By Yini Chua
Step into any ACS school, and you would be hard-pressed to find anyone conversing in Mandarin. As an alumnus aptly articulated, the surest way of gaining notoriety is to ‘get a loudhailer and start singing Chinese songs at the top of your voice’.
During my two years’ stint in ACJC, it was not uncommon to hear about how our school, a traditional enclave of atas – high class – English speaking students from single-sex mission schools such as MGS or ACS(I), has been diluted by the influx of students from SAP schools.
In other words, people like myself.
Born into a Chinese-speaking family, and having attended Nan Hua Secondary, I was the epitome of a cheenah kid. Having spoken Mandarin up till the point when I entered ACJC, I experienced a culture shock in my first few days of school, where virtually all of my classmates spoke English. My insecurity was further magnified by the secondary school uniform I was wearing.
It is a classic case of how ‘clothes maketh the man’. In ancient Rome, your clothes not only showed your status in society but also pinpointed exactly the layer to which you belong.
It is not much different nowadays. It is a sad fact that most people are judged by which school they came from, rather than by their real talents that lie underneath the clothes.
Yes, the world is my oyster. But the oyster speaks English and wears an MGS uniform.
This is not an isolated case. English-speaking elitism is a growing phenomenon in Singapore, as families who communicate solely in English are fast becoming the majority, providing sharp relief into the cultural differences cleavaging the local Chinese community.
Of course, the economy has a big part to play. Since independence, English has been dominant as the language of commerce and government. It has assumed the role of a de-facto lingua franca of Singaporeans, as its accessibility did not provide any racial group with any ostensible linguistic advantage, particularly the Chinese majority.
More parents are encouraging their children to adopt English as their first language, in the name of pragmatism. It is an accepted fact that being fluent in the language paves way for a smoother career trajectory.
However, the outward rejection of one’s mother tongue, especially Mandarin, has, in recent years, gained momentum among the younger generation. It is an unintended, regrettable consequence that the inability to write and speak Mandarin has become a point of pride among youths.
In fact, offering the Chinese Language ‘B’ syllabus (CLB) has morphed into a badge of honour for such students, as a testament to their inferior Chinese speaking skills.
The fact that being incompetent in one’s mother tongue has become a ticket to popularity speaks volumes about our level of maturity and our desire to hold on to our traditional heritage.
My 9 years old cousin is an exemplification of this point. When confronted about his dismal grade in Chinese, he self-righteously exclaimed, ‘But I got A star for my English what. And Chinese is so hard to learn.’
At that point of time I was very acutely aware of my grandmother’s expression – one of resignation.
Although Chinese is not an easy language to learn, it is our responsibility as ethnic Chinese to be proficient in our mother tongue. The motivation behind learning a language should not be anything but intrinsic.
By intrinsic, I am referring to the innate interest in one’s native tongue and the acknowledgement of the importance of its role in keeping culture alive.
Even the recent state-sponsored revival of Mandarin can be attributed to economic practicalities. The national obsession with pragmatism has resulted in a population that is hyper-efficient only in the manufacture of tangible results. The productive ethic of this island state has been secured at the price of cultural degradation.
This phenomenon paints a very pessimistic picture for Chinese cultural development. The socio-cultural architecture of this nation is increasingly reflecting the tabula rasa of our physical landscape, where cultural relics and architecture will still stand in their pristine condition, but without evoking any sentiment. Their fate as empty and polished shells is the danger that faces the culturally lobotomized children of the future.
The history behind Nantah is a treasure trove of stories that narrates the sacrifices of the local Chinese population as they endeavored to build an oasis of education for the future generation.
Now, precisely because of the borrowed cachet of history, its contemporary namesake is ridiculed for its cheenah-ness.
The Chinese adage of remembering the spring when drinking water, encapsulating the need for gratitude towards our elders. Reaping the fruits that our ancestors have shed blood and tears for, the younger generation has to fulfill our responsibility and ensure the continuity of our culture.
We should also seek to transcend the functional logic that underscores the government’s interest in Mandarin and appreciate our culture beyond the state-imposed understanding of racial categorization. The appreciation of Chinese culture may begin but should not end with Mandarin; rather it should be the tentative to steps to rekindle our interest in the dialects and practices that have been reduced to obscurity, both by the state and by ourselves.
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Headline photo courtesy of chinnian
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We have to be aware that most schools in Singapore are “neighbourhood” schools and not the elite ones. In these “neighbourhood” school, encouraging students to speak grammatical English is a major problem. Students prefer to converse in their mother tongues (though not the grammatically correct variety either). Yes, it is important to keep in contact with our Asian languages but I think there is a more urgent (and perplexing) issue with regards to our education system. Back in 1979 when I was a student, I had 42 classmates. Here in 2010, I found out that neighbourhood schools still have 40 students in a class! But we do read alot about the technological progress of the schools…the electronic gadgets. But with 40 students/class, still, how much can the gadgets make learning more pleasant and effective. Why does MOE never listen to parents and teachers about the matter of reducing class sizes? How come I heard a friend tell me that her daughter’s elite school caps their classes at 25 students? How can you still have 40 students of the Normal Academic and Normal Technical streams squeezed within 1 class when elite school’s express/SAP students have the luxury of 25 students per class!?
i guess it is because of singapore’s education system and western-oriented culture that regards english-speakers as the elites. these are policies laid down by our government since the 70s.
truthfully, i also fell into this category of regarding the superiority of the english and western world until 4 years ago when i first made my first expat trip to China (juz a year after graduation from the local Uni). i tried to converse english with the expat koreans and find them not being able to understand much english. they are better in mandarin than english. as months became years of staying in China, i came to respect the great chinese civilization and chinese language. i believe from 2005, our government began to place more emphasis on the chinese language due to its strong economic development.
when my friend, who was a student and staff from acjc visited taiwan recently, i noticed he seems to be proud of singapore’s superior english language. he does not travel as extensively as me and thus i just observed how he will react to this trip. initially he kept boasting of Singapore’s ‘development’, it’s superior western-oriented and english language, and even thought of teaching in taiwan. as days go by, he became more and more amazed by the culture of Taiwan. the taiwanese don’t regard much about Singaporeans by the way.
In my humble opinion, I find Singaporeans’ language to be neither here nor there. Singaporeans’ english is not as superior as the English/Americans/Australian, so it’s quite pitiful. When it comes to mandarin, we are also a failure. So I find there is nothing much to boast about our language capability. We are actually master of none.
So for those who regard english as a superior language and is highly-western oriented, i really find them to be mountain tortoises. haha. it is time for them to spend some time out of singapore and see the world. the more of the world they see, the more humble will they be.
Yini Chua,
I am just like u,i got A1 for Eng for my O lvls in 1994,a B3 for Tamil,my second language or mother tongue as how they put it.The same for majority of Indians as well,the 2nd language is dwindling down the drain,i dun blame families,its just our lifestyle,its gonna be the norm for the Malays as well,if you notice the local channels like Suria n Vasantham,the artistes have a habit of breaking into an English conversation when the lingua franca concerned should be their native tongue,who do we blame now?The colonial system,western culture n traditions,Hollywood,American Idol,MTV,etc???!!
Yini,this is our lifestyle,whether we like it or not,we can master only 1 language,we can be jack of all trades but a master of none,let us focus on what we need to do
1) Build our character n personality
2) Learn as much as we can from the right sources,books,magazines,the Internet,documentaries,movies,etc
3) Culture n tradition will not keep us united,only our willingness to put aside our differences n working towards a common goal,a common vision,a grandeur frontier,will keep us grounded
4) Despite what the older generation says,times have changed,we have to adapt to the current situation,we are not living in the past,we have to plan for our future
5) What we can do about our mother tongue is to keep the communication of channels open to our families n close friends to whom we can connect with
6) I hardly speak Tamil,but i have no regrets,i still understand the language,so take heart dude,dun worry too much,take things with a pinch of salt
PS : I can converse simple Mandarin with my friends,so all it takes is a little bit of practice n lots of luck,Mike out!
We may need a Speak Mother Tongue Campaign for all races in Singapore
In his Speak Mandarin campaign speech in 2004, MM Lee Kuan Yew said:
“……The Speak Mandarin campaign now is to encourage parents and students not to switch to speaking English to the children at home……When we began the Speak Mandarin campaign, our minorities, Malays and Indians, were concerned that we would drift back towards a Chinese-speaking society. They now know that there is nothing to fear. Indeed Malay and Indian children are facing the same problems in learning their own mother tongues because their tertiary-educated parents are speaking to them in English at home. My advice to all is, try to keep your mother tongue alive at home. We should also use our mother tongues at markets, shopping malls, hawker centres, food-courts, restaurants, whenever we can……”.
Since all races are facing the same problem now (i.e. In year 2010, about 60% of Chinese and Indian Primary 1 students, and about 35% of Malay Primary 1 students are from English-speaking families. The percentage is believed to be much higher for our elite families.), we should therefore consider replacing Speak Mandarin Campaign (for Chinese) with Speak Mother Tongue Campaign (for all races).
‘Although Chinese is not an easy language to learn, it is our responsibility as ethnic Chinese to be proficient in our mother tongue. The motivation behind learning a language should not be anything but intrinsic.’
most second and third generation singaporean chinese are descended from those who came from southern china. therefore, their real MT, if any, would be the southern chinese dialects, eg hokkien, cantonese, hainanese etc and NOT mandarin.
to insist that ethnic chinese to be proficient in chinese just doesn’t take into account the fluidity and multiplicity of identity in this globalized age, ie, you can be chinese if you want to be, even if you speak only english, and you don’t need to speak mandarin to do so.
and how about learning a language just for the sake of learning it? instead of cultural, economic or whatever reasons?
the main problem that the chinese heritage has is its irrelevance to modern daily life in Singapore. what is missing is not that there are Chinese historical stories, myths and fables, but that the scope and relevance of their experience is NOT translated to the modern day context where those of Chinese descent (and others) can enjoy and appreciate such stories for the TRUE VALUE that they offer TODAY, whether by giving insights into the past, and more so as nuggets of wisdom for the future. And IF such value is truly present and accessible, then the transfer and appreciation of such value, whether in its original language, or in abridged form or translated into English, should be easily demonstrable.
i’m sure the author is well-meaning, but seriously, what a sad story of blinkered, racialized thinking. your ‘mother tongue’ is the language you grew up speaking, not something derived from the dna sequences that make up a very few exterior physical traits. if it’s about linguistic culture of your ancestors then, as previous poster pointed out, tout the virtues of learning hokkien and other dialects. but to make it a responsibility of every “ethnic Chinese” (what exactly do you mean by that?)??? wtf. sign up for the pap if you haven’t already
English is easier.
English is the language of instruction.
English is the business language here.
in the IT sector, English is the language that all programming languages use.
English is a very flexible language.
in English, even if you do not know how to spell a word, you can make it up using phonetics and chances are, the spelling will be correct. in Chinese, you either know how the symbol is written, or you do not.
yes, im an ethnic Chinese, so what?
I too question the assertion that ethnic Chinese have an obligation to learn Chinese. Is there really any logical non-superficial reason for that argument?
If we are talking about preserving our heritage, then why do we not take that one step further and learn classical Chinese too? Or is only culture worth preserving the most recent one? In which case, isn’t the real difference only a matter of time?
If we want to honour the sacrifices of our ancestors, should we not be learning the dialects spoken by them long before Mandarin became the government-mandated standard of Chinese? And indeed, by favouring Mandarin over certain dialects, are we not in fact replacing those cultures with a more relevant one, just as English has become more relevant to certain ethnic Chinese than Mandarin?
Why do most Italian and German Americans not learn to speak the langauge spoken by their grandparents or great grandparents? Is there any compelling reason why they should?
There are good practical reasons why young Singaporeans should strive to learn Mandarin, but appealing to “culture” and “duty” strikes me as a utterly fallacious argument and a false moral high ground.
My mother tongue is Teochew. When I was a little boy my mother spoke to me in Teochew. My grandparents spoke to me in Teochew. The Chinese culture and customs I was immersed in were passed down to me in Teochew. Mandarin is a foreign language to me. In fact mandarin was a foreign language to many of the people living in the outlying provinces of China. It was the language used by the officials in the Chinese capital, the so-called Mandarins. So all this talk of learning Chinese culture through mandarin is a lot of hogwash!
(1) j and many are right to point out: “…most second and third generation singaporean chinese are descended from those who came from southern china. therefore, their real MT, if any, would be the southern chinese dialects, eg hokkien, cantonese, hainanese etc and NOT mandarin…”
(2) As our main objective is to prevent the trend of Anglicization, therefore, the proposed Speak Mother Tongue Campaign should encourage Chinese Singaporeans to use Dialects or Mandarin or both as MT at home.
” it is our responsibility as ethnic Chinese to be proficient in our mother tongue”
At the fundamentals, we all belong to a racial group. RACE does not equal ETHNICITY. Ethnicity refers to a certain identification and sense of belonging to the culture, traditions and linguistics of a particular community. That race equals to ethnicity and by that measure, all Chinese people should intrinsically protect and inculcate their ethnic heritage is just a ridiculous social construct. One shouldn’t be obliged to do anything he/she does not identify with or feel like doing. People make a choice to speak whatever language they want, follow whatever customs they want, and it is for nobody else to judge or get on the moral highground about. If you are so proud of your ethnic heritage then why feel so insecure when you are around people who don’t feel the same way? Does that mean that you can only feel secure when people are like-minded? What is wrong with diversity? It is survival of the fittest. If there are enough people to keep a culture and language alive, it will survive. If not, the people have spoken. You also forget that there are many non-chinese speaking people who live in this country, so speaking English is not purely about economic pragmatism. It allows for inclusive living though a common first language.
You mix up the upholding of Chinese culture and Cheenah-ness. The latter term pokes fun at the horrigible mangling of English, brash behaviour and self-absorbed nature of a particular group of Chinese who half the time ignore the fact that Singapore is a multicultural society where not everybody may speak Mandarin and understand them, but they do so anyway just because they’re damn rude. Unless you think that this equates to the Chinese culture, and if so then all the more I wish it away.
miow said: “…People make a choice to speak whatever language they want, follow whatever customs they want, and it is for nobody else to judge or get on the moral highground about…”
(1) I would say in Singapore, people are social-engineered towards choosing to speak and use English. In other words, People do make a choice, but it is an influenced choice.
(2) To maintain our diversity and multiculturalism, we should level the playing field so that the influenced choice people made will not bias too much towards English and Anglicized our Nation in long run.
no choice is made without influence. ultimately people have to take responsibility for their own actions. you can’t blame the government for everything. then you are assuming that people are stupid and have no capacity for thinking for themselves. If this is the case, then they deserved to be played for a fool.
We have never been a Chinese nation, so what if we become partly Anglicised as a society? It is also part of our roots, along with our Asian heritage. Singapore is a melange of cultures, of the East and West..
The choice to respect and learn about one’s own ethnic roots should be one’s own decision to make.
Lastly, Mandarin is not our mother tongue. If you go by the strictest definition of what a person’s ethnic language should be, we would be speaking a hodgepodge of Singlish and our dialect group. Mandarin is just the national language of a nation we are not part of. We learn it because we want to engage them, and it’s increasingly a utiliarian perspective that drives the learning of Mandarin.
I’m sure most Singaporean Chinese speak dialect to their grandparents, and that ironically is what the mother tongue is, in a linguistically accurate term.
I read an article that in 20 yrs times, most american will probably be working for a chinese company. When I when to Hong Kong recently, a chinese mainland guy was scolding a HK sale girl that her mandarin sucks. He said that if you want our mainland business, better bush up your mandarin.
Mark my words, 10~20 yrs down the road, someone is going to say that is a mistake to put English as first language.
Loyola said: “…We have never been a Chinese nation, so what if we become partly Anglicised as a society? It is also part of our roots, along with our Asian heritage. Singapore is a melange of cultures, of the East and West…The choice to respect and learn about one’s own ethnic roots should be one’s own decision to make…”
(1) We have never been a Chinese nation because the government has the will to prevent it from being so. Our policies have not been too much bias towards Chinese.
(2) Now our problem is: Judging from the current anglicize trend of our society, do our English-educated government and citizens have the will and un-bias mindset to prevent our country from becoming an English nation a few generations later?
(3) Singapore can remain as a melange of cultures, of the East and West, if we can maintain a fair and effective bilingual multicultural society.
vincent tan
Mar 7, 2010 8:01
our pledge is outdated. “we the citizen ……..” citizen is only slightly more half of the occupants so carried less weight. May I suggest:-
” We the OCCUPANTs of singapore, regardless of nationalities,race , language, religion or sexual orientation pledge ourselves as one unitied working machine so as to achieve targeted economic growth at all cost in order to maintain our well paid goverment. blar blar blar …………(need input from valued commentators) …….”
TGIS — thank god it’s SUNDAY
vincent tan Mar 7, 2010 8:01
our pledge is outdated. “we the citizen ……..” citizen is only slightly more half of the occupants so carried less weight. May I suggest:-” We the OCCUPANTs of singapore, regardless of nationalities,race , language, religion or sexual orientation pledge ourselves as one unitied working machine so as to achieve targeted economic growth at all cost in order to maintain our well paid goverment. blar blar blar …………(need input from valued commentators) …….”TGIS — thank god it’s SUNDAY
LionCitizen,
If we as a whole become more English-speaking, does that mean it is wrong? I doubt so.
Bilingualism as a societal language framework is a construct that restricts ourselves because we make people think there’s only English and “mother tongue”. Perhaps, if culture at the national level moves towards a more English-speaking, Singaporean one, it has its benefits too, especially in building a proper overarching identity where we can present a more identifiable image to the world, but at the personal level, we maintain our own levels of engagement with our own ethnicities..
We should encourage people to learn as many languages as possible, but language is not the sole determinant of a culture.. so if Anglicisation is the trend ahead, it’s because society has for some reason found its stable path forward I guess..
Yini Chua,
You experienced “ a culture shock in my first few days of school”. Yet pragmatic to accept “parents are encouraging their children to adopt English as their first language”. You self-glorified with “innate interest in one’s native tongue and … importance of its role in keeping culture alive”, despite the influence of helpful externalities like “state-sponsored revival of Mandarin” and “Reaping the fruits that our ancestors ”.
I cannot make up my mind whether you are aggrieved because nobody cares or appreciates your own personal cultural achievement. Or this is your self-indulgent narcissistic flaunting of your own cultural greatness. Thus, your “oyster’ can only remain your very own and one only.
Loyola,
(1) I would be happy if what I said about Anglicization is wrong, but the trend is very obvious. Therefore what I am trying to say is to urge all English-educated Singaporeans to provide a fair and level playing field for our mother tongues (be it Malay, Tamil, Mandarin or Dialects).
(2) We have embraced English as a common language and our government has provided all benefits to English for people to learn and use it. But we have never agreed to embrace English as an assimilation language to anglicize us. That is why we have the compulsory Bilingual Policy to force everyone to learn English and MT at the same time. Hence, it is a more balance and fair construct (if we implement it fairly) for us to build a multiracial and multicultural nation.
(3) For a very long time, we know our policies are very much bias towards English. Now, we begin to see one of its effects by influencing our young to replace our MT at home to English. Will our cultures, customs or even religions suffer the same fate as our MT in the long run is anybody guesses?
(4) Therefore, is Anglicization wrong? My opinion is, we must level the playing field, we are fair to English and western influences, we too have to be fair to our Asian languages and cultures.
The culture of Singapore is defined by its people and influenced by a myriad of sources, including Asian and Western ones. Just as Chinese culture itself is influenced by numerous dialect groups and minority races and American culture evolved from a fusion of countless cultures, there is no such thing as a “pure culture” that anyone has any duty to preserve.
As mentioned, Chinese is already a compulsory subject in school and Chinese books and media are freely available. The declining popularity of Chinese is a choice made by the people and its cause goes far deeper than any government decision can reverse.
If Singaporeans feel that Singaporean English is a better representation of Singapore than the language of their ancestors, then eventually that is what will happen. I personally find it preferable to a country divided by mutually-incompatible languages.
LionCitizen, dont be an idiot. anglicised is commonly used to describe your accent being anglicised.
english is the first language of singapore. we are schooled in english since young. we do study another language but that is only as an extra subject.
why should we be speaking the “extra subject” instead of our main language english? it doesn’t make sense.
road signs, menus, internet forums, instructions on your shampoo all are in english. why in the world would you want to speak another language?
what is the utility of chinese? with chinese u can connect with china or taiwan only. and china is poor as hell, gdp per capita is even lower than thailand and iran.
with english, you can connect to the entire world – EU, australia, us, carribean, africa, oceania, fiji, nz, etc etc…even asia.
singapore was a british colony for 200 years, of course our language is english. we were never part of china, why should we speak mandarin?
go ahead and speak mandarin and dream of living in china. when u get to china, smell the polluted air and look at the people cutting your queue and yelling at you. then look at how ppl are starving and how degree holders are working for 1000 yuan(200sgd) a month.
maybe then you will wake up. singapore is not china. many of us are chinese by race but we are singaporeans, not chinese. our first language is english not chinese. our culture is totally different from the chinese..if u go to china u will see. wake up!
lioncitizen are you an idiot? why do we need to level the playing field for other languages? english is obviously the main language in singapore.
without english as our first language, how is everyone going to communicate? do i have to learn 3 languages just to get about my daily life? wtf?
i already have problems right now with all the waitress etc from china. they dont speak english. u have to speak chinese to place ur order with them.
are u suggesting all singaporean chinese speak chinese as our first language?
rediculous.
i think u are mixing race with language. i am chinese singaporean. my culture is singaporean culture not chinese culture. i speak english and singlish, my local dialect. i got nothing to do with china. my friends consist of malay, indians, phillipinos, chinese etc. it does not consist of zhejiang people, shenzhen people and guangzhou people.
it is just like saying the americans, australians, south africans should have the same culture as britain since their ancestors are from britain. rediculous. the link has long been cut. we are soverign.
it is high time people like you wake up and stop associating chinese singaproeans with china. we have got nothing to do with china. we are singaporeans.
actually, in linguistics, mother tongue is defined as the language/dialect/variety that you grow up speaking. it is akin to first language. so for a chinese, it can be english, if one was born speaking that.
whereas the govt has defined it as the language you have to learn just because you are born chinese/malay/indian/others.
j, exactly.
young singaporeans are native speakers of english because their mother tongue is english. they were all educated in english from young.
the MOE in singapore has warped the concept of ”mother tongue” by using it to describe the second language.
singapore is an english speaking country. just look around you and you will know. your menus to instructions on shampoo are all in english. why would you speak another language other than english as your first language in such an environment?
Singaporeans are not native speakers of English and will never be considered so. Only a small proportion of Singaporeans have English as their mother tongue. Most grow up speaking Chinese, a Chinese dialect, Tamil, Malay or the grammatically-incorrect English we hear everyday. Linguists only recognise a few countries as native English-speaking ones. They are: Canada, America, England and New Zealand.
J is right about the definition of mother tongue. It is the language that one grows up speaking and I shudder at the thought of calling the stuff spoken by most Singaporeans English.
English is the OFFICIAL language of communication but not the native language of Singapore. Do take note.
Culture has long surpassed the straightforward notion of ethnicity.
As several of the previous comments have pointed out, many of our forefathers spoke only Chinese dialects rather than Mandarin – unfortunately, this was clearly something which was NOT taken into account when Mother Tongue was introduced to reconcile second-/third-generation immigrant children to our so-called “roots”. Both sets of my grandparents speak only Cantonese, so to impose the necessity of learning Mandarin just so I can “reap the fruits that our ancestors have shed blood and tears for. . .and ensure the continuity of our culture” seems just as contrived and unnatural as those convent-educated monolingual English speakers (of whom I happen to be one) who would deliberately eschew their ‘true’ Chinese-ness in an attempted mimicry of the West. (At least, this appears to be the accusation you’re making against them in your article.)
Yes, I believe that bilingualism is an incredibly useful skill to have, and it’s one which I have yet to possess. However, I’m trying to rectify this problem – and surprise, surprise, not with Mandarin. Still, I don’t see why this is as outrageous or disgraceful as some people have made it out to be. It seems to me that what you’re lamenting here is not so much the loss of ‘our’ roots, but rather the fact that not every ethnic Chinese in this country feels the same bond you have with Chinese culture, having grown up in a Chinese-speaking family and educated at schools with a strong Chinese tradition. I’m sorry you feel that way, but cultural homogeneity – even among those who are identified as part of a common race – simply isn’t the standard here.
It may not have occurred to you that many of your former ACJC schoolmates WERE brought up speaking English exclusively, and that their inadequacies in the Mother Tongue – however “proud” they may seem to be of them – are not necessarily a desperate bid to deny their own ethnicity. Unlike you, I went to a junior college which comprised of both Chinese-speakers and effective bilinguals, and was often accused of ‘pretending’ I couldn’t speak Mandarin – as though possessing the language capacities of an effective bilingual was something that I would be thoroughly embarrassed about. The common consensus was that a person who has spent 10 years studying Mandarin (in primary and secondary school) couldn’t possibly have as poor a command of the language as I did. I have this to say in response – even though we were all forced to undergo Mother Tongue lessons in school, these were characterized by rote memorization that had little relevance or practical use outside of the classroom. Given that fact that Mandarin was widely perceived as “difficult” and boring, what would have motivated us as children to suddenly start using Mandarin in the home or among our friends when we are were already well accustomed to speaking to our parents and friends only in native English? Is it then any surprise that many of us still can’t go beyond the simple salutation or occasional cheng yu, despite our tedious Mother Tongue education in secondary school/junior college? Does the fault now lie with my parents for not having raised me as a native Chinese (Cantonese?) speaker – simply because my grandparents (not my parents) were born and resided in China?
The color of my skin should not be the only enduring bond between myself and my grandparents – I don’t condone the deliberate protraction of any generation/cultural gap but it is an inevitable fact that they will exist. I like to think that my ties with my grandparents arose out of genuine respect and affection rather than blind obligation (“the need for gratitude towards our elders”). Heredity and culture are not one and the same thing. I applaud those who, like yourself, are committed to learning the language out of personal interest – the same way I would applaud any non-Chinese for wishing to expand his or her awareness of Chinese (or any other) culture. This is what “inherent interest” means. Your complaint about your schoolmates’ elitist behaviour seems to project an almost xenophobic reverse-elitism in which people should pledge allegiance to their own heritage (here meaning their race or ethnicity, rather than their sociocultural backgrounds) above all else, and not be swayed or ‘tainted’ by the foreign influences that come naturally with life in a globalized, multicultural environment.
J,
Spot on. Our heritage can also be described as what we practice in daily lives..
I agree with the writer that there is a strong language divide in Singapore. Often, I observe English speaking people sticking with English speaking people. When other people tried to converse with them in mother tongue, knowing they are chinese, they spoke English instead. In news, it’s a shock to me as well that CEOs of big companies, when interviewed by chinese media, spoke English only.
What’s wrong with these people, anyway? Discriminate own mother tongue?
jackson,
technically, in the lingusitic sense, these people’s mother tongue is english because they grew up with it.
and technically, singapore’s main and first language is undoubtedly english.
for ppl like me, i still can speak mandarin fluently but being out of school for so long, i can no longer read and write chinese.
quite often, it is a case of not being fluent enough in mandarin to express ourselves properly.
there are cases in tv 5 news where the respondents spoke in mandarin despite being spoken to in english as well. what do you think about that then?
when i speak to the hawker in english, he replies to me in mandarin as well. he is unable to speak english despite his signboard being in english and his food being named in english. what do you think about that then?
It’s quite clear that you have failed to realise that one of the goals behind getting all Chinese Singaporeans to speak Mandarin was to reduce the power of the clan associations. To this day, the data available show that about 80% of the Chinese population actually have Hokkien, Cantonese or Teochew as their true mother tongue — a fact historically attested to by immigration records and many other documents. Mandarin is a sort of elite grafting-on.
As Goh Keng Swee said in the opening words of his 1978 report on MOE (page 1-1), “It has not occurred to many Singaporeans how unnatural the present school system is. Most school children are taught in two languages — English and Mandarin. 85% of them do not speak either of these languages at home.”
GKS did not think functional bilingualism was necessarily possible for everyone. LKY disputed this (see LKY’s preface to the GKS report) and has had to swallow his words over the last few years. It’s obvious that GKS was right, especially when the writer of this article uses words like ‘cleavaging’. Hur hur.
Most Malaysian Chinese and Indians can speak Malay, Chinese/Tamil, English plus either Hokkien or Cantonese without the benefit of any campaigns
Says more about ACS/ACJC elitism than about young Singaporeans in general…
Do yourself a favour and look at other schools, elite and non-elite.
There is a healthy population of bright bilingual elites who don’t make the news but are far more plugged into Chinese culture than the so-called mission schools are informed about Western culture and the arts.
To this day, the data available show that about 80% of the Chinese population actually have Hokkien, Cantonese or Teochew as their true mother tongue
lol u are nuts. last census showed very few people speak chinese dialects at home. only around 5% if i recall…
Jackson
it’s a shock to me as well that CEOs of big companies, when interviewed by chinese media, spoke English only.
For me, the default speaking language is still chinese. In fact… my office environment is very much chinese… as there are quite a few PRCs. HOWEVER, that is for everyday life, talking about lunch, weather, etc.When talking about work, we inevitably have to switch to English (mostly) because we just don’t have the vocabulary for it.
So when the CEOs are interviewed about their business, I don’t think it is surprising that they choose English, rather than their mother tougue with English words here and there, when they find that they don’t have the words for it.
Dear Yini Chua,
‘Although Chinese is not an easy language to learn, it is our responsibility as ethnic Chinese to be proficient in our mother tongue.’
Which language of the chinese people are you referring to? I am a Teochew and I speak Teochew from young (it is not a dialect as far as I am aware of). My wife is a Hokkien and she speaks Hokkien from young. As far as I know, mandarin is a northerner (China) language. I refuse to speak mandarin and that should not make me irresponsible.
Having lived overseas since 2002, my experience is, Singaporeans’ much hyped “bilingual prowess” is only one when we remain inside Singapore. Outside our tiny island, it’s our language disabilities that stand in stark, embarrassing contrast to everyone else’s pristine grasp of at least one language. Our English, especially when we chatter within our exclusive groups, is understandable only to ourselves. Our Chinese is generally equivalent to kindergarten level on the mainland and Taiwan. It’s ok when we think of ourselves as an unique culture. It can be something to brag about when we speaks ”attas” English to set us above junior college-level peers. It is pretty scary though when we think that the two global powers driving world affairs and economics are the US and China. Language-wise, we can compete with neither. Yes grammatically, Americans can be atrocious. But to take a leadership role in industry or on global platforms, we need to be able to speak publicly, and well. Speaking proper language is essential to our future employment opportunities. Harsh reality, yes, but survival is pragmatic.
it is ironic that Yini Chua wrote in perfect English…..
tlc,
many singaporeans do speak better english than the american and british you know? lol.
i dont know about you, but i have been overseas and i can benchmark both my english and chinese accent easily even in singapore with all the internet and tv.
my english is deinfinitely understandable, in fact, the educated singaporean accent is very neutral. it is not like say, broad scots or jamaican english.
singlish is a dialect of english, obviously standard english speakers will not be able to understand you well if u speak singlish. but even with singlish, most people can understand 80% of what u are saying.
most english speakers speak in dialects – irish, scottish, jamaican, etc. and their dialects can be even harder to decipher than singlish.
if u go to beijing and speak in hokkien(a dialect of chinese), will people understand you?
and while singaporean’s mandarin is not bejiing standard, you will be surprised that even in the prc, the older people above 40 do not speak chinese as well as us (because they grew up speaking dialects not mandarin) . our mandarin is still of rather high quality.
listen to the farmers speak, they have the worst accents possible.
i think you have much more to learn in terms of language. people can be jealous of your language skills and try to put you down.
papsupporter, you do realise you are singaporean not chinese right? why are you speaking chinese then?
sorry to burst your bubble, teochew is a chinese dialect. ask yourself this question, how do you write in “teochew”? you can’t. you write in mandarin. the words are pronounced differently but the syntax and grammar and words are all mandarin based.
that is what a dialect is..
Don’t be silly. Most dialects of Chinese do not originate from Mandarin. They developed concurrently and share the same writing system. In fact many of them are mutually unintelligible and are only considered the same language due to political reasons.
Mandarin, originally a Beijing dialect, just happens to be the dialect that the PRC government decided to use in their bid for standardization.
Don’t look down on our standard of English. Yes, while there are those who cannot speak the language and there are also are those who are remarkably fluent and effective communicators in the language.
yes DM,
they are called chinese dialects.
but here is the question, when you speak in teochew or hokkien, what do you write in? you write in mandarin. and they all have the same grammar and syntax.
loyola,
yes. in fact, i would say at least 50% of young singaporeans are native speakers of english. and we have a large number of native chinese speakers as well
Many allow themselves to be Anglicized because of inferiority complex and lack of strong identity.
Once they saw the white, they will react to be subservient to them. When these people go to English speaking countries, they thought that by being anglicized they will be accepted by the native but they will only receive a rude shock.
These people can be hardly grounded culturally.
Hokkien and Teochew do not have the same grammar as Mandarin. They are similar but they are not the same. Anyone with a cursory knowledge of Hokkien would know that. Take the pronouns as an example. The 2nd person and 3rd person pronouns are ni3 and ta1 in Mandarin but ‘li’ and ‘yi’ in Hokkien and are written with different characters. Mandarin lacks a ‘perfect’ aspect (in the grammatical sense) but Hokkien has one.
Being lowly educated ,I have some difficulty understanding the topic well.But I am amuse by some of you who are so carried away .Those who cannot speak their own mother tongue blame others for not speaking english to them .Some claim that they can speak mandarin fluently but being out of school for so long,can no longer read and write chinese.This sentence is too Cheem for me to understand.
Being a Chinese,do we have to be so offended when a chinese national who cannot speak english speak to us in chinese?
Please lah,If I got the say,our National language should be SINGLISH.Dun have to be a keh angmor and try to speak like them and cheat ourselve by encouraging Good English speaking.
For a chinese ,first ,start off with your mother tongue (Dialect)and be proud of it Hokkien,Teochew,Hailum etc etc,then the common language of your ancester like Mandarin,then learn to speak our country national language, SINGLISH.Because we are Singaporean.We must speak our country unigue language.King Sejong also invented the Hangul that become their native language.Speaking SINGLISH will make us more approachable and thus more united irregardless of race.Then only slowly start to learn to speak proper English and other languages and be multilingual if you are capable.
Go and sing Taigu kuakek in Taiwan ,Japanese songs in Japan ,Hankuk Norae in Korea and so on.
Don’t be naive to stress so much to say that English is an important language to the extend that you have to insult your ancester mainland and claim it is poor.Who are we to say China is poor? .English is just another common language for communication .So,speak SINGLISH.Be ourselves.
Dear Yini,
There was a term to describe folks like you in the 1960’s and 1970’s — they were referred to as ‘Chinese Chauvinists’. Your sense of victimisation is sooo unreal when weighed against the heavy state patronage to maintain mandarin in this country. From the racial brainwashing that takes place in SAP schools to constant focus on Mandarin in al aspects of life, and despite that …… you keep whining away about your insecurities.
If you want to see real Singaporean callousness regarding language take look at how the state treats Tamil — it even refuses to pay for Tamil on the brown road signs. It will be in English, Chinese, Malay and some other foreign language. State refuses to pay for Tamil despite it being an official language. It is obvious they intent to drop it as one in due course. It is the Tamils and Malays in our society that face the real challenges while the state diverts precious resources for what is in essence a largely chauvinistic desire to keep Mandarin alive.
Get a Life!
Teh
justkaypoh,
anyone who thinks they will be accepted just like that is naive. some will accept you with open arms, some will put u down just because they can.
but who cares about those who put you down?
agongkia,
why does speaking english makes you a caucasian? most caucasians in the world don’t even speak english as their first language. from the russians to the europeans, they dont speak english as their first language.
that shows how naive you are. and we are singaporeans, not chinese, our first language is supposed to be english.
i think you have a serious problem understanding the distinction between singaporean and chinese. our ancestors came from china? yes no doubt. and so? one quater of singaporeans are not even chinese to begin with.
it is just like saying the ancestors of americans, australians and canadians came from britain so they are all british and should start drinking tea and speaking with british accents.
or that african americans have ancestors who came from africa, so they are all africans and should start speaking afrikaans.
plain rediculous.
feel free to move china if you want to man. you will need a visa just like the americans. maybe then you will realise how different the culture in china is from singapore. and you will see how poor and shitty china is. china’s gdp per capita is even lower than thailand and iran!
no wonder you are a gongkia.