A response to MM Lee
KJ
There is a lot to be said for Singaporean-Chinese, myself included, to be ascribed a ‘mother tongue’ that is not really my mother’s (or for that matter, my father’s), one that we have to learn from scratch, in effect as a second-language, and one with which we have little affinity.
What is more lamentable is the fact that these decisions are borne out of unquestioned, state-mandated economic necessity, and subsequently implemented with such swift ruthlessness. Cold, hard-headed decisions that, without our realizing, put a stopper to our personal relations and halt our life stories. How many times have I found great difficulty in conversing with my grandparents, who were by then too old to abandon their original tongues and acquire new ones, while I on the other hand had been discouraged from speaking in their native ones (i.e. my real mother tongue[s]), and force-fed a foreign language called Mandarin.
Singapore prides itself on arriving from ‘Third World to First’ in one generation – (have we really?) – this is the same reason for our extraordinary ability to extinguish our rich southern Chinese heritage, one that is as old as centuries if not the millennia, in a single generation.
Is this something that we, that is to say, Singaporean-Chinese, in the name of economic achievement should be proud of?
I doubt that our ability to speak Mandarin has been, as MM Lee would have us believe, a ‘key advantage’. As academic Linda Lim remarked in an interview with the Straits Times last week, our self-appointed role as conduits to China and India is counter-productive, if not redundant. And after expending so much energies and resources into its teaching and learning, how many of us are truly proficient in Mandarin, beyond the rudimentary phrases needed to get one past the wet market?
Having to master both English and Mandarin without a ‘natural’ cultural-linguistic environment that is necessary for one to be proficient in either language has resulted in us floundering in both. Drowned in this process is our chance and ability to master our true ‘mother-tongues’. It is well-known that the Mainlander Chinese and the Westerners constantly mock our lightweight grasp of Mandarin and English, and, for those doing business in China, they are taking Mandarin lessons to make up for their linguistic lack. Beneath these foreign mockery is the sneering at our cultural ignorance, superficiality, and philistinism. Further, if the ability to speak Mandarin is such an economic asset, why do our education policies prevent our non-Chinese compatriots from learning it? And should Singaporeans be learning Mandarin just so we can ‘bring value-add to China’?
Such vulgar economic justifications for ‘national survival’, for learning languages, for effacing cultures.
Whatever the material benefits I might reap by way of Singapore’s ‘economic usefulness’ to the rest of the world, I derive no dignity in being treated as a cog in a machine, as a means to an end. I would gladly trade, pardon the pun, GDP growth with the ability to speak my native language (it is neither English nor Mandarin) even if it is the most economically unviable language in the world. For that matter, I would be proud to be a Singaporean even if it is the poorest country there is around. What consolation does it bring, to be able to speak to 1.3 billion Chinese all over China if I cannot even engage in a proper conversation with my own family?
That is not to say we should not have encouraged the learning of Mandarin. But it certainly could have been implemented in a less mechanistic manner, and for less utilitarian reasons. It is for these very reasons that we do not want to, or we are unable to, appreciate the value of a language and the beauty inherent in all languages, that exist beyond the jargon and jarring phrases of multinational companies and Internet data banks and global financial-speak.
The choice of languages learnt need neither be government-sanctioned nor mutually-exclusive. Contrary to what the government and the media would like us to think, we are not the only country that adopts a bilingual policy. But compared to other such countries, we are far from being as successful. Learning from them, we might realize that mastering Mandarin need not have come at the expense of our ancestral tongues. Our lack of fluency in multiple languages is not just due to biological limitations (which is far from being a fact). Ill-conceived, flip-flopping government policies and crass economic rationale for learning (or un-learning) languages have contributed to this predicament too.
In two generations Mandarin would be our mother tongue, proclaims MM Lee proudly. But with our appalling level of proficiency in Mandarin, it is not hard to foresee how much and what kind of a ‘mother tongue’ it is going to be. It will probably not be much.
Is the sole value of a language its ‘usefulness’? I don’t think so. On the one hand, use-value is subjective, personal, and should not be decided for me by, of all things, the state. On the parallel, the value of language is in language itself. Languages do not appear out of thin air – we human beings create them, keep them alive, and they live for a simple reason – above being basic tools of communication, they are expressions of our emotions, our humanness. Expressions that, like culture and the arts, live outside the world of money.
We would have been better-off leaving our language habits alone, and letting our ‘adulterated Hokkien-Teochew’ languages evolve on their own. And why not? Languages, like cultures, are living things and they evolve all the time. And over time, our aesthetic sensibilities are honed along with our constant polishing of our tongues, and from where the beauty and poetry in the language emerge. This is true for all languages, from the first grunt in the dark cave eons ago, to the final stanza in the gilded library just now. And why, our Singlish vernacular might one day become high language too, with its inimitable trove of stories and sonnets. If only we would let it, and let our local poets light the way.
But of course, such frivolous pursuits have no place in a country where economic necessity and cultural cringe must prevail. While the sun of the British empire might have set, and the Middle Kingdom’s might yet arise, it seems as long as the ruling regime’s socio-economic ideologies persist blindingly, Singaporeans will always remain colonial subjects, servants to capital.
The way we have gone about picking ‘winning’ languages and experimenting with them as one would in a laboratory, it is what kills language. But not only that – as fellow TOC contributor Deng Chao noted recently, what is wiped out is more than our Teochew, Hokkien, Cantonese, and Hainanese languages. Gone with them would be the irreplaceable and age-old cultural treasures of folklore, poetry, aphorisms and histories, riches that are later infused with the tropical air of the Straits Settlement – a natural confluence of cultures. What is wiped out will be life itself, supplanted by the mediocre, the vulgar and the kitsch.
One day I might become a grandparent too, but what would the world be like then? I do not want to punt on the vagaries of the market or the flow of global finance. I certainly do not want to be enslaved by them. Small as Singapore is, there nonetheless are things that do not and cannot have a price tag. The ability and the freedom to speak, for instance. Invaluable things.
Am I romanticizing the village?
But how did the village come to be something pejorative in the Singaporean imagination?
What kind of a city are we still building anyway?
Looking at my grandparents, I do wonder what their Singaporean world has been like, for them to one morning find themselves strangers in their own land, unable to be understood and unable to understand, the foreign chatter on the streets, and recounting life stories in a voice whose sweetness their loved ones would never know.
And how much are Singaporeans and our nation, for all our economic growth and material riches the poorer for it, living on benighted money, leaving our history behind.
———
HELP keep the voice of TOC alive!
If you like this article, please consider a small donation to help theonlinecitizen.com stay alive. Please note that we can only accept donations from Singaporeans. Thank you for your assistance.Do you have a flair for writing? Volunteer with us. Email us your full name and contact details to theonlinecitizen@gmail.com
“I do wonder what their Singaporean world has been like, for them to one morning find themselves strangers in their own land, unable to be understood and unable to understand, the foreign chatter on the streets, and recounting life stories in a voice whose sweetness their loved ones would never know.
”
Dear KJ,
Always i find your article very well written and nice read. :)
I used to be a IT worker.
I have been experiencing the same problem as you described in the above when I was working in a large IT department of a large MNC. Their IT department is majority foreigners of 1 nationality. The other majority is of another foreign nationality. kind of like 40:60 split. As singaporean, I was definitely the odd one out. I was feeling like living in a strange land which is my country full of strangers who are foreigners.
Well, this is why I am gonna be a employer instead of an employee – its so easy to get foreigners even now!!! But I must do it quick because there is this ENTREPRENUER PASS for foreigners to come here and bring their dependents
here. To apply, the brochure says “NO MINIMUM Qualifications” and “HIGH SUCCESS RATE” and “UPON Approval, you can bring your immediate family members to sg as Dependent pass holders” (means he get PR???)
Found this website: http://www.jje.sg <—- read all about it.
Wow! sg is so great! I have decided to be employer to take advantage of the pro-business policies and do it quick cos FE (foreign entreprenuers) pass holders are coming ! great, I get to enjoy competition both when I was an employee and employer. Retirement is secured.
While I take pride in teaching my children my mother tongue, Hokkien, I have no issues with learning Mandarin. My main grouse is in the teaching of Mandarin and the strict requirements on children at a very young age. How many children can handle 2 languages effectively at age 6 – 12? Those who have young children will know how challenging the text is. I understand that in Europe, you only pick up a 2nd or 3rd language in Sec school so as to ensure that their 1st language is proficient enough. I think it puts off a lot of young children in learning Mandarin when they have to struggle so much with it. My nieces and nephews threw away their Chinese textbooks first thing when they finish school, shows the contempt for the subject. Ask those with Pri school going kids and they will tell you the high % of time spent on Chinese where it could have been better spent on other more enriching curriculum. I have seen angmohs speaking better Mandarin than our kids who have been schooled for 12 yrs. So, the main problem is the teaching and implementation, not the language inself.
Thanks KJ for this article.
I do understand that this issue of language and dialect is very emotive.
I’m a Teochew. And i only communicated with my parents in this dialect. But they are long gone. With my Teochew colleague, i still communicate in Teochew but with alot of English words thrown in. I seem to detect that in the near future communication in dialect will be a thing of the past in Singapore.
Not so long ago, i was at the airport. There was a group of Chinese national speaking among themselves in unadulterated Teochew. It was truly music to my ears. Even though my language ability was limited, i pluck the courage to share a few words with them. My son who was leaving for work in China join the conversation but in Mandarin. And one of the Chinese ( they are from Swatow) told my son that my Teochew was not good.
My son comes from a typical English speaking home. He was given Mandarin tuition from Primary One to his A level but fail through out and thus was denied a place in the local university and thus was sent to an overseas university. He is now working in China and thus had no choice but to learn and speak Mandarin
My son has two daughters. But i communicate with them in English. As a grandfather, i asked myself whether i should communicate with my grandchildren in my limited Teochew. If so, is it worth the effort. I dont think so. But ultimately my son has to make the decision for his children . Dialect against language. And the proportion of time, energy and money on studying them. The pull between the head and the heart will always be there as it was for the past 40 years.
Good Morning,
Dialects vs Mandarin will always be emotive; only because culture, power and heritage will always play a preponderant role whenever we talk about it; will something be lost, if we don’t learn dialects. I don’t know; my colleague darkness thinks so as he put it so well here:
http://dotseng.wordpress.com/2009/03/08/the-joy-of-stupid-people/
The main problem is; its all primroses and parks vs factories and Henry Fordism; and we all know the latter does little to quicken the heart of the tax man. That I feel is the main problem the tug between what must be and what should be.
SD (Internet liaison officer of the brotherhood)
Some scholars have now claimed that ” The World Is Awesome” with such diversity in languages, cultures, etc.
Speak to those frequent travellers and you would heard wonderful stories.
The day some of us go for holidays, like in Europe, the surprises would be reckoning. Even in Britain, the accents are different.
And if you intend to be a ‘free and easy’ tourist, and wants to take a taxi ride in France, it is ‘good’ to learn some basic French spoken words. Mind you, they are very proud of their heritage and cruisines!
I have seen a program, how Hitler’s remarkable staging and fiery rhetoric had brought the demise of the german youths. And the concluding comments were that the surviving youths now realised that they had been brainwashed and indoctrinated. (You can just google search in the internet).
So have some been brainwashed and indoctrinated?
Some says we are in fact living in a ‘make believe world’, as some religious stories now even begin to surface. Story like the shroud had failed the carbon tests, ink tests, material tests, etc. . And after ‘the ark story’ program, the host of the program had since left. So now scholars just simply labelled them as ‘controversies’.
So look at the mirror today, and reflect !
Wonder who are you, and who Is ‘superior’ !
ha ha ha
Did Michael Jackson regretted ?
I felt the comment on 12) is a big insult to those Mandarin-oriented young Singaporeans. Be thankful that they still preserve their Mandarin while adopting English at the same time. Don’t say they are colourless, cultureless and traditionless as many are much more traditional, cultural and colourful than you initially thought. You just need to meet these people before passing off this particular sentence.
For most Chinese Singaporeans and Peranakans, Chinese is an evil stepmother tongue.
Mandarin is the main representative of the entire Chinese language, just like Han Chinese is the major of the Chinese race. Mandarin has been existed since Han Dynasty, not Mongol Yuan or Qing like wiki says.
I do not support young SGreans to learn regional Chinese languages (I don’t view it as dialects) because if you want to learn, better to learn all languages from Hokkien to Hakka which is too much to absorb. Otherwise, one is skilled in Teochew but can’t understand Hakka. There will be a gap among the Chinese people if Mandarin is not used as a common language to narrow it.
Americans make lots of money in China too, but they seem to get by just fine by just speaking English to the Chinese. Educated mainlanders can speak English just as well or even better than Singaporeans (and with correct unadulterated non-Singlish grammar). I think we would have been better off had we just learned English in school as a compulsory subject. We could then speak in sophisticated English to the Chinese and not get made fun of. Why bother with Mandarin when they already studied English?
I don’t think it’s about going to a language school which people go to learn Japanese or French, etc as mentioned in a post above.
Dialects are learnt at home, and killing off radio and TV broadcasts has effectively stopped children from picking dialects up easily. My mum used to watch Cantonese dramas on Malaysian TV channels which I absorbed as a kid. It came in very handy in Chinese restaurants while I was studying in Aust and on business trips in Hong Kong.
i do not think to learn to speak just 1 dialects will affect english and chinese or even other language or culture or style or studies results, or anything.
A,decade ago, I used to hold Monthly Dinner and in my group was the farher of a Minister, The Cantonese waitress from Ipoh commented that his 80-years face had baby complexion. The Old Man asked me what was she saying and I told him the waitress’ remark. The Old Man replied in Mandarin to her but his pronouciation was not Han Yee Pin Yin…..sounded like Peranakan mixed with Hokkien. The whole table roared with laughter ! To be exact, the spoken wprds sounded like sex language,,,,but the waitress was ignorant.
This a true story. The tone can mean dirty words !
Obamaosamataksama
As far as i know singaporean has no identity nor culture so what is mother tongue.Money speaks louder than any language in the world.
Actually, I dun see MM’s logic.
We speak dialect, we dun write it. And if it’s our mother tongue, I dun think we even as many brain cells to know it, unlike some foreign language one is forced to take up.
I asked my children what’s the most difficult thing about learning Mandarin, and they replied :” the writing part.” They just can’t cope with the strokes and they find the Chinese curriculum boring.
My wife jokingly told me to take a look at the textbooks if I can’t sleep at night.
I think finding scape goats for our inefficient education system is easier than looking for real solutions.
I think many years ago when a QIN king wanted to enforce a common script in Chinese among the six other states ( Zhao,Wei, Chu, Han ,Yan, Ji..) there were a lot of emotions mainly because dissidents felt that their own culture would be lost. He did it anyway and now China has a common script..and her culture is still intact. I predict in generations to come dialects will fade away in China , including Hongkong. What do you think?
maybe not really true.
if got another qin king might mean will need a dictator?
or i am wrong.
The over zealous effort to force Mandarin to be the Mother Tongue for Chinese has in fact, spurred the growth of Singlish.
Look around us, or rather, Hear amongst us. Those that grew up with the Hanyupinyin generation speak largely Singlish because many of these went on to become Teachers !
The govt just doesnt concede that that Speak Mandarin and puntive environment was counter-productive to Most students and in the end their Mandarin is not up to par and their English is atrocious !
Why liddat one.. get my point?
67), To add to your point… in the past, there were those who were EXCELLENT in English, not just the language, but Western culture, literature etc, though they were not necessarily good in Chinese. And there were those who were EXCELLENT in Chinese and learned in Chinese history and culture, though they may not know a single word of English. Then the Great Equalizer happened, and now most people know bit bit Engrish, yi dian dian Hua Yu, and that’s it.
What is the fuzz? Is anyone stopping anyone from learning or speaking dialects?
I think the Chinese Clan Associations and the Chinese Chamber of Commerce should get together to jump-start dialect education in Singapore. It is not illegal to setup dialect centres in institutions not funded by the Singapore government.
70) ….I think the Chinese Clan Associations . . . ….. dialect education in Singapore. It is not illegal to set up dialect centre . . ….
Friend you ok or not ?? Looks like you are pappy-supporter to trap innocent people is it?
Do you know why ISD/ISA are still around??
The answer is they are around so that they are needed for Mas Selamat’s case and to keep jobs. If not many of them in the ISD will be retrenched already notwithstanding our economy is dependent on global recovery.
Think more important is to re-introduce the cultures of the different dialect groups. The language is a part of it. IMHO, one reason why there is an over-emphasis on materialism is because the erosion of the traces of our roots has created a vaccumn which is only poorly filled by whatever passes off as the current fads these days. Spirtualism/religion can fill that gap, of course, and also a deeper understanding of where we came from.
Well said. Pls send it to the press n LKY office…
If someone tells me what language to speak at home to my kids, I will tell him or her to PISS OFF!
My mother tongue is $$$……………everyday when wake up speak $$$ , work for $$$ try luck on 4D or TOTO for $$$ why bother about mother toungue so long you live in $ingapore……………World top 10 most expensive city’s culture is all about $$$
The China gals speak fluent English when I reply in Mandarin. Lingo not the same with a deeper Mandarin accent compared to mine
KJ,
there is nothing wrong with singaporean mandarin.
when you say we have appalling levels of proficiencies of mandarin, who are you talking about? zaobao? newscasters? hawkers? schoolchildren? for the common person (eg the last two), obviously she would be more likely to speak COLLOQUIAL singaporean mandarin, which is different, syntatically, lexically or otherwise, from the standard or written form.
this does not in any way imply that the colloquial form is inferior.
the same applies to ‘ lightweight grasp (of Mandarin and) English’.
who cares if the angmohs and china chinese laugh at our languages. there is nothing wrong with our languages.
in any case, effective communication is not just about fluency of language alone.
Quadrophonic better than stereo #71,
We don’t need LKY’s approval or the government’s approval in what we do. I think you don’t understand what it means to be free as long as you are operating under the legal framework.
LKY is no longer fit for office and his dementia is irreversible. Why are you hanging on to a piece of an antique that has outlived his usefulness? An old freak like him should pass on without state funeral.
Quadrophonic better than stereo #71,
SM Lee is no longer fit for office and his senile dementia is irreversible.
Stop hanging on to a decomposing piece of antique
Correction to Post #79
I meant to say:
MM Lee is no longer fit for office and his senile dementia is irreversible. Stop hanging on to that decomposing antique. He is not the future but a legacy that we Singaporeans must live without. If we citizens don’t take our own direction, who will?
The public will always be perceived as having a clutch mentality if we do not take our own initiatives to lead our own lives and provide our own cultural direction. You cannot expect someone who uses economic indicators to tell you that.
58, Triple Threat
Mandarin was only a dialect before the advent of the Qing Dynasty. Let’s not twist history to suit an agenda.
Thanks.
Dear # 77 Jun, colloquial is inferior because it is basic and simplistic. As the article argued, Singaporean standard of mandarin is simply not up to par! Do street people speak newscaster mandaarin? no leh. but our newscasters speak like the street people of Beijing. :)
#77 so there’s nothing wrong with singaporean mandarin if there is nothing wrong with substandard language.
Did we go “overboard” ?
I think the issue is to equip us with the necessary conversational vocabulary.
Maybe we should examine why the english spoken/ written in the US differs from the British, too !
Whereas I have also found that some of us tends to speak like amerikan or british.
Have you found any British trying to imitate the way the Amerikan speak/write or vice versa ?
I met an american tourist friend some time ago, and she told me she was in fact VERY IRRITATED when some of us try to imitate the way she spoke.
I was “taken aback” instantly, but immediately recovered, and told her something like “well……! ”
So ?
It is like saying, for example, american food writer/ journalist Anthony Bourdain visiting Singapore to eat ‘flamed prime ribs’, and seeing all american sceneries
and cronies.
A tourist may say “oh, this is one of the states of the US ?”.
Then we may have to reply, possible, since we have lost billions through Lehman Bros., etc. and Citibank is to “bleed” us ?
But we have Sands !
For a very high price though, possible we have been ‘ripped-off’ !
he he he
#82
–> I am not twisting the history. Mandarin existed way back since Han Dynasty. Read your history please, do some research, ask your professors, and no wiki.
Different dynasties spoke different dialects, Ming, Han, Song, and a few spoke Mandarin as the national communication language, if you are focusing on whether dialects/regional languages or Mandarin come first.
mrthinkbeforeyoutalk ,
even if colloquial mandarin is ‘basic and simplistic’, what is wrong with that? it has its uses, it serves its purposes well – it functions exactly the same way as singlish does – to communicate with friends and family. do you think singlish is basic and simplistic as well?
the reason why our newscasters speak standard mandarin is simply political – which tv station in singapore would be wanted to be seen as promoting ‘bad’ mandarin, which is not even bad in the first place. AND you can be sure that even the newscasters themselves do NOT speak like newscasters once they are off air.
and there is no such thing as a substandard language. all languages were developed to meet their users’ needs. just as there is nothing wrong with the chinese dialects. ONLY political rhetoric made it seem like the dialects were inferior to standard chinese.
do you not see, colloquial singapore mandarin is exactly like these dialects!
dear Jun, substandard, simplistic, colloquial language serves precisely its function, i.e. to facilitate substandard, simplistic, colloquial levels of communication.
Nothing wrong with that. Just mediocre.
“He did it anyway and now China has a common script..and her culture is still intact. I predict in generations to come dialects will fade away in China , including Hongkong. What do you think?”
Ya lo, at the expense of many lives just because you feel that your fanciful ideal & kind of unity is going to save the world – perhaps you are the only few who feel so but not the others.
the world is going to carry on with or without just one person. the sad thing is that if that one person is ruthless, a lot of people are going to suffer.
mrthinkbeforeyoutalk, i find your argument simplistic at best.
if one day people decided that singlish is now high language, they would develop it accordingly – and people would be able to discuss nuclear physics in singlish. and if they one day decided colloquial mandarin is now high language, people could also discuss nuclear physics in it as well.
yet, as a linguistics student, i am forever discussing linguistic stuff with classmates in colloquial language – but we seem to have no problems understanding each other. maybe it’s because we’re all mediocre. ah well.
and anyway, colloquial language does NOT mean substandard or simplistic.
and even if we did speak substandard, simplistic, colloquial language, so what? effective communication is not just fluency in language.
dear Jun, as a linguistic student, u ought to know that languages cannot be ‘set out’ to be high or low language. it is through amongst various things, borrowing of foreign words and conquest of lands, both of which take time.
then, u confuse ur ability to code switch between colloquial language and formal lang with having the ability to only speak colloquial ones.
obviously communication is more than verbal language. but that’s besides the point. verbal language is more than basic words and why not strive to be excellent and better rather than be so mediocre?
Let us put this comment into perspective.
What is the crux of the issue ?
Of our personal identity, or “Who Am I”?
Ok, let us now look retrospectively.
The first incident was the poor old trishaw man humiliated worldwide on “YouTube”.
British tourists ?
Fine !
Next the F1 Formula race, comments by the losers !
Singapore circuit….. a circus ?
Well…Europeans ?
And now, the recent $491 incident at Newton !
Amerikans, right ?
Were these incidents, accidental or coincidental ?
The other axis of evil ?
So, should we now look inside and examine ourselves, physically and mentally ?
Are we cronies ?
Sands for cash ?
Who carries whose baby ?
ha ha ha
mr thinkbeforeyoutalk, i think you are the one who does not get it.
firstly, all languages are equal. all of them were made to suit their users. (it is only the elites in power who perpetuate ideologies to index different languages to different values eg english – high language which are used by people like nuclear scientists, and singlish – low language used by those who have little education. note that these are IDEOLOGIES and may not even reflect the true situation on the ground.) so you can say nothing of any language being substandard or mediocre.
(aside: even though a language has few foreign borrowings or its users did not colonize other places, does not make it a low language. having many borrowings or being spoken in colonized areas does not then make it high language. it is more than that.)
most speakers of singlish are not nuclear physicists, and hence, singlish cannot be used to discuss nuclear physics, as its lexicon is not developed to that point. this does NOT in any way mean that singlish is inferior or mediocre, as i have already said, most speakers of singlish are NOT nuclear physicists and they guide how the language develops.
suddenly it is announced that singlish is now the high language! but it has such a tiny lexicon! how? so then again the elites will carry out status and corpus planning, where the language’s status and lexicon are respectively increased. now even nuclear physicists can discuss nuclear physics in singlish. sometimes lexicon additions are borrowings, sometimes they are not.
so as you can see, any language given the chance can be high language, if it is prized by the elites. (and that is how a high language becomes a high language, and not so much of the whole ‘it is through amongst various things, borrowing of foreign words and conquest of lands’ thing.)
and i am not confused but i rarely speak in the high language style anyway. i am too … lazy to do so.
dear jun,
u simply don’t get it: all languages might have their inherent value, that does not mean all languages are equal.
Yeah, I was also too naive, until I google search that “aramaic” was an ancient language prior to english.
As a Tamil-speaking individual I find MM Lee’s views to be tactless and rude.
All intoxicated views……..me got a headache when a Peranaka living in Australia visited Singapore and was questioned by a local speaking Mandarin
“jiang hui yu” he replied “Chang Kuda”……………….speak zero or catch no ball
AngloBaba,
Your comment is almost 2,500-words long and is thus not allowed. Please do not post such lengthy comments. If you would like for us to publish it as an article, please email it to us (length 800 to 1,000 words) and we will consider publishing it separately.
Thanks.
Dear MM Lee, Please have a look at this blog -http://blog.chinesepod.com/2006/05/26/can-mandarin-become-a-global-language/