~我是潮洲人~ and The Politically-Correct Post

Am thinking of whether to apply for the Ngee Ann Kongsi scholarship hahaha...... but they have this really really particular clause for students who wish to sign up......

"We only accept Teochew applicants, i.e. only applicant whose father is Teochew. We require applicant to attach a copy of his/her birth certificate for dialect group verification."

Wahaha... sounds good to me lol.

Actually this post is not about the scholarship, it's going to be on the identity of the Chinese community in Singapore. (Disclaimer: NOT a racist post or what... and forget about the RK House thing... it's NOT funny)

I believe that a very large majority of the Malays and Indians in Singapore still do speak their mother tongue; be it with their parents or their classmates/colleagues. I'm thinking that most of them should be quite proficient at the language, at least in the Singaporean context.

Now you look at the Chinese community. Hmm... Chinese "B"? Kids who are struggling to read and write Chinese. To me, the talk about how students reading Higher Chinese seem to develop a sense of elitism is not really 100% valid. Ok, I admit that even I myself took it out of personal pride, but I certainly didn't feel that I was superior to the other students who weren't taking Higher Chinese. Higher Chinese classes also provide an avenue for students who are interested and wish to know more about the language.

It seems that the Chinese language has taken a step back in the minds of present-day students. Many study for the sake of getting the language "over and done with". Even with the Chinese "B" syllabus, it seems that students are still struggling to grapple with the seemingly complex strokes and pronunciation of Chinese characters.

All the talk on the advantages of being bilingual doesn't seem to influence students to become more interested in Chinese. It's quite sad actually. especially when some even think that speaking Chinese is being "chink" or uncool.

Now now... I'm not being an extremist and demanding that all Chinese be proficient in the Chinese language (I think also a bit hard lah lol), but at least knowing how to speak it fluently would be good enough. Save the 俗语 or 成语. At least don't sputter like a broken engine when trying to form coherent sentences in Chinese wahaha~~~

Why do I say this? I just received an e-mail from my student volunteer in Taiwan, and the first question she ask was: "Can you speak Mandarin/Chinese? I heard that some students in Singapore do not speak Mandarin/Chinese".

Sian lor~ It's the "Jia Kan Tang" syndrome, the "Banana" effect... Yellow on the outside, White on the inside.

So to all the Chinese out there! At least try to learn a bit more about the language lah haha... then you can also lament about the decline of the use of Chinese language in ENGLISH... like me LOL.