I don't understand Mandarin

[Tigerwoods]

There was a time not too far back when alot like to act "Ang Moh pai"

speak only english and go around telling ppl that they dun understand mandarin...

This group of ppl simply turns me off...

along with the SPG....

 

Honestly, maybe not all but at least 70% of these "Ang Mohs" look down on us asians...

doesnt matter the nationality to them...

they see themselves as the upper race in the world and all these yellow skin ppl got to bow to them...

 

Many may hate it, but i am pretty happy that China & India is getting stronger all the time...

one day Asians will rule and they will all be depending on us for economy growth...

I look down on cultures that practices the inequality and I will look down on the Race IF they look down on me.

[Tigerwoods]

even up till my great-grandparents, all were educated in english.

 

no chinese.

 

both father and mother side.

 

the only "chinese" they knew was hokkien and cantonese

We are shape by the society we live in.

You are not Chinese. You are Sporean 1st and Chinese 2nd (if you are chinese descent).

Speaking Mandarin does not make you a Chinese.

The only Chinese culture left in me is that I can hold the chopsticks correctly.

[KARternew]

I dun feel that way though... I feel very pessimistic abt the future of our chinese language and root as i feel the next generation of singaporean chinese will be more ang moh. From my observation, 90% of the young parent speak to their small kids in english. These kids grow up confirm will speak in english. Beside that, those teens nowadays most of them also speak in english. I sometime will purposely speak to them in chinese, they all got a hard time ans me and end up i speak to them in english. Their Chinese vocab very poor, i dunno why our chinese education and standard can deteriorate until like that.

my kids were all english pop culture / songs until one day they came across singers like Jay Chou, suddenly they started speaking in chinese but sadly their vocab is still limited....

 

after their A levels, they really had no chance to practise chinese outside uni studies and now at work..... nowadays ocassionally they go youtube to catchup with JC and the likes

[Jpcc]

an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.

 

similarly, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

[KARternew]

We are shape by the society we live in.

You are not Chinese. You are Sporean 1st and Chinese 2nd (if you are chinese descent).

Speaking Mandarin does not make you a Chinese.

The only Chinese culture left in me is that I can hold the chopsticks correctly.

i curse to myself in chinese+dialects.... my dreams mixe english with chinese...

[GTR78]

I know of a few such Malaysian Chinese as well.

To be fair to them, they were never taught Chinese language in school.

It's a different education system up North.

 

At least we learn chinese in school. I'm surprised to have a few malaysian colleagues who don't understand chinese at all, not even hear. Happens mostly in KL and penang, for those who went english school. English, malay and dialects, but no chinese.

 

[KARternew]

Upz for your mum then! Learning anything at all in one's dotage is always a daunting task, what more a language!

 

I'm always amazed at people who can read & write Mandarin. How do you recognise the symbols and associate them with the correct pronunciation and meaning?!

some chinese characters are very graphic and project the image of the object.... for example somehow the word 'fire' in chinese character gives us a visual hint of the shape of fire..... quite interesting

 

whereas the english worl 'fire' means nothing to a non-english perosn

[GTR78]

Yes, the general level of Chinese among the youths here is atrocious.

The sad thing is, they will also not be "more ang moh" because most of them have an equally poor command of English. Please do not confuse Singlish with proper grammatical Queen's English, or even American English for that matter.

 

My view is, for too long MOE neglected to place some focus on Chinese education here (old focal point on the then booming US and European economies).

 

There are small pockets of Chinese Singaporean youths who took Chinese as a first language (CL1?), they are a rare breed.

 

I dun feel that way though... I feel very pessimistic abt the future of our chinese language and root as i feel the next generation of singaporean chinese will be more ang moh. From my observation, 90% of the young parent speak to their small kids in english. These kids grow up confirm will speak in english. Beside that, those teens nowadays most of them also speak in english. I sometime will purposely speak to them in chinese, they all got a hard time ans me and end up i speak to them in english. Their Chinese vocab very poor, i dunno why our chinese education and standard can deteriorate until like that.

 

[KARternew]

How come only Chinese race are affected by this issue? However our malay and indian still can speak in their MT with one another. Strange.

Good question. Even the Jap, Korean, Tibetant, Mongolian, etc are proud of their own language no matter what. Could it be we were once ruled by the Brit and our forefathers were badly affected by the 'ang moh' superiority treatment and this has passed down to the present generation although such an effect was somewhat weakened over the past 20 years or so?

[KARternew]

There are "ang moh pai" who cannot speak the language, because they were never taught. They know it and recognize it, that's fine. Usually these people can speak dialects like our grandparents, which was the norm back then.

 

Then there are those who despise it and refuse to recognize it. Some of these people would see Chinese books, and actually thinks they are Japanese books, because the backward and uneducated Chinese people cannot be printing so many books -- yes, it's unbelievable, but they exists at least back in the 80-90s, and I've personally met them.

 

In Korea, some 20 over past Prime Ministers petitioned to resume Hanja (Chinese) education because since the Koreans switched to Hanggul-only education in the 20th century, the current generation cannot read half of the history books in Korean libraries. These books are written in Hanja, by their own Korean ancestors prior to the 20th century. It is a major cultural and ancestral wisdom lost in this generation, and may never be recovered ever again once lost.

if the person fakes an foreign accent (worst still when he does it badly) for the purpose gaining 'confidence' / 'self esteem' / superiority feeling etc, i feel sorry for him.

 

Its ok if he acquires the accent due to constant exposeure to the true speakers of that foreign language in his daily life. Its also ok for the sake of the foreign listeners he adopts their accents as long as he switch back to local accent when he talks to the locals.

 

My nephews do that: switching between foreign / local accens when they play in a group of overseas / local friends. If kids can do it, adults shouldnt have problem doing the same.

[13177]

Maybe many people think if you dont understand mandarin in sg is ok when many years back?! I still remember when i was still in sec school, my relative told me that no matter how good my chinese is also no use, as english is the only language that i must be good and then i will have no problem surviving?! Even chinese failed also nevermind but never failed your english.

[Lala81]

I think learning chinese characters and culture lets us appreciate the poetry inherent in chinese language.

 

I agree with LKY that very few can be equally fluent in mandarin or english.

But one cannot be sacrificed for the other.

 

We are yellow skinned ultimately.

 

I've studied Mandarin as first language but it was difficult even though my mother speaks mandarin.

Over the years, i've lost much of the ability to write in mandarin. Thank god for Iphone sms chinese dictionary

Edited October 12, 2011 by Lala81

[Scion]

I think learning chinese characters and culture lets us appreciate the poetry inherent in chinese language.

 

I agree with LKY that very few can be equally fluent in mandarin or english.

But one cannot be sacrificed for the other.

 

We are yellow skinned ultimately.

 

I've studied Mandarin as first language but it was difficult even though my mother speaks mandarin.

Over the years, i've lost much of the ability to write in mandarin. Thank god for Iphone sms chinese dictionary

 

 

yeah...

 

chinese is beautiful, so is every language on its own...

translation to another language will not be able to bring out the beauty of a language....

 

how can you translate to english and bring out the meaning of the following?

 

eg 我自横刀向天笑，去留肝胆两昆仑

or

黄鹤一去不复返，白云千载空悠悠

 

it is excellently expressed on its own in chinese, that is, if you understand the meaning

Edited October 12, 2011 by Scion

[KARternew]

yeah...

 

chinese is beautiful, so is every language on its own...

translation to another language will not be able to bring out the beauty of a language....

 

how can you translate to english and bring out the meaning of the following?

 

eg 我自横刀向天笑，去留肝胆两昆仑

or

黄鹤一去不复返，白云千载空悠悠

 

it is excellently expressed on its own in chinese, that is, if you understand the meaning

This is POWER!! ..............

Like you have said, each language has its own beauty and if a person can master one or two languages he will be enjoy such beauty.

Even un-official language like Singlish can also be beautiful in its own way, like many other dialects.

[Ray-tyl]

no one in my family know chinese up to my great grandparents era.

 

thats how we were brought up.

Yes ! You can't blame him. Ppl who grow up speaking english really can't master chinese becos of the many tones . However , it is not the same the other way round as english basically has no tone. Thus , i think as a english speaker , i would never go into the business industry which might require mandarin.

[Curahee]

Maybe many people think if you dont understand mandarin in sg is ok when many years back?! I still remember when i was still in sec school, my relative told me that no matter how good my chinese is also no use, as english is the only language that i must be good and then i will have no problem surviving?! Even chinese failed also nevermind but never failed your english.

 

Becoz of the system here.

 

English fail, chinese pass = FAIL (cannot proceed to next level)

 

English pass, chinese fail = PASS (can proceed to next level)

 

So who still wanna study chinese properly? Waste time right like what ur relative say.

 

This system was set up by those english speaking elite to their advantages, very good system for those english speaking family. For ppl like me, grow up in dialect and chinese speaking family, i feel very unfair that time as a student. I need to put in so much effort to struggle to get a pass in my english language in order to proceed to the next level, those english speaking students, juz pass their english paper will do. Thats why that time many ppl feel learning chinese is useless and waste time

[KARternew]

Becoz of the system here.

 

English fail, chinese pass = FAIL (cannot proceed to next level)

 

English pass, chinese fail = PASS (can proceed to next level)

 

So who still wanna study chinese properly? Waste time right like what ur relative say.

 

This system was set up by those english speaking elite to their advantages, very good system for those english speaking family. For ppl like me, grow up in dialect and chinese speaking family, i feel very unfair that time as a student. I need to put in so much effort to struggle to get a pass in my english language in order to proceed to the next level, those english speaking students, juz pass their english paper will do. Thats why that time many ppl feel learning chinese is useless and waste time

Then and also now: if a language has no commercial value, the govt will hardly promote it except for political reasons. The appreciation of language and its beauty is not considered remotely important enough. As a result, the education system here produces so called economically-competent students (not exactly a bad thing) at the expense of language proficiency which is quite an essential part in the promotion of culture.

 

Bottomline, our nation building is heavily titled towards material well being through efforts in the pursuits of business expensions etc which in itself is also not a bad thing but the down side is the resultant neglects in the significant and wider spread of the development in the appreciation of the arts and culture nevermind we have the Explanade, theatre halls etc.

Edited October 12, 2011 by KARternew

[GTR78]

By the same token

America should make the learning of Chinese compulsory, China is the world's biggest factory and the biggest untapped consumer market. There is now much more economic reasons to learn Chinese rather than the other way around.

 

Your logic is flawed.

 

During my business trip to China, met more than a few Caucasians who can speak perfect Mandarin.

There may be some enthic Chinese around who may not possess the aptitude to master their own mother tongue, it is understandable. This shortcoming however, should not be a source of false pride.

 

 

china should make english compulsory.

 

just like many other countries that dont have and english tongue.

 

they make it a must to learn BASIC english