will/would

[Tan Elaine]

He worried that young people are spending too much time in front of the TV, playing Nintendo Wii, or making friends on Facebook.

"It will/would be ideal if we can combine our children's new soft skills with ruggedness, as the Singapore Armed Forces does with its soldiers," he said.

Which verb should be used?

Thanks in advance.

 

[IHIVG]

I'd use "would". The person is making presumption, expressing his idea of how he would like it to be, rather than talking about something that will surely happen in the future.
Btw, what is 'children's new soft skills'?

 

[sarat_106]

I'd use "would". The person is making presumption, expressing his idea of how he would like it to be, rather than talking about something that will surely happen in the future.
Btw, what is 'children's new soft skills'?

Yes, I agree. “Would” is indicative of possibility/probability where as 'Will' is generally used when you want to indicate that something is certain
.

 

[Raymott]

He worried that young people are spending too much time in front of the TV, playing Nintendo Wii, or making friends on Facebook.

"It will/would be ideal if we can combine our children's new soft skills with ruggedness, as the Singapore Armed Forces does with its soldiers," he said.

Which verb should be used?

Thanks in advance.

If you change to 'would', which you should, also change 'can' to 'could'.
"It would be ideal if we could ..."