |
 |
I was only able to teach Kai the meaning of our national anthem in English and Chinese.
Information and translation contained from Ministry of Information,Communications and the Arts.
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