MANDARIN VS DIALECTS

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STRAITS TIMES Home > ST Forum > Story March 19, 2009

MANDARIN VS DIALECTS The debate continues

Forget about dialects, stick to Mandarin

I AGREE thoroughly with Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew's view in his speech on Tuesday at the launch of the Speak Mandarin Campaign, which was reproduced in The Straits Times yesterday, 'Nurturing a key advantage'. We do not lose much if we discard dialects. Learning dialects will affect the learning of English and Mandarin Chinese Singaporeans should forget about dialects and stick to Mandarin. Language is a tool and we should use the best tool available. Cultural and other values can be dissociated from languages. Mexicans use Spanish, but culturally, they are not exactly Spaniards. Many Malays do not know Arabic, but they are Muslims. Most Christians do not read Hebrew or Latin. One may not realise that most Chinese Singaporeans speak Chinese dialects at a very superficial conversational level.

They have difficulty in expressing abstract terms or ideas with some depth in dialects. Few Cantonese here can speak Cantonese as eloquently as people educated in Hong Kong, who have used Cantonese in school and at home - and paid the price of not being fluent in Mandarin, Similarly, few Hokkiens in Singapore are able to make a formal speech or read a literary piece in the southern Hokkien dialect. Literary Hokkien and conversational Hokkien vary quite a great deal in the pronunciation of many words.

We do not lose much if we discard dialects. Learning dialects will affect the learning of English and Mandarin, as MM Lee has pointed out. People from Chinese Peranakan families generally speak better English than others because they do not have to divert much of their energy and time to learning Chinese. Most of us are not born with great linguistic talent and can do well in only one or two languages.

In spite of our claim of being bilingual, some of us are actually non-lingual, hovering between Singlish and substandard Mandarin. We should concentrate on English and Mandarin and leave the talented ones to go beyond. The Chinese have a saying that wide knowledge does not come with depth.

Ong Siew Chey

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Mandarin useful but it may not be our mother tongue

I REFER to Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew's speech at Tuesday's launch of this year's Speak Mandarin Campaign. There is a need to differentiate between Mandarin as a mother tongue and as a useful language for communicating better with others. As an example, MM Lee compares Mandarin to Cantonese, noting that Mandarin allows one to reach 1.3 billion people in China whereas Cantonese connects a speaker to only 100 million people in Guangdong and Hong Kong, thereby making Mandarin more 'useful' than a dialect like Cantonese. He encourages the use of Mandarin over dialects, noting that there are 'strong emotional ties to one's mother tongue' and how in two generations, 'Mandarin will become our mother tongue'.

Clearly, there is a distinction between today's mother tongue and Mandarin. But the study of Mandarin here is categorised by the Education Ministry as the study of one's mother tongue, and not as a useful language to communicate with other cultures or communities. In addition, this categorisation of mother tongue versus usefulness is ignored completely by the Speak Mandarin Campaign, whose aim, according to its website, is to encourage people to 'embrace speaking Mandarin and enjoy an appreciation for Chinese culture and language'.

This clearly emphasises Mandarin as a mother tongue rather than as a useful language. The problem with categorising Mandarin as a mother tongue is that no recognition is given to the fact that most Chinese Singaporean families today were born and bred in the Straits Settlements for more than 100 years and have developed their own culture, heritage, identity and language. For example, the terms Peranakan, Baba and Nonya refer to people of Chinese descent who emigrated here in the 15th century and who have since been recognised as having their own culture.

It is well documented that this group retained much of their ethnic and religious origins, which is Chinese, but also assimilated much of the Malay language and culture. Since they are in fact of Chinese descent, should we now make Mandarin their mother tongue?

The classification of Mandarin, or any other language, as one's mother tongue touches the very heart of a person's culture, identity and history. When I was growing up, I spoke Hokkien, watched Cantonese dramas and listened to my father converse in Hakka with the neighbours. Am I and my children supposed to ignore our roots and claim Mandarin as our mother tongue?

Patrick Khoo

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I agree more to Mr Patrick Khoo the Reader Ong in earlier reply. Does Ong truely know what is culture? Can Culture REALLY be disasociated with language? This sound very absurb to me! For what i understand, Culture consist of language and values, which cannot be seperated.

'many' people here cannot speak fluent dialect? 'few' people can speak good dialect? Did this reader do any statistical research? I disagree that many people here cant speak good dialect. I seen many who can speak fluent dialect.

Our forefathers came from souther part of China. Mandrian is NOT the mother tongue. Mandrian, aka pu tong hua is from Northern China. It might be good to know Chinese, useful to learn and even important to understand Chinese. All Chinese, regardless of any dialects should learn Chinese, to standardize and Chinese is still part of our Chinese culture. However, when it comes to the roots of our language, mother tongue, it is NOT Chinese, but dialect. I think no one can erase this historical FACT.

I, for one, would continue to improve my own dialect(cantonese), speak whenever i got the chance and will let my children learn dialect, beside English and Chinese.

都市人

都市人

"伤你最深的人，往往是你最亲的人"

"不是切在你肉上，你不知道痛"

电视上看到这两句话。多么简单，多么真实。

都市人，压力大。都市人，处处看人不顺眼。都市人，就不能好好让身边的人快乐一点吗？

现代人，就不能‘慷慨’一点，多让身边的人开心，不行吗?

现在的人每次都说人缘差，小人多。依我看，很多时候可能是自己的问题。人生就象镜子一样。

卧龙吟

很多年前看过中国CCTV拍摄的<三国演义>。至今还是非常喜欢，至少总比现在许多作品有诚意，尊重原著。在网上偶然听到这<卧龙吟>。这是<三国演义>的插曲；附有历史感，从诸葛亮的<出师表>取灵感而编的歌曲。
描述了诸葛亮一生，理想，理念和精神。
有时候我们现代人，真的要象古人学习。
不知道有人也看得懂吗？看来，真正的知己是可遇不可求啊。

这<卧龙吟>最能表达我最近几年的心情....


《卧龙吟》

束发读诗书，修德兼修身；
仰观与俯察，韬略胸中存；
躬耕从未忘忧国，谁知热血在山林；
凤兮，凤兮，思高举，时乱势危久沉吟；
茅庐承三顾，促膝纵横论；
半生遇知己，蛰人感幸甚；
明朝携剑随君去，羽扇纶巾赴征程；

龙兮龙兮风云会，长啸一声抒怀襟；
归去，归去，来兮，我宿愿，余年还做垅亩民；
清风明月入怀抱，猿鹤听我再抚琴。

天道常变异，运数杳难寻； 成败在人谋，一诺竭终悃；
丈夫在世当有为，为民播下太平春；

归去，归去，来兮，我宿愿，余年还做垅亩民；
清风明月入怀抱，猿鹤听我再抚琴。

乱

乱


我家外头大路的修路工程终于完成一半，新的地下隧道最近开始通车。还有汽车天桥还没建好，虽然隧道通车，但是四周围基本上还是‘满目疮痍’，到处都是告示牌，道路的分界和划分也欠理想。如果要用一个字来形容的话，那只有以下这个字了:

乱

.................

之前我正在筹备一项活动，也真够累了。过去好几天都是忙到2-3点才睡。而且身兼多职，简直象个‘八爪鱼’。

要我在大庭广众说话，基本上没问题。如果事先有准备，也能高谈阔论。
做事，要按部就班，团体精神和合作很重要。一些人，不按牌理的行动，只会搞乱事情。Indian Chief， 是我一直以来很不喜欢的‘角色’之一。

同一时间要我照顾几项事情，要担心这个，担心那个；如何能够表现的理想呢？
节目一开始就有身边的工作夥伴出错，要我担心，之后有人‘临场发挥’，又把我思维弄乱。要顾前顾后...真是要命。

严格上，以我各人性格，要我和外人‘讨钱’，‘求人施舍’我是很难办到的。为了某些原因，我愿意放下一切尝试，但是，请别希望会有要结果。

同样的，当时情形，我的感受只有一个字能形容....

乱。

Busy month

三月，是忙碌的月份。
忙着学校的模拟考试，忙着其它事物等。
一直忙到五月，大考之后才能喘气。转眼之间，半年已过。
光阴似箭，一点都不假。


不知道是否年龄增长，想的东西多，自然而然要顾虑的东西也多。