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Mr Lee Kuan Yew on Bilingual policy | ||
Tags: Language Politics | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| 1e4e6 Octoglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4289 days ago 1013 posts - 1588 votes  Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Dutch, Swedish, Italian Studies: German, Danish, Russian, Catalan | Message 9 of 21 30 March 2015 at 9:31pm | IP Logged | ||
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But how would you know exactly if the other Chinese languages are not being spoken at
home? It seems impossible to know, unless you survey all of the Chinese speaking families. I know from experience that most of the Chinese in Singapore, which are already 75% of the population, are from Fújiàn Province, namely Amoy (Xiàmén) and traditionally speak Minnanhua (Banlamgu), or Southern Min, and they usually also keep speaking Minnanhua at home even if they have to reach minimum C1 in Mandarin in primary and secondary school. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| QiuJP Triglot Senior Member Singapore Joined 5854 days ago 428 posts - 597 votes Speaks: Mandarin*, EnglishC2, French Studies: Czech, GermanB1, Russian, Japanese | Message 10 of 21 31 March 2015 at 7:13pm | IP Logged | ||
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1e4e6, here are statistics taken from wikipedia with sources from the statistics board
of Singapore: Language Spoken at Home Among Chinese Resident Population in Singapore[31] Predominant Household Language 1957 (%) 1980 (%) 2000 (%) 2010 (%) English 1.8 11.6 &n bsp; 23 33 Mandarin 0.1 & nbsp; 10.2 35 47 Non-Mandarin 97 81.4&nbs p; 30.7 19.2 Link As you can see Mandarin, which is a minority language in 1957 in 0.1% of Chinese families, has become the main language of communication in 47% of Chinese families. During the same time dialects usage in Chinese families fell from 97% to 19.2%. This is remarkable as it take only about 1 to 2 generations to have such a great shift in language usage. Edited by QiuJP on 31 March 2015 at 7:17pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| 1e4e6 Octoglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4289 days ago 1013 posts - 1588 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Dutch, Swedish, Italian Studies: German, Danish, Russian, Catalan | Message 11 of 21 01 April 2015 at 12:54am | IP Logged | ||
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That is interesting, and quite a sharp change. But how did they survey, was it like
the census? They also had this though at the bottom of the article: Non-Chinese language communities (principally the Malays and Tamils), on the other hand, have argued that the effort placed into promoting Mandarin weakens the role of English as Singapore's lingua franca and threatens to marginalize Singapore's minorities. In fact, dialects such as Hokkien, along with Malay have served as a language for the Straits Chinese, or Peranakan. In the Singaporean and Malaysian Version of the Hokkien Language, one cannot deny the plethora of Malay loan words, and vice versa. During the 1960s, Bazzar Lingua was a confluence of Malay, Hokkien, Tamil, English and other dialects. [39] Some have expressed concern that requirements of Mandarin fluency or literacy could be used to discriminate against non-Chinese minorities. Current employment laws prohibit racial discrimination but employers often circumvent this by requiring applicants to be bilingual in English and Mandarin. I think that Hokkien, which is also known as Fukien or Fukinese, is the main Chinese language of Singapore throughout history. But does the survey distinguish between even if Fukien speakers use Mandarin at home now, is it just Mandarin or a mix, or even if it is alone, do they still at least know Fukien proficiently? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| shk00design Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4443 days ago 747 posts - 1123 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin Studies: French | Message 12 of 21 01 April 2015 at 6:58am | IP Logged | ||
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An interesting comparison with Hong Kong. For a long time, China used Mandarin in schools as a way to unite
people in every part of the country. Every province still have their own dialects and sub-dialects but everybody who is educated can speak Mandarin to a high degree of fluency. Macau (the ex-Portuguese colony) seemed to be willing to accept themselves as part of China and people are learning and becoming fluent in Mandarin as a second language to facilitate doing business with the Mainland. Hong Kong people tend to be more reluctant to engage in closer ties with their "brothers" across the border. In recent months, there were people who gathered in busy shopping districts in the city and protest against the Chinese cross-border shoppers. People in Hong Kong would rather adopt English (the language of their former colonial masters) than Mandarin as a second language. Once you recognize Hong Kong & Macau as being part of China, what comes next is the increase use of Mandarin but in Hong Kong you find Mandarin speakers confined to shopping areas where Mainland tourists are more common. Last year while visiting Hong Kong, someone brought their in-laws to dinner. They were originally from Taiwan and lived in Malaysia. Living in Hong Kong for a few years, everybody is fluent in Cantonese. The kids (around 7) are educated in Mandarin. The choice of having a child attend classes in Cantonese, Mandarin or English is open to the parents. Most locals who are Cantonese natives would prefer their kids be educated in Cantonese. When it comes to language fluency, there is not an exact correlation between the school you attended and the languages you are able to communicate at a native level. I know 1 person who was brought up in a Cantonese-speaking family in Hong Kong, attended an English school (with English as the main language of instruction and 1 Chinese class per day). She emigrated to Canada sometime ago but is fully bilingual. She reads newspapers & novels in Chinese as much as she does in English. Another 2 individuals also emigrated from Hong Kong to Canada. They went to an English school in Hong Kong and ended up with far less fluency in Chinese. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| QiuJP Triglot Senior Member Singapore Joined 5854 days ago 428 posts - 597 votes Speaks: Mandarin*, EnglishC2, French Studies: Czech, GermanB1, Russian, Japanese | Message 13 of 21 01 April 2015 at 6:59pm | IP Logged | ||
Mandarin does not threaten the status of English in Singapore. On contrary, English actually threaten the status of Mandarin and other Chinese Dialects. Please remember that English is taught as L1 in schools and Chinese(Mandarin) as L2 in schools from Grade 1 to 12. In all schools all non-language subjects are taught in English, thus creating an environment where children become more comfortable in English than their mother tongue. Furthermore, a schoolchild cannot be promoted to the next grade unless he/she passes the English language. Thus, parents tend to start converse in English with their children, even though many of them are pretty horrible in the language themselves. Mandarin tends to be less affected by the English dominance due to China rise in economic power, and the fact that there are many media which interest the young people. For the survey, they do not distinguish if the family originally speaks in which dialect, but only distinguish the current dialect or language this family uses. You are correct that Hokkien is more widely used in the past as they are the largest dialect group which constitute 44% of the Chinese. However, the change of use of language/dialect is applied across similarly across all the dialect groups. So it is a generation thing. For examples those above 60 years old are likely to speak non-Mandarin dialect with basic functionality in Mandarin, those between 30 to 60 can speak English, Mandarin and a non-Chinese dialect while those less than 30 (my generation) can speak English and Mandarin but few can even understand non-Mandarin dialect. Edited by QiuJP on 01 April 2015 at 7:26pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| QiuJP Triglot Senior Member Singapore Joined 5854 days ago 428 posts - 597 votes Speaks: Mandarin*, EnglishC2, French Studies: Czech, GermanB1, Russian, Japanese | Message 14 of 21 01 April 2015 at 7:22pm | IP Logged | ||
I think the most important part for a government policy to succeed is the support and trust to the government. In one part of a documentary, an old women was asked why she supported the "Speak Mandarin Campaign" and switched from using Hokkien to using Mandarin in daily communication. She said that she supported Mr Lee Kuan Yew and his government and she believes that the campaign is good for the country. When the "Speak Mandarin Campaign" started in 1979, Mr Lee had already in power for 20 years. During, this period, Mr Lee successfully lead the country to economic success and resolved severe difficult and dangerous situation both internally and externally. As such, people supported his government for its excellence. With this prestige, the Singapore government is than able to carry out more actions to support the "Speak Mandarin Campaign": 1) Ban all radio stations broadcasted in non-Mandarin dialect 2) Dub all non-Mandarin dialect television shows into Mandarin, which continues till this day 3) Set up free telephone service for people to learn Mandarin. I cannot imagine the Hong Kong government implement all the above without large political upheaval. But, it all happened in Singapore with very little resistance. For the language standard of children under this policy, I will need some time to research and reply. Edited by QiuJP on 01 April 2015 at 7:26pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| shk00design Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4443 days ago 747 posts - 1123 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin Studies: French | Message 15 of 21 02 April 2015 at 3:39pm | IP Logged | ||
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In 1997, Hong Kong was handed back to China under the "1 country, 2 systems" policy. According to the
Sino-British Joint Declaration signed in 1984, Hong Kong is allowed to maintain certain amount of autonomy to manage its local affairs. On the other hand, China doesn't want Hong Kong to have too much autonomy as to appear like Taiwan trying to push for independence. The street protests between August - September, 2014 showed Hong Kong people want China to stay out of HK affairs although most don't think the city should have a democratic government. If the "pro-Beijing" government in HK decides schools will switch to Mandarin for teaching core subjects like mathematics, sciences & Chinese literature, a lot of people would protest. The 1 thing uniting HK people is their distinct Cantonese dialect and they see it as part of their heritage. In the years since the handover to China, we're seeing HK people write messages online with many new characters that are now used for Cantonese but these are not traditional Chinese characters such as: 睇電視 instead of 看電視 (watch TV), 乜嘢 for 什麼 (what). 唔好 for 不好 (not good). I don't think there is any attempt to create new characters for writing phrases specific to other Chinese dialects besides using standard Mandarin expressions. Edited by shk00design on 02 April 2015 at 3:42pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| QiuJP Triglot Senior Member Singapore Joined 5854 days ago 428 posts - 597 votes Speaks: Mandarin*, EnglishC2, French Studies: Czech, GermanB1, Russian, Japanese | Message 16 of 21 02 April 2015 at 8:25pm | IP Logged | ||
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shk00design, the Chinese authorities have not created for Hong Kong a political climate
that Mr Lee has created in Singapore: the economic, social and even political progress envied by the rest of the world. This political climate actually make Singaporeans feel proud of their country and give their support to Mr Lee's policy. Furthermore Mr Lee and his government managed to convince the people on the importance of the policies and deliver the results. This, until now, has not been achieved by the Chinese authorities. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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