Discouraging youth to speak dialect now?

[MacDuck]

A colleague once commented only one of his nephews is able to converse fluently in english, mandarin and hokkien; this boy has been living with grandparents since birth.

 

The rest speaks only speaks english and simply goes "er er ah ah" when grandma speaks to them.

 

Will dialect be lost with the future generations?

 

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Article: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/sin.../415920/1/.html

 

Chinese S'poreans should focus on learning Mandarin well, says MM Lee

By Pearl Forss, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 17 March 2009 2114 hrs

 

SINGAPORE: The trend of Chinese dialects dying out in Singapore is irreversible, said Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, who urged Singaporeans to focus more energy on learning Mandarin instead.

 

Speaking at the 30th anniversary of the Speak Mandarin Campaign on Tuesday, Mr Lee said the key challenge is no longer about Mandarin versus dialects, but about getting more Chinese Singaporeans to speak Mandarin to their children.

 

Mastering both English and Mandarin is not an easy task for most children, including the minister mentor's grandchildren. He said among the seven of them, only one prefers to use Mandarin, whereas the rest often answer in English when he asks them questions in Mandarin.

 

Mr Lee urged parents to help their children master the language at home. "If both (parents) can speak Mandarin, don't speak to your child in English, or one in English and one in Chinese. Speak to them in Mandarin, leave their English alone

[Rickster]

I think what he meant is not that we should totally throw dialect out of window.

 

But rather, since we all cannot learn many langauges in one go, we should focus on the more important ones.

 

Most of us if we were to grow up in a family whereby out parents/grand parents speaks in dialect, there should not be any problem.

 

If you look at the standard of mandarin among singaporeans, mostly cannot make it. Try holding a normal conversaion with a chinese national or taiwanese n u will know wat i mean.

 

[Perrier]

To reply you, there are many students out there today who literally hate to attend Chinese classes or are forced to take it till A-level.

 

So I really feel that the MM's concern is totally unnecessary, it has become academic to take Chinese language as a subject rather than its traditional or cultural values.

 

Today the kids are taking even Chinese because of its commercial values due to the rise of China, thats it.

 

Dialect is the last thing he needs to worry about, it probably will dampen LKT election speech which I feel is better delivered in Teochew.

[Watwheels]

His view is the business point of view.

 

Although using mandarin can reach out to 1.3b ppl throughout China, using dialets like Hokkien or Cantonese in Fujian or Guangdong will help close a deal faster cos they think of you as one of them.

[Perrier]

I think what he meant is not that we should totally throw dialect out of window.

 

But rather, since we all cannot learn many langauges in one go, we should focus on the more important ones.

 

Most of us if we were to grow up in a family whereby out parents/grand parents speaks in dialect, there should not be any problem.

 

If you look at the standard of mandarin among singaporeans, mostly cannot make it. Try holding a normal conversaion with a chinese national or taiwanese n u will know wat i mean.

 

Fully agree.

 

[Pcslim]

Sigh.. the younger generation already despise mandarin, let along dialect.

 

Would be glad if they can speak proper mandarin in the first place. Dialect would be a great bonus if they can.

[Rickster]

His view is the business point of view.

 

Although using mandarin can reach out to 1.3b ppl throughout China, using dialets like Hokkien or Cantonese in Fujian or Guangdong will help close a deal faster cos they think of you as one of them.

 

If you ever had the chance to speak dialect to the chinese national, you will realise that we will not be able to understand their dialect anyway.

[Pcslim]

If you ever had the chance to speak dialect to the chinese national, you will realise that we will not be able to understand their dialect anyway.

Yes, when I was in china shantou for business, I learnt that even my dialect is of little use given the way the mainland chinese speaks. Have to rely on mandarin instead. our dialect is in a way 'customised' in a singaporean way.

[Snowbell]

nowadays there r alot of non-chinese students taking up Mandarin in school & having extra tuition.the parents know that Mandarin is important.let's look at the ppl ard us,be it colleagues or friends,how many of them r really fluent in Mandarin?we really do need to brush up on our Mandarin.& yes somehow English is relatively much more easier to pick up.

 

also,when dealing wif Indonesian clients (esp those rich tais-tais),they tend to speak either simple Mandarin or dialect,not really comfortable in English.

Edited March 18, 2009 by Snowbell

[Actan72]

It is getting harder nowadays..

 

Next generation will only know how to speak mandarin and english

[Comfy]

If you ever had the chance to speak dialect to the chinese national, you will realise that we will not be able to understand their dialect anyway.

 

my cantonese only works in area near HK.. the rest all gone case...

[Sosaria]

...

"Today's Zaobao had a whole series of middle aged and older generation saying we must have dialects. If you've got 100 gigabytes here, then you can put it in. But you haven't got 100 gigabytes...

 

"And the more you use dialects, the less you will use your Mandarin. Your Mandarin will go down, your English will not go down because you have to use it," Mr Lee said.

...

 

Here comes MM's favourite "100-GB" theory again, when it comes to language learning... I don't believe it. Human brain is not like a computer hard disk. This 100-GB theory is often trotted out to compare "scholars" and the rest of us... as if we can be rated like hard disk capacity. So it goes, when two 100-GB hard disks marry each other, then they will produce 200-GB children, no?? Does this theory sound familiar now? ... SDS and SDU already merged, oh dear, nowadays 100-GB hard disks are openly encouraged to mingle with 10-GB hard disks...

 

Anyway, speaking a language at home will help in some extent to get a person "used" to a language, but it will not make a person fluent. To be fluent, you need to read and write extensively in that language, in a wide variety of topics. And not just talk, but talk MORE (okay, a problem for naturally quiet people).

 

E.g. when you converse at home, be it english or mandarin, you only talk about everyday things. Do you ever get to use any scientific or business terms? How then, to be fluent? Marry China lady??

 

The true situation in Singapore now is actually not as optimistic as pictured. Basically, English also broken, Dialect almost don't know - except for a few words to talk to ah-ma, Mandarin already return to teacher after schooldays [laugh]

Edited March 18, 2009 by Sosaria

[Sosaria]

...On learning dialects, the minister mentor said it causes negative interferences with the learning of Mandarin and English because dialects have different vocabulary, phonetics and syntax.

...

 

This is a myth which is easily debunked. Mandarin and English have different syntax and rules, true. Dialect and English also have different syntax and rules, true.

 

But dialect, e.g. hokkien which I speak, actually have quite similar syntax and sentence arrangement with mandarin, as both are chinese languages. So speaking dialect actually helps me to construct sentences in mandarin. Not sure if others find this true as well...

 

In fact, if you look not too far into the past, chinese characters could actually be "read" out in dialect. This fact has always been suppressed, and many of the young do not know this. So it doesn't matter if you're hokkien or cantonese... watever you write could be readily understood by other dialect groups as the same (well, almost) characters are used.

 

[Headshok]

china lady really help me improve my spoken mandarin leh..

 

no sh1t.. hahahahahahahaha

 

 

anyway, thank god my days of gettin tekkan by chinese teacher is over.. hahahaa..

 

and i prefer to tell pple i cannot understand chinese.. makes my life easier,

 

But i can speak and understand.. hahaha..

 

 

 

[Hondacub777]

maybe our next generation dun know what is KNN,CB,L*N JI*O ,all they know is WANG BA DANG and *&ck .

[Nlatio]

maybe our next generation dun know what is KNN,CB,L*N JI*O ,all they know is WANG BA DANG and *&ck .

 

ya agree.... next time you scold them KNLBCCB... SIMI LJ.... they will ask you what you talking... ..... a great language going extinct..... sigh....

[Carndablues]

my cantonese only works in area near HK.. the rest all gone case...

 

huh? If you're cantonese is good enough for HK, it's good enough anywhere!

 

I found myself speaking cantonese in Beijing and I was understood!

[Shull]

funny that old man didn't compare SG to HK..

 

younger HKers can speak fluent canto and mandarin. And they still can converse in english without much problem. Why can't we be like them? or is it SGporean are less intelligent than HKers?

 

KL lagi better.. English, Mandarin, Canto and Malay..

Edited March 18, 2009 by Shull