Your dialect

[Donut]

HK is kind of different, Cantonese was their mother tongue, can you imagine they used to teach maths, science in cantonese (at least that was what i heard from the old generation)?

 

For them cantonese was the main official language, hence they were force to learn chinese since china took back in 1997. I was amaze how fast the younger generation pick up mandarin and speak fluently.

 

I dont see any difference between HK and SG. It's a matter of how we implement the policies.

 

There is no need to eliminate dialects just so that the population can learn Mandarin. Did HK eliminate Cantonese so that the HK population can learn Mandarin? No, right? So why is it SG has to go to that extreme?

 

Ok, it's already history. For now, I say that since Mandarin is already in the mainstream education system and we are pretty proficient in it, we should bring back the dialects. The garment does not have the excuse to say that SG ppl will forget about Mandarin once they bring back the dialects.

[Jman888]

if you are talking about policy than of course that is where the different is, the freedom in politic in HK. But cantonese as a common language use in the 'country', no one would want to eliminate it from the public media and radio/tv stations. If not 100% of the population there become illiterate overnight [laugh]

 

I dont see any difference between HK and SG. It's a matter of how we implement the policies.

 

There is no need to eliminate dialects just so that the population can learn Mandarin. Did HK eliminate Cantonese so that the HK population can learn Mandarin? No, right? So why is it SG has to go to that extreme?

 

Ok, it's already history. For now, I say that since Mandarin is already in the mainstream education system and we are pretty proficient in it, we should bring back the dialects. The garment does not have the excuse to say that SG ppl will forget about Mandarin once they bring back the dialects.

Edited August 12, 2013 by Jman888

[Somewhat1975]

I dont see any difference between HK and SG. It's a matter of how we implement the policies.

 

There is no need to eliminate dialects just so that the population can learn Mandarin. Did HK eliminate Cantonese so that the HK population can learn Mandarin? No, right? So why is it SG has to go to that extreme?

 

Ok, it's already history. For now, I say that since Mandarin is already in the mainstream education system and we are pretty proficient in it, we should bring back the dialects. The garment does not have the excuse to say that SG ppl will forget about Mandarin once they bring back the dialects.

 

Listening to Hongkie's mandarin is a pain in the ass. . This Hong kong's example just re-affirm my support for mandarin policy here.

 

 

 

[The_Bear]

I can scold bad words in many dialects.

[Acemundo]

Listening to Hongkie's mandarin is a pain in the ass. . This Hong kong's example just re-affirm my support for mandarin policy here.

 

I will say even their English sounds funny........heavy Cantonese accent even when they speaking English.

 

I still prefer the way singaporeans speak English and mandarin - understandable both to Brits and Americans / PRC,Taiwanese. but I have to agree that sometimes the rojak singapoean English or Mandarin sentence is also a put off.

 

but that's not to say I disagree with allowing dialects to stay as part of us. I enjoy speaking hokkien/Cantonese/English/mandarin to different audience. it is just that I feel people that can handle multi languages are a rare breed.

Edited August 12, 2013 by Acemundo

[Ender]

I will say even their English sounds funny........heavy Cantonese accent even when they speaking English.

 

I still prefer the way singaporeans speak English and mandarin - understandable both to Brits and Americans / PRC,Taiwanese

 

but that's not to say I disagree with allowing dialects to stay as part of us. I enjoy speaking hokkien/Cantonese/English/mandarin to different audience.

It's their particular accent that are usually used by stand up comedian to make fun of chinese.

[Acemundo]

It's their particular accent that are usually used by stand up comedian to make fun of chinese.

 

I remember when I was in uni, not many can figure out what the Hong Konger lecturer was trying to say. even those that figured out, find it funny they pronounced those words in such dramatic fashion.

 

last year a HK firm with operation in Shanghai sent their Hong Konger senior manager to my shanghai subsidiary to present their solutions to my shanghai counterparts and some of the senior management like myself which was from Singapore.

 

the shanghai colleagues couldn't understand her mandarin at all. while the singaporeans there can immediately identify her as a hong konger in her halting mandarin and English.

[Oblong]

The ability to speak wins the first round in communication.

However, the content in the speech/ conversation carries much more weight in the long run.

Do we have the vocab and substance to maintain a quality communication in a casual dinner conversation?

 

This hk politician may be too aggressive at some point of time, but he has his political reasons. Rather than focus on his aggression, i suggest checking out his content.

 

 

Some of the ideas raised in the above vid

 

- 市井俚语

 

- 乡愿，德之贼也

 

-

[Jman888]

and your point is ?

[Maseratigood]

I don't think the main concern when Mandarin was introduced and dialects were cut off was whether both languages could co-exist.

 

But rather, the assimilation of Mandarin into the society would have been far slower if dialects were left to spread around.

 

HK example is a different situation. They have China as their sugar daddy. Whether their assimilation of Mandarin is fast or slow, they can survive for the fact that they have China behind their backs.

 

Singapore is a small country, and if it isn't for our strong English and Mandarin today, I don't think any country in the world would have respected us enough to bring their investments here and let us develop so quickly.

Not sure our mandarin can be considered strong in both cultural or commercial terms, native users of it in china, Taiwan have to control their laughters sometimes when we speak to them....

[Maseratigood]

I remember when I was in uni, not many can figure out what the Hong Konger lecturer was trying to say. even those that figured out, find it funny they pronounced those words in such dramatic fashion.

 

last year a HK firm with operation in Shanghai sent their Hong Konger senior manager to my shanghai subsidiary to present their solutions to my shanghai counterparts and some of the senior management like myself which was from Singapore.

 

the shanghai colleagues couldn't understand her mandarin at all. while the singaporeans there can immediately identify her as a hong konger in her halting mandarin and English.

Some HongKongers have problems with pronouciations, but most of them not with the written mandarin. Many Sgporeans have some problems with both, myself included.

[Maseratigood]

Yes but it also suppresses the influence of the Clan associations and other traditional 'Chinese' power bases.

This might well be the real reason for the ban of dialects??

[Maseratigood]

you are right!!! he asked me: daddy who ish tarzan ah

 

so i needed to epxlain to him how tarzan came about

 

he also ask me, what is orh yee orh

 

i told him: this is the sound tarzan make

How come he not interested in Jane??

[Darthrevan]

i wonder how those sinkies who only knows english(perhaps mandarin to a lesser degree) use which language to pray to their deceased grandparents/ancestors..or perhaps they use a hybrid of different languages

[Lala81]

and your point is ?

 

Point being totally unrelated to what we are talking about.

Communication error.

[RadX]

Point being totally unrelated to what we are talking about.

Communication error.

 

 

and thus the saying goes

 

'Houston, we have a problem..........' <_<

 

 

to better illustrate it succinctly so JMAN can understand....Kong SMLJ?

[Jman888]

i have difficult understand the aussie for the first 6 months when i was there <_<

 

So much talk about Chinese dialect .. I shall use English as an example. In Singapore, we grow up learning British-style English to a large extent although most people don't speak in British accent, but we watch a lot of British, American, Aussie TV. So most Singaporeans can understand both American and British English when they speak, and even Aussie English. To a lot of people learning one of the English in a relatively "isolated environment", they find it difficult to understand both immediately. Try your British pronunciation in a less cosmopolitan part of the U.S. and see what reaction you get.

 

Put this in China or Taiwan context, they have retained dialects to a large extent (compared to here), and most people can understand each other's mandarin when spoken with a strong accent (say, Chiang Kai Shek's Zhengjiang accent, Deng's Sichuan accent and Mao's Hunan accent). To most Singaporeans, I believe this is a little tough.

 

[Jman888]

his view on death....

 

Life is better than death. But death comes eventually to everyone. It is something which many in their prime may prefer not to think about. But at 89, I see no point in avoiding the question.

 

What concerns me is: How do I go? Will the end come swiftly, with a stroke in one of the coronary arteries? Or will it be a stroke in the mind that lays me out in bed for months, semicomatose?

 

Of the two, I prefer the quick one.

 

Some time back, I had an Advance Medical Directive (AMD) done which says that if I have to be fed by a tube, and it is unlikely that I would ever be able to recover and walk about, my doctors are to remove the tube and allow me to make a quick exit. I had it signed by a lawyer friend and a doctor...

 

If you do not sign one, they do everything possible to prevent the inevitable.

 

I have seen this in so many cases... Quite often, the doctors and relatives of the patient believe they should keep life going. I do not agree. There is an end to everything and I want mine to come as quickly and painlessly as possible, not with me incapacitated, half in coma in bed and with a tube going into my nostrils and down to my stomach.

 

In such cases, one is little more than a body.

 

I am not given to making sense out of life - or coming up with some grand narrative on it - other than to measure it by what you think you want to do in life. As for me, I have done what I had wanted to, to the best of my ability. I am satisfied...

 

Different societies have different philosophical explanations for life and the hereafter.

 

If you go to America, you will find fervent Christians, especially in the conservative Bible Belt covering much of the country's south.

 

In China, despite decades of Maoist and Marxist indoctrination, ancestral worship and other traditional Buddhist or Taoist-based religious practices are commonplace.

 

In India, belief in reincarnation is widespread.

 

I wouldn't call myself an atheist. I neither deny nor accept that there is a God. The universe, they say, came out of the Big Bang.

 

But human beings on this earth have developed over the last 20,000 years into thinking beings, and are able to see beyond themselves and think about themselves. Is that a result of Darwinian evolution? Or is it God? I do not know.

 

So I do not laugh at people who believe in God. But I do not necessarily believe in God - nor deny that there could be one."