[mandarin as the major chinese dialect taught in every school all over the chinese communities, thats a fact. a reality. if u are against that, wat do u propose then? use what language as the official chinese spoken language then?]
oh sure, it's a reality and we cannot do anything about it....so typical PAP. cannot study one more dialect because you have to juggle mandarin and english. this is a dumb self-serving argument. until 1600s, the official chinese court language was not a southern dialect because ming dynasty was first based in the south. through its history, china survived with a spoken court language in the capital and thousands of dialects outside of it. do you really need one official spoken chinese language?
[i am not against dialect. how many times do i have to repeat myself? so your suggestion that the school forming clubs and allow students to communicate among themselves in dialect, i have no problem with that. ]
to study dialects as well. not just to meet and talk. raise awareness and appreciation.
[yes, its a social issue. okay, so it must be done in national level. but its not feasible to teach dialects in school. 'cause there are too many dialects. ]
i am reading both your comments above and trying hard to reconcile them for you. on the one hand, you say student can form clubs to communicate in dialects (but i said study) but then you quickly qualify that it is not feasible to teach dialects cos there are too many dialects. so what are you tryin to say? to me, we are back to square one. you are suggesting that we juz teach mandarin only and discourage study of dialects and let it die a natural death.
[mind you, i am not against dialect. but if we cant teach dialects in school, who else should teach the kids dialect? it falls on the parents and families, and communities. the national level, would be, the govt first of all, should get off the back of dialect. stop degrading dialect. stop bad mouthing dialect.]
again i note that your view is that dialects shld not be taught in school and govt shld not encourage (very PAP) learning of dialects. all it has to is to do nothing and let it die a natural death by keeping it off the schools.
[i don't know why u wanna keep on deriding mandarin. the low chinese language standard, is because PAP doesn't respect chinese language standard. they promote english language, and demote chinese language standard. simple as that.]
pls use facts and not rhetorics if you disagree that mandarin is a simplified and diluted form of spoken chinese. lack of respect for chinese languages includes the lack of respect for chinese dialects.
[the situation in spore, is chinese language standard is low. both mandarin and dialect, and written chinese language. i don't see the purpose of u to keep on putting down mandarin if u are so concern about upholding of chinese culture.]
you are wasting my time harping on rhetorics. i would rather you admit you do not understand the language well enuff to see how dialects can be relevant rather repeating the same assertions over and over again. a mandarin speaker is using a simplified and diluted form of chinese. can you deny this?
[i didn't support mandarin only policy. i don't support teaching all different dialect in school, because there are too many dialects in spore, therefore its not feasible.]
thanks for the contradiction. pls note that throughout chinese history, there was one official tongue spoken in the capital and thousands of dialects spoken outside of it. if you do not support mandarin only policy, why are you so keen to point out that there are too many dialects in SG to teach in school and end the argument there? u mean there is no other way?
[i don't wanna see the death of dialect. therefore, i talk about the responsibilities of the families, communities to uphold the language. and on national level, the govt should first of all, stop deriding, putting down dialect language in national level.]
ditto. sure you dun want it to thrive either.
[to connect to chinese classic via dialect, i don't see the urgency in that. as long as people interested in reading chinese classic, doesn't matter mandarin or dialect.]
it does not matter what you see or not see subjectively. who cares what is your view? cos you are too ignorant to form a reasonably sound view
can you deny that dialects are most important and have the greatest value as living fossils connecting us to the lost ancient langauges of our ancestors thousands of years ago?