I, a Singaporean Chinese refuse to speak English
-
frankly, no one gives a shit whether you speak, spit or vomit any language...
no one cares...
-
while i am completely sympathetic to your ideas, the fact remains that english is the language of globalisation and it will stay that way for centuries. If you had typed this entire post in mandarin, you'd probably get a total of 3 replies and that demonstrates the futility of your endeavour
-
Wow! Ranson, your skin is really thick - comparable to elephants! Not only you're totally unabashed to flaunt your narrow-mindedness when it comes to the Chinese language, you have the audacity to bulldoze others, calling others "idiot", and the like, where the very same adjectives would have suited impeccably on yourself.
Let's see. Have you been struggling with Chinese since young? Have you been ridiculed by your Chinese teacher and your peers?
Got
so exasperated with Chinese that you desperately needed to vent your
frustration by making a senseless tirade to make it seemed like - oh, my
Chinese is bad but (because I want to save face), I want it to be
lousy intentionally. Never mind. You can continue trumpeting your own
warped ideologies on this virtual space; any person of some intellect
(not you perhaps) would be able to dismiss your whole chunk of tirade as
a whining post by some loser. I shan't even do a point-by-point refutation because I know you are so devoid of any thought process. Poor thing..
Swallow this statement down your stinky and grubby throat - your English is mediocre at best; coupled with presumably, your wonderful Chinese, I think you'd better STFU lest you corrupt others with your waffle.
-
Think Samuel Lee made a good point about English not being Singapore's language; it is the international language that we adopted to survive. English is the dominant language because of the pre-eminence of the west, led initially by England which started the industrial revolution. Western culture (led by USA) thus dominated the world.
At the same period, over centuries, the Chinese were massacred by the Manchus, then by the Japanese and bullied by the west. The sufferings and spiritual torment endured by the Chinese people, the scale and intensity of which the west, USA and Europe, have probably never experienced. Only the Jews have ever endured sufferings on this massive scale. Those repeated invasions and massacres (including destruction of literature etc) wiped out progress in many areas the Chinese made over thousands of years.
Chinese, no matter what passports they hold, are still "hua xia min zu". The westerners will never see a Chinese (even if he speaks Queen's English) as one of them. In their eyes, a Chinese will always be a Chink, even if he kisses the American ass everyday.
I remember,after so many years, what my primary school Chinese teacher once said to us in class (that was when China was still relatively backward):- "the whole world may look down on the Chinese, but you can't, because you too are Chinese."
-
What about those who are not Chinese and whose Mother Tongue is not Chinese and they are also Singaporeans?
This is one of the deep fault lines that our government is talking about.
Chinese chauvinism!
Just because you all Chinese form 75 percent of the population does not give you the right to impose your view on others.
You hate English is just too bad but keep you chauvinistic and prejudicial attitudes and perceptions to yourself!
-
Originally posted by TIB1234T:
then speak Singlish lor.....hor..... should learn from Ip Man
我 zhi shi yi ge ä¸å›½äºº -
it's a forum la...let pple speak their minds. There are many sgporeans who dun like to speak their mother tongue. Some feel embarassed to speak chinese. Haha, life goes on, who cares.
-
Originally posted by Louis888:
What about those who are not Chinese and whose Mother Tongue is not Chinese and they are also Singaporeans?
This is one of the deep fault lines that our government is talking about.
Chinese chauvinism!
Just because you all Chinese form 75 percent of the population does not give you the right to impose your view on others.
You hate English is just too bad but keep you chauvinistic and prejudicial attitudes and perceptions to yourself!
For that, they should stick their mother tongue like Malay or Tamil. In the case that they are truly PR / Citizens from US / UK, then they are ought to love English. You did not read my full post correctly!!!
For other exceptional case of Singaporean who has a mother tongue of Japanese, then they should use Japanese well and as far as possible.
Such simple logic you cannot understand? WTF!
-
Langauge is a vessel to deliver what one are thinking to the other party effective. By stubbornly sticking to preferred language, it's akin to chopping off your left hand.
what can you achieve at the end of the day by sticking firmly to one language? you lost the ability to appreciate other languages
-
for once i hold my speech.
becos i thought knowledge come with grey hair and wisdom with old age.
but until all people had say their want, i too will tell you what i think in this open forum.
i consider myself a singaporean FIRST, then a chinese. not becos im loyal to sg. but becos i live in this country.
1. Why we must speak the fucking mandarin. we should speak our own dialect to be truly ourself, not influence by other language. Mandarin is derived from the north china speech. and our ancestor dun usually come from there yes? mine is not btw.
2. i prefer english only. becos that is what make singapore work right now, i dun live in the past and think about what if PAP did not reign, mandarin is made the sole official langauge in sg something like that..
3. like someone say, where you wanna trace your root? you can trace it all the way to Adam( the first man) or monkey if you wanted. spare me the crap.
4. talk about in the 1800 1900 years, many country bullied china. yes. that is the harsh true. it is political game among the country. so when all these country look down on chinese on the whole, please know that that is their problem. not the chinese problem.as a person, u need to live up to your own conviction, not becos of you skin color can bring your any advantage in life or not. but if you think your skin color inherit certain superiority against the other race, it is your thinking and choice. but we all know that skin color dun mean a thing dun we?
-
Originally posted by Moka:
what can you achieve at the end of the day by sticking firmly to one language? you lost the ability to appreciate other languages
yes. different languages can be compare to different skirt u see in teh shopping mall. it is colorful man
-
Too long, its hard for me to read.
Now is page 3 already, can someone summarize it for me?
Thanks in advance.
-
Originally posted by Louis888:
Just because you all Chinese form 75 percent of the population does not give you the right to impose your view on others.
Then Lee Kuan Yew and his english speaking minority can impose english on entire majority non english speaking population?
What kind of fuck shit is that?
75% of people in Singapore in 1960s:
Lee Kuan Yew's policy is to use english as dominant language instead of mandarin.
That makes fucking sense to you?
-
speak for urself buddy...dont tell others to speak in chinese or english....u lead ur life and let others lead their lives in whatever language they want...
-
Originally posted by mh2:
for once i hold my speech.
becos i thought knowledge come with grey hair and wisdom with old age.
but until all people had say their want, i too will tell you what i think in this open forum.
i consider myself a singaporean FIRST, then a chinese. not becos im loyal to sg. but becos i live in this country.
1. Why we must speak the fucking mandarin. we should speak our own dialect to be truly ourself, not influence by other language. Mandarin is derived from the north china speech. and our ancestor dun usually come from there yes? mine is not btw.
2. i prefer english only. becos that is what make singapore work right now, i dun live in the past and think about what if PAP did not reign, mandarin is made the sole official langauge in sg something like that..
3. like someone say, where you wanna trace your root? you can trace it all the way to Adam( the first man) or monkey if you wanted. spare me the crap.
4. talk about in the 1800 1900 years, many country bullied china. yes. that is the harsh true. it is political game among the country. so when all these country look down on chinese on the whole, please know that that is their problem. not the chinese problem.as a person, u need to live up to your own conviction, not becos of you skin color can bring your any advantage in life or not. but if you think your skin color inherit certain superiority against the other race, it is your thinking and choice. but we all know that skin color dun mean a thing dun we?
i agree. Our true mother tongue is each individual dialects, and not a foreign Mandarin dialect which is derived from North China
Our mother tongue is Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese, Hakka, Hainanese, Fuchow, Shanghainese....... etc
and not Mandarin
-
Originally posted by BanguIzai:
i agree. Our true mother tongue is each individual dialects, and not a foreign Mandarin dialect which is derived from North China
Our mother tongue is Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese, Hakka, Hainanese, Fuchow, Shanghainese....... etc
and not Mandarin
unless....
-
Originally posted by Clivebenss:
unless....
unless simi? unless those from North China specifically lor
-
Originally posted by Samuel Lee:
For that, they should stick their mother tongue like Malay or Tamil. In the case that they are truly PR / Citizens from US / UK, then they are ought to love English. You did not read my full post correctly!!!
For other exceptional case of Singaporean who has a mother tongue of Japanese, then they should use Japanese well and as far as possible.
Such simple logic you cannot understand? WTF!
Hello there.
I understand your points and where you are coming from but I was thinking from another perspective and I hope you do hear me out.
It is perfectly fine to push for the preservation of the culture and lifestyle of an ethnic background. Absolutely nothing wrong with acknowledging one's historical roots and embracing it. To each his own. Nevertheless, how do we go forward from now? The modern society is getting more homogeneous in terms of the ethnic composition of its community. Globalization. A pre-requisite to the progression of the country, economy and its people relative to rest of the world. Can you deny it? Do you not want it? Do anyone not want it? A system of mutual consensus, tolerance and understanding is much needed to avoid conflicts arising from the differences of each ethnics/race/religion. The world is indeed not in its equilibrium state yet but mankind is still trying, or at least I do hope so.
Singapore is a perfect example of the modern society. Indeed, the Chinese race makes up the majority of its population. But does that mean a single dominant race, regardless of what race, is the catalyst to a state of equilibrium? Will it be efficient and effective in the long run?
What is the basis of language? Communication. The world would not mind, if they can understand Mandarin/chinese langauge as you communicate it. But the world is not Chinese. Singapore is not Chinese. For all your heart's content, embrace your language, and I applaud your passion for that, but do not impose it onto the world outside yourself. As much as you hate it, the world has settled for English to be the dominant language. Singapore, very much wanting to be part of the global set up, would have to follow suit. It is the only way forward. However, it is important to note that dominance here do not equal diminishing of the other languages. So for all the Chinese that one would want to speak, English has to be the dominant language in his/her life, else, it will be difficult for them to progress. On another note, living in a multi-racial country, despite the non-equal ethnic proportion, how do one live harmoniously with his/her neighbour who is of a different ethnicity without a common and mutual basis of communication?
In every type of relationship, communication is an important factor that has to be established. You are one person, living in a complex society connected to everyone else by relationships of any nature. How do you establish an efficient state of equilibrium for yourself?
Regards.
-
i think abit too much ba to push for chinese posters announcements whatever at all the public places.
sure you can embrace your roots but if everyone was as fanatical as you then we have multilingual posters of every language everywhere. --
-
Japan is one country i admire
They don't use english, yet they can be so modern and prosperous and wealthy
many of their engineers, doctors, they are poor in english
-
Too many cool story brotha.
-
there shouldn't be any government policies in the first place to curb this or that language
language should be left on their own to grow and develop
but the situation will not change if we continue to let it the way as it is now
