I have had written a few posts on how "successful" our "Speak Mandarin" campaigns had been and what these campaigns had done to our kids. You can read them here, and here.
Last Saturday, I was at one of the foodcourts in a shopping mall, queuing patiently for a bowl of bah chor mee. Standing behind me were two giggly schoolgirls, bantering happily and loudly in Mandarin.
Girl A to Girl B: What you want? (looking at the colourful menu of noodles splashed on top of the wall juz behind the stall)
Girl B: Mini Wok.
Girl A: Aiyah, why eat the same as me? (both broke into giggles)
Meanwhile, the stall assistant, an Indian woman, was looking very annoyed with the din the girls were making. Looking up at the girls, she finally interjected....
Stall Asst: Girls, what you want??!!
Girl A: Two mini wok
Stall Asst: What noodle? mee pok, or mee kia?
Girl B: What's mee kia? (directing the question at her friend)
Stall Asst: (looking at me and rolling her eyes upwards) This is mee pok (as she pointed to the noodle), and this smaller ones is mee kia (she was almost sniggering....)
She turned to look at me again and uttered, not without some exasperation, "Aiyoh, Chinese don't understand Chinese."
Well, what can I say? I dunno where to hide my face.
There's no hope for our kids.....
Category: Policies
21 comments:
Chris, why need to hide your face? It's the parents of those girls who need to hide theirs! How can they not know mee kia, man? Wonder what name the parents tell them - thin egg noodles? Chinese spaghetti? Cheh, sounds so snooty!
Heng arh, I know mee pok and mee kia! But that's food mah...so I know.
Give me something cheemer and I might not know...my chinese and english all 半桶水! Singlish better...muahahha..
BTW, I just handed up my homework here. Siong ah!
Hmm... Indian selling mee kia and mee pok (Chinese food)? Must be at the Halal food court (near your home) where you so loathe to eat as you complained that the food there sucks because they do not use lard. And you are eating there, thereby contradicting yourself yet again. But that's normal of you.
Tell you a recent personal experience at that food court. I was buying fish slice mian xian. So I told the non-Chinese stall keeper my order. She didn't understand. Had to point out the mian xian to her. Then she exclaimed, "Oh, mee sua, you tell me mian xian I don't understand."
Now is this a case of something opposite happening to the stall keepers? That is, too much "dialectisation" as you so eloquently put it?
Either way, it is not good. The best solution is for us to learn everything, isn't it.
Our stall keepers are beyond hope. I don't know where to hide my face.
mee kia or mee pok - it doesn't matter. Becos years down the road, all these dialects will disappear!
Most important is - make sure your Mandarin is good enough to be understood becos the China Tidal Wave is coming!
btw arh Chris,
Kelong! Foul Play! My original tag is only to bring 5 bloggers! And you all suka suka (as you fancy,) add bloggers! You added one and another added 6! You think you are forming a new Survivor show arh! Liddat I also want! hahaha..........
I think our grasp of languages here in singapore is neither here nor there. english also cannot speak and espress well, chinese is the pasar type. malay only spoken by a minority of the population.
need more native speakers in our lives.
Could it be that the Indian lady's pronunciation not so good. Don't be so fast to judge our youngsters can or not. Anyway, I will ask my kids this evening and test them. You can also do the same and we compare notes ok.
Die - hope I don't have to hide face.
Shilpa: The policy here to do away with dialects to achieve cohesion among the Chinese people have left many young parents the inability to speak in their own dialects. How are they to teach their childrens? So, it's not entirely the parent's fault. Some argue that perhaps it's time Singapore relax the "no dialect" move a little bit and allow movies in Cantonese and Hokkien to be screend in Singapore and on national TV. After all, the Taiwanese have no need for such campaign, and yet most speak impeccable Mandarin and are well versed in Hokkien. Do the Taiwanese know something that Singaporeans don't?
Tigerfish: The meme you did on the bloggers stranded in an island was almost a "literature masterpiece" which made for a fun read. Hehehe... You're so humble. Engerish so good still say "half-cooked". Can cook so well still say "not very good". Hahaha
Victor: Unker, mian xian is Mandarin; Mee Xua is Hokkien. Pse, you're barking up the wrong tree. The contentious issue here is the inability to understand dialect, not Mandarin. I think most of our non-Chinese Singaporeans understand dialects better than Chinese... Dun think so? Juz ask your Indian colleague working in the same room as you....
Jayne: I thought the big CTW is already here? Woa, your Mandarin is 一流wan. But does Jaymes know dialect?
As for the 6 bloggers thingy... aiyah... nobody say must play by the rule wat... the more the merrier mah... I almost wanted to include Don, the nonagenarian blogger who put many of us younger bloggers to shame.... I'm sure he would enthral us with many of his life's adventures and stories in the island ....
las montañas: My sentiment exactly. Many of our kids speak Singlish, and broken Mandarin. That includes my kids. Blame Puah Choo Kang (PCK) lor... But as long as they know how to switch between Singlish and proper English, I think they'd be fine....
Chun See: No lah Chun See, the Indian Lady spoke perfectly. How difficult it is to pronounce Mee Pok? You're always giving people the benefit of doubt one, in this case to the kids. Dun be to quick to judge the Indian Lady's pronunciation can or not?
Oh, you forgot my kids daytime care-giver is my mum who speaks only Hokkien. Bet my kids would win yours hands down when it comes to speaking dialect. Hehehe..
Of course Jaymes knows dialects (Hainanese & Teochew）, and some basic foreign languages like Bahasa Indonesia, Tagalog and Japanese.
The BIG CTW is not here yet..... this is only the beginning.
my hokkien only so so also.
u all should go watch titoudao. hokkien so cheem, i had to look at the subtitles! shh... i din say it here. haha....
Chris, drop by to ask permission to link you, if "yes" then can you tell me what kind of dish you want to sell at my kopitiam, so I can set up your "stall" for you. Thanks.
Alamak, I'm guilty of not being able to speak dialects oso ler...how? Chinese can speak, read a bit, completely cannot write(if u wondering how i got chinese words on posts/blog-it's ctrl C ctrl v method, k!)
your garmen policy all liddat wan lar-all got backlash wan. Once upon a time, "two is enough"...now then complain "four also not enuff"!...last time cannot have dialect on TV...now say can allow a bit of dialect...we all got rubber-band tongue meh!
You ask what Taiwanese know that we don't-they know how to fight in parliament leh, we don't!!!
And you thot switch from engrish to cambridge english so easy meh...need skills wan you know!
So you, on the ground has a truer picture from observer from helicopter leh!
Chris, I'm familiar with the dialect issue in S'pore, but couldn't agree more with las montanas and tiger... i think the s'pore govt should take most of the blame, for being so shortsighted and for wanting everyone to be an all rounder. not a bad thing per se, but must make sure you have quality teachers out there, too, right? haiyah.. nowadays seems as if anyone can be an English teacher in s'pore, warts and all!
Excuse me, shilpa, you tokking about me?
wah lau ECL, no lah, din even know you taught English! ;-) but I have other teacher friends who do, and seriously, I have little hope for the next generation's English
Chaam - have to hide face liao. My youngest doesn't know what is mee-kia. Dare not ask the other 2.
>>Do the Taiwanese know something that Singaporeans don't?
Yes, and that is, listen to the people.
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