What I find ridiculous is the way in which the people who brag about making Singapore more educated suddenly start telling that it’s impossible to be proficient at English, Mandarin and a dialect or two. MM Lee says we don’t have enough gigs in our brain to manage but for some reason, PM Lee thinks we could do well to pick up Arabic as a third language …don’t learn dialect because you can’t manage it but learn Arabic on top of English and Mandarin ….does that make sense?

Let’s be honest here. The only reason why MM Lee is so “Anti-Dialect” is because he realised that if Hokkien-Speaking workers could cause a revolution to get him into power, they could easily do the same to get him out of power. Dialects tie us to certain communities. When we were a nation of many dialects, we were a nation of many communities. These communities helped their members who in turn gave back and let’s also be honest in pointing out that somehow the communities worked together until colonial and nationalist politicians started playing the race card.

So how do you solve the problem – get rid of the communities – remove the idea of self-help and make people dependent on one ordered culture.

Needless to say, this never actually works but then who cares about reality when a few civil servants are getting paid top dollar to tell you who you are.

singapore? it embarrasses me that just because we speak english most of the time, we’re so ‘yaya papaya’ and always look at those who speak mandarin disdainfully.

by the way, i’m singaporean.

Imagine for a moment, the learning of languages (besides English) in Singapore without having to take exams…

learn, speak, read, write, listen, communicate, exchange, inmerse

Where it is compulsary to attend the 2nd language lesson but you may choose to or not to take that as an examination subject.

Some schools can even offer other foreign languages.

But i am of the view that one must be very proficient in at least one language… i would like to know if Bill Gate is bilingual? how about Richard Branson? Or Li Ka Shing? If they are, did they take exams for their other languages? And how did they fair?

Why learn a language (or discard it) purely on its economic utility? Being able to communicate meaningfully has no visible economic: does that mean this has no value at all? We run the risk of implying by logical extension that our aged folk are of no value to us. Nevermind the truth of such an extension, how does that jibe with our vaunted Confucius values?

Mandarin is close enough to many of the other chinese regional dialects that the learning of Mandarin can be aided by a good grasp of one of these dialects. This seems especially true of Cantonese. It seems counter productive to knock down dialects in favour of Putonghua.

On a pragmatic note, much good Putonghua will do you if you happen to be in Guangdong, where Cantonese opens doors with customers and suppliers. Cantonese speakers are treated by locals with less suspicion in opening deals and starting business relations. Speaking “Standard Mandarin” in China is like speaking Queen’s English in Singapore – totally out of place and incongruous, even our ministers and newscasters do not do it.

now when someone calls for people to speak more mandarin, they seem to respond also.

really, these are the ideal citizens that all leaders in the world would dream of having.

you say jump, i say how high. Excellente!

Vacuum State – Apologies for the error. I was misled by the younger generation of Teochews – their Teochew has obviously degenerated. Our government policy has succeeded yet again.

After checking with the older generation, apparently “Ga ki nang, pa si bo xiang gan” means “If we fight among ourselves, it doesn’t matter if we kill each other – outsiders stay out”. Vacuum State please verify that this translation is correct =)

At own pace and capability and choice – one should be allowed to learn English, Mandarin, and any numbers of prefered dialects, etc, etc .- as all these may probably serve us as kind lingual franca in some parts of the world or locally.-and we cannot rule out the possibility of not using them..

I am not gloating, but feel that many Chinese Sporeans deserved listening to the “cracked tune of the PAP piper”. Mark my words, the also-rans will still follow the PAP piper.

In Europe it’s so common to know at least 2 (English and your own language). and most people know a little bit of other languages.. enough to get by.
P.S. – Sorry, forgot to tell you great post!

In Europe it’s so common to know at least 2 (English and your own language). and most people know a little bit of other languages.. enough to get by.

“Ga ki nang, pa si bo xiang gan” mean literally, “own people, even if we beat you up it doesn’t matter”, not “If you are one of Us, it does not matter even if we die for you”. :)

BTW, I only hear this said by non-Teochew and usually in a terrible accent.

For my mother and father’s generation anfd their parents it is Thai but they also speak Kedah-Penang Hokkien.

When it comes to my generation my relations of my generation lost their Thai language ability.

But, I picked it up at a late age, albeit by accident.

I learn the Lao language as I live in a Lao village and I found that I can be understood in Thai Esan, parts of northern Vietnam and parts of southern Yunnan. But, if I just switch to the more formal Thai I can be understood in Bangkok and other parts of Thailand.

So, I would like to speak Thai with my old relatives and find out what is like but I had been late in learning Lao- Thai and they had all passed away.

I also picked up Swedish as I used to live in Sweden. I found that I can be understood in Norway, Denmark and parts od Finland. If I work hard at it I can understand some German as there are some similiarities among these two languages.

So, I can go on and on with my adventures and fun with languages and I thoroughly enjoy speaking the various dialects, accents and languages.

So, why just stop at Mandarin and kill the dialects.

Kill what next? Accents!

The English speaking world is much bigger than the Mandarin speaking world and plese tell me how many Singaoreans can actually go to Chna to work, trade and do busines……I think less than 5%. In the old days, parents sent their children to English schools so that their children can have better future ie good jobs and higher salaries, and many included our Minister Mentor Lee Kuagn Yew went to England and fought for Malaya independence and subsequently Singapore independence.

Further, gradutes from University of Malaya in Singapore and its succesor University of Singapore got better jobs and salaries than those from Nanyang University whose graduates only speak Mandarin and very poor English and who had to beg for jobs with very low salaries and forcing those unemployed to start their businesses which many did very well and went on to built business empires of today. Today, graduates from overseas universities such UK, US, Australia and New Zealand, got good jobs and higher salaries than those from our local universities in Singapore who write and speak Singlish (the same is very true in many countries including Malaysia)

Let us continue to put our preference in English as the language for government, commerce and industry, and as Singaporean Chinese continue speaking our respective dialects like Hokkien Cantonese, Teochew, Khek which carry our rich culture,traditions and practises which are colorful and vibrant, unlike speaking Mandarin solely which are colorless ,dull and boring.

Regards
Andrew Chuah