Do you support Lee Kuan Kuan's policy of killing dialects?
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Disadvantageous Mandarin
Thursday, 19 March 2009, 6:23 pm | 77 views
A response to MM Lee
KJ
There
is a lot to be said for Singaporean-Chinese, myself included, to be
ascribed a ‘mother tongue’ that is not really my mother’s (or for that
matter, my father’s), one that we have to learn from scratch, in effect
as a second-language, and one with which we have little affinity.What is more lamentable is the fact that these decisions are borne out of unquestioned, state-mandated economic necessity, and subsequently implemented with such swift ruthlessness. Cold, hard-headed decisions that, without our realizing, put a stopper to our personal relations and halt our life stories. How many times have I found great difficulty in conversing with my grandparents, who were by then too old to abandon their original tongues and acquire new ones, while I on the other hand had been discouraged from speaking in their native ones (i.e. my real mother tongue[s]), and force-fed a foreign language called Mandarin.
Singapore prides itself on arriving from ‘Third World to First’ in one generation – (have we really?) – this is the same reason for our extraordinary ability to extinguish our rich southern Chinese heritage, one that is as old as centuries if not the millennia, in a single generation.
Is this something that we, that is to say, Singaporean-Chinese, in the name of economic achievement should be proud of?
I doubt that our ability to speak Mandarin has been, as MM Lee would have us believe, a ‘key advantage’. As academic Linda Lim remarked in an interview with the Straits Times last week, our self-appointed role as conduits to China and India is counter-productive, if not redundant. And after expending so much energies and resources into its teaching and learning, how many of us are truly proficient in Mandarin, beyond the rudimentary phrases needed to get one past the wet market?
Having to master both English and Mandarin without a ‘natural’ cultural-linguistic environment that is necessary for one to be proficient in either language has resulted in us floundering in both. Drowned in this process is our chance and ability to master our true ‘mother-tongues’. It is well-known that the Mainlander Chinese and the Westerners constantly mock our lightweight grasp of Mandarin and English, and, for those doing business in China, they are taking Mandarin lessons to make up for their linguistic lack. Beneath these foreign mockery is the sneering at our cultural ignorance, superficiality, and philistinism. Further, if the ability to speak Mandarin is such an economic asset, why do our education policies prevent our non-Chinese compatriots from learning it? And should Singaporeans be learning Mandarin just so we can ‘bring value-add to China’?
Such vulgar economic justifications for ‘national survival’, for learning languages, for effacing cultures.
Whatever
the material benefits I might reap by way of Singapore’s ‘economic
usefulness’ to the rest of the world, I derive no dignity in being
treated as a cog in a machine, as a means to an end. I would gladly
trade, pardon the pun, GDP growth with the ability to speak my native
language (it is neither English nor Mandarin) even if it is the most
economically unviable language in the world. For that matter, I would
be proud to be a Singaporean even if it is the poorest country there is
around. What consolation does it bring, to be able to speak to 1.3
billion Chinese all over China if I cannot even engage in a proper
conversation with my own family?That is not to say we should not have encouraged the learning of Mandarin. But it certainly could have been implemented in a less mechanistic manner, and for less utilitarian reasons. It is for these very reasons that we do not want to, or we are unable to, appreciate the value of a language and the beauty inherent in all languages, that exist beyond the jargon and jarring phrases of multinational companies and Internet data banks and global financial-speak.
The choice of languages learnt need neither be government-sanctioned nor mutually-exclusive. Contrary to what the government and the media would like us to think, we are not the only country that adopts a bilingual policy. But compared to other such countries, we are far from being as successful. Learning from them, we might realize that mastering Mandarin need not have come at the expense of our ancestral tongues. Our lack of fluency in multiple languages is not just due to biological limitations (which is far from being a fact). Ill-conceived, flip-flopping government policies and crass economic rationale for learning (or un-learning) languages have contributed to this predicament too.
In two generations Mandarin would be our mother tongue, proclaims MM Lee proudly. But with our appalling level of proficiency in Mandarin, it is not hard to foresee how much and what kind of a ‘mother tongue’ it is going to be. It will probably not be much.
Is
the sole value of a language its ‘usefulness’? I don’t think so. On the
one hand, use-value is subjective, personal, and should not be decided
for me by, of all things, the state. On the parallel, the value of
language is in language itself. Languages do not appear out of thin air
– we human beings create them, keep them alive, and they live for a
simple reason – above being basic tools of communication, they are
expressions of our emotions, our humanness. Expressions that, like
culture and the arts, live outside the world of money.We would have been better-off leaving our language habits alone, and letting our ‘adulterated Hokkien-Teochew’ languages evolve on their own. And why not? Languages, like cultures, are living things and they evolve all the time. And over time, our aesthetic sensibilities are honed along with our constant polishing of our tongues, and from where the beauty and poetry in the language emerge. This is true for all languages, from the first grunt in the dark cave eons ago, to the final stanza in the gilded library just now. And why, our Singlish vernacular might one day become high language too, with its inimitable trove of stories and sonnets. If only we would let it, and let our local poets light the way.
But of course, such frivolous pursuits have no place in a country where economic necessity and cultural cringe must prevail. While the sun of the British empire might have set, and the Middle Kingdom’s might yet arise, it seems as long as the ruling regime’s socio-economic ideologies persist blindingly, Singaporeans will always remain colonial subjects, servants to capital.
The way we have gone about picking ‘winning’ languages and experimenting with them as one would in a laboratory, it is what kills language. But not only that – as fellow TOC contributor Deng Chao noted recently, what is wiped out is more than our Teochew, Hokkien, Cantonese, and Hainanese languages. Gone with them would be the irreplaceable and age-old cultural treasures of folklore, poetry, aphorisms and histories, riches that are later infused with the tropical air of the Straits Settlement – a natural confluence of cultures. What is wiped out will be life itself, supplanted by the mediocre, the vulgar and the kitsch.
One day I might become a grandparent too, but what would the world be like then? I do not want to punt on the vagaries of the market or the flow of global finance. I certainly do not want to be enslaved by them. Small as Singapore is, there nonetheless are things that do not and cannot have a price tag. The ability and the freedom to speak, for instance. Invaluable things.
Am I romanticizing the village?
But how did the village come to be something pejorative in the Singaporean imagination?
What kind of a city are we still building anyway?Looking at my grandparents, I do wonder what their Singaporean world has been like, for them to one morning find themselves strangers in their own land, unable to be understood and unable to understand, the foreign chatter on the streets, and recounting life stories in a voice whose sweetness their loved ones would never know.
And how much are Singaporeans and our nation, for all our economic growth and material riches the poorer for it, living on benighted money, leaving our history behind?
http://theonlinecitizen.com/2009/03/disadvantageous-mandarin/
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Lee Kuan Yew, I know you are english educated, you don't have any deep knowledge or love of chinese culture.
But not everyone is an anglo dog like you.
They are proud of their culture, they want to preserve it.
They don't want to be anglo dogs.
I hope you can respect the chinese dialect groups in Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew.
I as a chinese hokkien in Singapore, I feel insulted by you and I am also ashamed of your attitude.
You have no love of local chinese dialect groups at all.
If a leader of a country has no respect or love of the local cultural groups, I don't think that person is fit to be the leader of that country.
I don't think you are fit to be leader of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew.
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you from sammyboy ah?
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actually no point debating sometimes. Dialects will surely die. I wun be marrying a cantonese for sure. My children wun know cantonese.
And i'm pretty sure LKY shd just......go.....if u know what i mean lol.
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.if u know what i mean lol.
I know exactly what you mean.
Dialects will surely die.
What if government starts to promote? Will it die?
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Originally posted by Ah Chia:
I feel ashamed and disrespected by Lee Kuan Yew.
He looks down on my culture.
The value of your culture is reflected in the way you carry yourself, not how LKY looks at it.
If you can tell an angmoh over lunch or dinner all about your culture, you can be proud of yourself, doesn't matter what LKY think.
You speak your own dialect?
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not how LKY looks at it.
But Lee Kuan Yew suppresses the chinese dialect here.
He sells propaganda saying dialect is useless.
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Now the number of dialect-speaking people are reducing and LKY still wants to discourage the use of dialect...
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wad u expect from a bastard..
soon chinese will slowly fade..
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I feel deeply disgarced to have this type of person as Lee Kuan Yew as leader.
I hope he can step down soon.
Anglo dog will be anglo dog to the end.
He is true to his roots.
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Hah. like as if he doesn't speak dialect. After all, he's an old man from the early days of singapore?!
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like as if he doesn't speak dialect.
He cannot speak any dialect. That is true.
the early days of singapore?!
He was english ang moh educated, not chinese educated.
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Originally posted by Ah Chia:
not how LKY looks at it.
But Lee Kuan Yew suppresses the chinese dialect here.
He sells propaganda saying dialect is useless.
I know of many cantonese families in singapore who continue to teach their children in cantonese. for this I respect them.the value of our culture is up to us to treasure and preserve. only those who has no root would choose their own culture based on what others say.
If your parents never teach you their dialect, its their perogative, the government should never replace your parents, education in school should never replace family upbringing.
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But Lee Kuan Yew suppresses the chinese dialect here.
He wants to kill it off.
His policy is to wipe it out.
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Originally posted by youyayu:
wad u expect from a bastard..
soon chinese will slowly fade..
singaporean chinese will fade, not chinese. may be not, they will be repleced by chinese from china, taiwan and hk. they only need to come to singapore and learn english, in 1 year, or even shorter, they speak both english and mandarin well.the true blue singaporean would still be struggling with mandarin, cantonese, hokkien....sigh...
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Originally posted by Ah Chia:
But Lee Kuan Yew suppresses the chinese dialect here.
He wants to kill it off.
His policy is to wipe it out.
name one policy that wipes out dialects.
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singaporean chinese will fade, not chinese. may be not, they will be repleced by chinese from china, taiwan and hk. they only need to come to singapore and learn english, in 1 year, or even shorter, they speak both english and mandarin well.
the true blue singaporean would still be struggling with mandarin, cantonese, hokkien....sigh...
That is all due to Lee Kuan Yew.
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name one policy that wipes out dialects.
Banning of dialect in state media.
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Originally posted by Ah Chia:
name one policy that wipes out dialects.
Banning of dialect in state media.
how come i hear news reported in dialect on 95.8 FM? is that not state media?
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how come i hear news reported in dialect on 95.8 FM?
Really? Which dialect?
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Funding for Public Service Broadcast Programmes
In Singapore, public service programmes are funded through the annual TV and Vehicle Radio Licence fees of $110 and $27 respectively. These fees are essential in helping with the production of public service programmes as they are less commercially viable and require funding support. With funding, Singaporeans will get to enjoy a wider range of TV and radio programmes that not only entertain but also serve to inform and educate.
Funded programmes on TV include current affairs, info-education, culture, minority language and children's programmes. The MDA also funds minority programmes on radio stations Oli 96.8FM, Warna 94.2FM and Ria 89.7FM. Dialect news is also supported on Capital Radio 95.8FM as well as news programmes on NewsRadio 93.8FM.http://www.mda.gov.sg/wms.www/sg_media_spotlight.aspx?sid=133
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Of course Mandarin should be promoted.
First I do not agree with your sensasionalistic title, "killing dialects"
This is not true, the truth is the opposite, the promotion of Mandarin.
First we have to understand something.
All the dialects are connected, in fact, they are basically the same words, written the same way, but pronounced differently, with some other little differences.
These are basically "dialects" and not a whole new different language.
Therefore, a move towards standardization is not a move to kill a language, but a move to standardize the pronounciatons, accent, and so on.
It is not neccessary to be so anti about it.
In the ancient days, due to distance, and lack of technology, people from one region to another region can refer to the same words or same object but saying it differently. In fact from one village to another village, or from a mountain area to coastal area, the words can be pronounced differently.
Now, there is technology, there is roads, there is media. It is time to standardize everything. It makes sense, and it simplifies, clarifies, everything.
I do not understand whats the big deal about it.
Language is not really extinct, and never extinct. When you adopt Mandarin, it can become your mother tongue and you can think in it, and dream in it, and it can become part of your family tradition too.
It does not mean your family heritage is erased. It means you adopt, absorb, and improve, on a new standardization language, which your ancestors all speak in the ancient days in one form or another.
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Originally posted by Ah Chia:
But Lee Kuan Yew suppresses the chinese dialect here.
He wants to kill it off.
His policy is to wipe it out.
he just didn't encourage it. I go to taiwan, I have to speak hokkien; go to hk, I have to speak cantonese. go to vancouver, i speak both depending on which part of the city I am in. of course, in coquitlam, singlish is well accepted. hahaha. -
Originally posted by Ah Chia:
name one policy that wipes out dialects.
Banning of dialect in state media.
dialects are not banned in singapore, for goodness sake.
you can hear news in even hainanese in 95.8
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this is getting hilarious....lemme get my popcorn and coke ok.