Speak Dialects, you feel tribal ! Speak mandarin, it will break unity!

[banova888]

If Swiss, a multi racial society, they could respect their dialect, and doing real fine, why cant we spore do that? Why must we eradicate dialect?

Swiss speak English. Only Chinese labourers there! speak Mandarin. The swiss should learn Mandarin if they want to communicate effectively with their chinese labourers.

 

[banova888]

You got it the other way round.

Imposing English a non asian language on a 97% asian population, thats tyranny.

Anyway, this thread is about dialect. If Switzerland as a multi racial society, they could have dialect, and they are doing fine, so why do we Singaporean Chinese have to eradicate dialect?

Correct me if I am wrong! but isn't this an English Speaking Forum?

Hey stupid Asian. Can you tell me what "tyranny" means in Mandarin?

 

[banova888]

I am very glad that many people are beginning to see LKY's Speak Mandarin Campaign for what it is - an effort NOT to link us to our roots but to UPROOT us from our culture and when that has succeeded to replace that culture with a manufactured reality, a vision of Chinese culture according to the PAPzis. It is in fact LANGUAGE CLEANSING, learnt no doubt from the earlier (failed) attempts by the Communists in China and the KMT in Taiwan.

I am confident it will fail here too. What are the indications? The increasing volume of his assertions that dialects will die suggests he is trying desperately to will it to happen. Cantonese, Hokkien, Teochew, Hainanese will outlive this pathetic fool.

What about jobs requiring Mandarin speaking only? Will they now be more specific about the dialect?

 

[banova888]

i don't see anything wrong for china to have a official language.

We are talking about Singapore here.

 

[banova888]

If I am not wrong, all different province in China, the people use dialect among themselves, and mandarin as the official language. So, its not a zero sum game between dialect and mandarin.

But despot Lee try to paint a picture, that its zero sum game between dialect and mandarin.

We are talking about Singapore here. Singapore does not belong to China.

 

[banova888]

like i said, please don't get confuse with the issue. nothing wrong with mandarin. mandarin and dialect co-exist throughout chinese communities. nothing wrong with mandarin radio statio or tv station.

problem is with LKY and PAP. their attitude towards dialect. they treat dialect as dirt.

Does your dialect include Tamil and Malay!

 

[banova888]

so u buay song about what? that the mandarin as official spoken language in china?

If Mandarin is the official language, What The FUCK are you doing in an English Forum?

 

[banova888]

You are not very bright. You have been discriminated and you still have no clue. China did not ban other dialects. There are radio stations, plays, operas where dialects are used.

In Singapore all dialects except for Mandarin cannot be used in any form. No radio, no TV, nothing except within individuals

Please don't tell me that Mandarin is your mother tongue.

And most Job Advertisements in Singapore! require Mandarin Speakers. Best Mandarin Speakers are from CHINA. No wonder they are called FTs' in Singapore.

 

[banova888]

This was never an issue till the Familee-sponsored influx of FTrash inton Peesai!

This topic is about Mandarin and how it affects the minorities in Singapore.

 

[banova888]

Hey u know old fart to paraphrase a chinese saying in english. He says 1 who dares to say 2?

His words are the gospel truth. How could the citizens of sg, whom are peasants to him, ever hope to challenge his knowledge and wisdom?

So when he says sinkees are not smart enough to master a few language well he is right.

The next thing about switzerland. Yes they can speak a few languages. In the US ppl learn spanish along with english yet the point is these languages belong to the same family. English and german are in the same germanic branch, french and spanish are romance languages and all are classified under indo-european. Now take chinese and english for eg. Both are as different as night and day.

Mastering both languages to use both proficiently definitely takes much more effort to learn compared to mastering say english and spanish. Chinese words alone can kill even chinese ppl.

Learning those ang moh languages is somthing like teochew ppl learning hokkien. I grew up in a teochew speaking environment but i could understand hokkien when i served ns. Hence i actually learned a new dialect just like that.

Apparently you are a very Talented multilingual Chink! who can express your Chink thoughts very well in an English Forum.

 

[banova888]

I read in encyclopedias about how chinese characters evolved like they used to be simple stick figures then slowly became traditional words then simplified etc.

Anyway i assume that by the tang dynasty the words were already more or less like today's words am i right????

ANyway most sinkees learnt simplified so that's also gonna be a problem reading those poems since they would be in traditional.

Btw can u read tang poems in say hokkien and the meaning be even more meaningful??



I wish you could elaborate more on teochew, hokkien were they what the ancients spoke?

So among all the dialects the southern ones are the most chinese?

Are you chinese to begin with "Jah_rastafar"

 

[myo539]

Speaking dialects in Singapore will bond local people together, in addition, you feel tribal among the local tribe....Dont be conned to speaking Mandarin, it will break up local unity...Please speak dialects at home, you child will learn more about his or her roots as local singaporeans.

That's the problem - dialect is tribal and breaks up national unity of a country made up of several dialects. Cantonese appears to be the lingua franca of gamblers and prostitutes (not foreign ones) - even the vulgar words (as manifested in this forum now and then).

As a Hokkien, it makes me very tribal. No doubt the roots of the Hokkiens in Singapore as coolies and trishaw riders are nothing to be proud of, but it is distinct from the Cantonese and its associate vices (may be because Cantonese girls are quite pretty). I am never close to any colleagues, associates and friends who are Cantonese simply - somehow they are naturally crossed out among people whom I can trust or be close with - notwithstanding using the English for communication to blur out the dialect background.

Even as a kid my parents and extended family used to tell me never to befriend or deal business with the kheks - the "guest people" in ancient China. They are the shewd ones - like the Jews of China.

Teochews are ok for the Hokkiens - notwithstanding their predominant humble background as fishermen and fishmongers. Strangely I rarely buy meat, fish nor vegetables from Cantonese hawkers at wet market.

So you see LKY was right - and so are you to a small extent - when he said that strong affinity to dialects can bring out the very tribal instincts and breaks up national unity.

So when you speak English - and not dialects - your nocturnal adventures into Geylang can be more internationalised rather than be constained by the ones in Keong Saik Street.

 

[Jah_rastafar_I]

Apparently you are a very Talented multilingual Chink! who can express your Chink thoughts very well in an English Forum.

eh keling troll just stfu and go troll on some other thread. :oIo::oIo:

 

[fukyuman]

LKY should be the last person weighing his opinion. He is Khek. And Kheks are very adept in hiding themselves by posing as belonging to other dialects group. When caught, they will clarify that they are Hokkien Kheks, Teochew Kheks etc. They dominates the OKT trades by the way.

If you go to Palembang, the people there will tell you that Lee's family came from there. Before the war, there is no passport needed.

If it is true, then the family is wiping out their history. And of course his unfamiliarity with dialects, like Pinkie, put him on a collision course.

The dialect of business is Cantonese. The Communists was then choosing their capital and national language and Cantonese was considered but lost. Which is probably why people in Hong Kong rather not speak Mandarin if they can. Mandarin sounds awful too. Go see the DVD Crouching Tigers and Hidden Dragon in both language and you find Cantonese is better refined.

So speaking Cantonese will lead a person to visit PRC prostitutes and speakng English to visit Ang Moh prostitutes, I guess speaking Mandarin will lead a person to visit African prostitutes as China is investing or exploiting Africa.

That's the problem - dialect is tribal and breaks up national unity of a country made up of several dialects. Cantonese appears to be the lingua franca of gamblers and prostitutes

Even as a kid my parents and extended family used to tell me never to befriend or deal business with the kheks - the "guest people" in ancient China. They are the shewd ones - like the Jews of China.

So you see LKY was right

 

[High Command]

any idea what the 'Wu' and 'Gan' languages are/include? thanks.

Wu languages:
SHanghainese
Suzhou dialect
Hangzhou dialect
Ningbo dialect
Wuxi dialect

Gan Langauge:
Jiangxi dialect

 

[OldPlaza]

This topic is about Mandarin and how it affects the minorities in Singapore.

How speaking mandarin among chinese can affect minorities (presumably Indians/Malays)? Indians and Malays are rock solid among their own languages without interference from Chinese.

 

[Jah_rastafar_I]

This topic is about Mandarin and how it affects the minorities in Singapore.

How speaking mandarin among chinese can affect minorities (presumably Indians/Malays)? Indians and Malays are rock solid among their own languages without interference from Chinese.

wrong again.

Many indians do not really speak their own mother tongue. Btw what type of indians are u referring to?

Many north indians speak malay and learnt malay cos it is the simplest language to learn.


i had indian classmates who learnt mandarin when i was in sap school.


Btw quit making up assumptions like rock solid in their language skills. U sure? Btw being good in malay is nothing since malay is much easier than learning chinese.

 

[Jah_rastafar_I]

This topic is about Mandarin and how it affects the minorities in Singapore.

How speaking mandarin among chinese can affect minorities (presumably Indians/Malays)? Indians and Malays are rock solid among their own languages without interference from Chinese.

Btw how does mandarin affect the miniorities?

I can see how. Mandarin unifies all the chinese groups into 1. This leaves out the mats and kelings.

If not for mandarin the chinese would be disunified. With the chinese unified it makes things worse for the minorities in safe safe singapore doesn't it?

Typical of the colonial brits whom loved to divide then conqueor.

 

[Ramseth]

Perhaps, coming up next is abolishing Tamil and replacing it with Hindi, to reach out to the whole of India. And why not also switch from British English to American English to reach out to the US which is far bigger and more powerful than Britain nowadays.

 

[yansen84]

Perhaps, coming up next is abolishing Tamil and replacing it with Hindi, to reach out to the whole of India. And why not also switch from British English to American English to reach out to the US which is far bigger and more powerful than Britain nowadays.

well said! perhaps this is a fitting conclusion to the whole debate. that was the point people here were trying to make against old fart's comments, yet so many peripheral issues are being thrown into the mix.