Comments on: The language of our forefathers – are we missing something?

By: anon

anon — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 02:33:45 +0000

I think second language should be a de-emphasised elective with many more options available. I think this whole problem is also related to the extremely limited and constricted definition our government has of “Race”. I really resent having my race emphasised over and over, and being forced to choose from one of a few limited categories even though ethnically i belong to none entirely. I understand that the government needs to keep statistical information to “protect” minorities etc. But i think an annual census is a viable alternative to the NAZI GERMAN system we currently have in place.

By: From English to Mandarin | Language Museum

From English to Mandarin | Language Museum — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 14:30:31 +0000

[...] as to whether people should be encourage to eliminate these “non-standard” ways of speaking. This Singaporean certainly seems to have a stong opinion on the [...]

By: Ace

Ace — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 14:49:32 +0000

As a hainanese, I support

By: John

John — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 03:43:14 +0000

One does mature into the appreciation of one’s mother tongue as I have found. Even after decades of being far from home, I have never forgotten to “tune in” to those who speak Teochew! And funny thing, I have come to want to “relearn” it too so that I will be able to speak it well again.
If you know of anyone who is willing to teach me, please point him or her my way!

By: acquisitioned

acquisitioned — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 12:58:19 +0000

long live goh keng swee – DA BEST!

thats y he so treasure by china – n china treasure him oso

By: Lloyd

Lloyd — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 09:33:39 +0000

Sorry to hear of such a ban.

Whatever, long live Wee Cho Yaw – for his resilience! And resistance;D

Ned Stark Says:
May 9th, 2007 at 10:09 pm
TOC,
RE Clans, Tao NAn, being a Hokkien Huay Kuan kind of school, has a rule banning the use of dialect.

By: Dumb & talent-less Hua-ren SOS (Son of Singapore)

Dumb & talent-less Hua-ren SOS (Son of Singapore) — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 09:25:51 +0000

One question abugs: Just who’s the Smart Alec who started giving children Hanyu Pinyin names while retaining the dialectical transliteration of surnames (on their birth papers, IDs, etc)?

You’re either Goh Chok Tong or Wu Zhuodong but NOT Goh Zhuodong!

It seems Singaporeans born in late 1970s or from the 80s onwards have almost all been registered in this 5354 manner.

What’s the matter? Not enough dialect speakers at the Registry or at home or among relatives & clansmen who could give accurate-enough transliterations so those who became parents from 1980s onwards just opted for the easy way out by pronouncing their child’s names in Pekinese?

Ancestors of all of southern descent must be seething down there in eternal anger down…

“Hua-ren, huayu.”
“Let’s speak Mandarin.”

By: Required

Required — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 15:19:34 +0000

Ned my boy, it’s very politely called – ahem – POR LAM PAH”, you know ;-)
Shameful and sad that an dialectical majority is not in hold of political power – just like ROC for long as long the Chiangs gave away power…

Ned Stark Says:
May 9th, 2007 at 10:09 pm
TOC,
RE Clans, Tao NAn, being a Hokkien Huay Kuan kind of school, has a rule banning the use of dialect.

By: celluloidrealitys

celluloidrealitys — Thu, 10 May 2007 03:10:28 +0000

Ned,

And the hot air continues to make it’s presence felt on the State’s Times.. hehe.

By: Ned Stark

Ned Stark — Wed, 09 May 2007 16:40:15 +0000

Celluloid Reality,

I believe the visit made headlines due to the fact that Mr Lee Hsieng Loong made mention of the fact that some workers had seen large bonuses and thus the talk about income stagnating was not the full picture.

By: theonlinecitizen

theonlinecitizen — Wed, 09 May 2007 16:30:10 +0000

Hi CR,

I concur with you totally. I was in the states a year ago – actually off the coast of Miami in the Bahamas. I didn’t meet any singaporeans there but met a korean and a japanese. The strange thing was that just being fellow Asians made us feel some sort of kinship.

I have this image of us singaporeans in my head. We are like the nerd in school – with all the A1s and distinctions in our academic studies, shirt neatly buttoned up, every strand of hair in its place, spectacles on our noses and our faces buried in our books most of the time. We would be aghast at the very thought of having even a spot of dirt on our shoes.

We are losing out on the other experiences of life – the chaos, the arguments, the openness, the exchanges, the diversity of the human experience.

It was David Lim, former 2nd finance minister, who once said that we needed to be messy (or words to that effect). Maybe he was the more liberal one in our govt. But sadly perhaps, he served only one term and left.

By: theonlinecitizen

theonlinecitizen — Wed, 09 May 2007 16:22:28 +0000

Hi Ned,

Really? They have a rule banning the use of dialects? That’s kinda strange, isn’t it? Especially for a Hokkien Huay Kwan kind of school, as you say.

Sad…

By: celluloidrealitys

celluloidrealitys — Wed, 09 May 2007 16:15:03 +0000

Funny how that I felt more proud being Chinese in Australia, where I found myself watching more dialect programmes and learning more about it. I go to Coles to grab some groceries, and I hear Singlish in the next aisle, and that makes me feel more proud to be Singaporean than any national campaign could.

The sheer number of fellow Singaporean students having a few beers in Bentley, Perth on weeknights and their Subarus, make me feel more at home.

Strange but true.

By: celluloidrealitys

celluloidrealitys — Wed, 09 May 2007 16:11:20 +0000

Ned Stark,

One good example of how enclaves of vibrant night + street life spring up by themselves is Holland Village. It did not take any concerted campaign to create a zone that is “hip and happening”, but rather it sort of evolved over time to include all things that you would not necessarily fine in an engineered
“hip zone”.

And it’s the conscious real-ness of the Holland Dr market, the wooden mosque, the fruits market sharing the same street as Wala Wala and the bar strip, that ends in a row of 3-room HDB flats. That to me is diversity that comes together through natural interaction and self-evolution.

Engineered vibrancy, creativity and all that nonsense is mere lip service paid to ensure that there is something nice to announce to the world, not knowing that the world is laughing right back at us.

Read today’s ST. I am flabbergasted that even a visit to the headquarters of Yahoo can make the headlines. What happened to the other issues in the world?

It’s groundhog day all over again.

By: Ned Stark

Ned Stark — Wed, 09 May 2007 14:09:45 +0000

TOC,
RE Clans, Tao NAn, being a Hokkien Huay Kuan kind of school, has a rule banning the use of dialect.

By: Ned Stark

Ned Stark — Wed, 09 May 2007 14:08:45 +0000

Singapore Society has been engineered so much so that everything is now in the hands of the top few. The irony is that their attempts to “create” more vibrance has failed (Crazy Horse, Speaker’s Corner). Unforunately as they say, they are a worrying government (perhaps worrying because of perceived threats to their authority?) and so Singaporeans can either continue waiting for someone to do something or take it upon themselves to do something.

By: theonlinecitizen

theonlinecitizen — Wed, 09 May 2007 13:45:58 +0000

Hi CR, Nisha,

It’s kind of sad, isn’t it? The vibrancy and diversity that the govt keeps talking about are being eroded. What is put in their places are artificial, money-making foreign “cultures” disguised as our own.

I am particularly upset about the Chingay Parade. It has been turned into a farce and a tourist attraction to make money.

Nisha, thanks for the insight into the Indian community. I didn’t know they are facing the same situation. Something is seriously wrong.

Regards,
Andrew
theonlinecitizen

By: Nisha

Nisha — Wed, 09 May 2007 13:29:00 +0000

This doesn’t just apply to the Chinese. The Indians are facing similar problems. As we know, Tamil is the main Indian language here, since majority of Indians here are Tamil. However, we’ve got other Indian communities, ie, Malayalees, Telugus, Punjabis, Sindhis, Bengalis. I can’t speak for the latter three communities but for the Malayalees and to a certain extent, Telugus, even we’re losing touch with our mother tongues. I’m Malayalee but i speak better Tamil (for the simple reason that i was exposed to Tamil in school.)I agree with CelluloidReality though. We don’t need national campaigns.What we need is pride and an interest in learning about our cultures.

By: celluloidrealitys

celluloidrealitys — Wed, 09 May 2007 03:27:51 +0000

I think we should try in our own small way to keep our dialects alive.

Doesn’t have to wait for a national campaign does it? Lobby the clan associations, conduct classes and courses for interested people.First priority should go to social workers as they are quite hampered if they do not speak dialect.

By: ah b

ah b — Mon, 07 May 2007 15:53:30 +0000

hello there,speak mandarin,i’ve remember some old man told me many many years ago why the govt starts the campaign speak mandarin is something related to mm lky, he is not happy with us at that time when all of us speaks dialects ,they says that when they lky became pm of $ingapore,people in china(hakka)talks somethings bad about lky’s father dailect(originaly they were from china hakka)thats why he starts this campaign SPEAKS MANDRAIN AND KICKS OUT ALL OUR DIALECT TO PREVENT THEM FROM LAUGHING HIS ROYAL FAMILY,TRUE OR FULSE?