My childhood environment is such that I learnt both Chinese and English, and even my Chinese dialect, Hokkien. So I am proud to say that I am effectively bilingual. I may not be excellent at both languages, English and Chinese but I can speak, read and write them pretty well. Both simplified and traditional Chinese too, because I grew up learning traditional Chinese in a spiritual group that my family attends. I have to speak Chinese because my dad does not speak English. In olden Singapore, there are English schools and Chinese schools and my dad attended a Chinese school. My mother, on the other hand, attended English school, and I speak English to her. They both speak Hokkien and my grandparents speak Hokkien so we children somehow pick it up... otherwise, when the adults say secrets to each other in Hokkien, how can we know? Haha!
Unfortunately, Singaporean Chinese children nowadays are only learning one language- English. They do not have the chance to be bilingual or the opportunity to appreciate the culture and beauty of their Chinese dialect.
I was especially saddened when I heard the News report that LKY said Teochew Association, Hokkien Association, and other such clans and associations should change their priorities and focus on other directions because dialects are no longer widely used in our society. He said English and Chinese are the main power behind growth and excellence. Does it mean if something does not contribute towards economic progress, you discard it? What about our heritage? What about our rich history? What about the beauty of the culture that comes with the dialect? I am a believer that when you speak that language, you do not acquire the language alone but the culture, beliefs, pop culture and everything else that comes with that language. We noticed that people who speak English often tends to be more "Ang Mo" in their behavior and people who speak Mandarin often tends to be "Cheena" right? Haha...
It's great that I finally had time to watch the Parliament speeches. I had been so caught up with baby caring and post natal blues that I have no interest in politics at that time. It's time I catch up! I listened to Chen Show Mao's speech and it was great! Good speech with no waste of words, everything is straight to the point. But what prompted me to write this post is this speech by Low This Khiang:
I sincerely hope our government will not focus on economic progression and prosperity so much that they forgot what makes us Singaporean. Why do you destroy our heritage and history one by one, only to reminiscence it once a year during the National Day Parade performance? I used to love NDP performances but these few years, I find the scenes so hypocritical... It showed old Mama shop, kampong spirit, etc but who drove the mama shop out of business? Who import so many foreigners at such a rate that we dun see Singaporeans around much at workplaces and shops anymore, much less the kampong spirit or the Singapore identity. Everything that I grew up with and identify with in my neighborhood is almost gone. We've gone from third to first world in such a short time but are our welfare, creativity, culture, medical knowledge and education first world? Are we happy to be at where we are?
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