[lg policy] Singapore: To safeguard bilingualism, do not bring back [Chinese] dialects

[Harold Schiffman]

 To safeguard bilingualism, do not bring back dialects

Francis Cheng Choon Fei
Published: 10:05 PM, August 25, 2015

Mr Liew Kai Khiun argues that the “Govt policy against Chinese dialects may
be ripe for review” (Aug 22). That is a slippery slope towards disaster.

Mr Lee Kuan Yew, when he was Prime Minister, paid a political price in
sacrificing dialects and encouraging people to speak Mandarin. If we
backtrack, we fail to safeguard his legacy: The benefits of bilingualism.
This would affect our next generation.

Bringing back dialects may lead to the older generation speaking in dialect
to their children and grandchildren. If dialects eventually replace the
common use of Mandarin, that would contradict Singapore’s language policy.

Our Government used dialects in video clips in special circumstances: To
help pioneers understand the Pioneer Generation Package and MediShield
Life, which are important policies.

We cannot cite that as an example to advocate the revival of dialects or do
that for every policy due to resource constraints.

If we bring back dialects, years of effort to promote bilingualism —
allowing us to maintain the use of English as the working language,
supplemented by Mandarin for conversation in the community — may go to
waste.

While the desire for the young to learn dialects for heritage reasons is
understandable, there is also a risk of de-emphasising bilingualism, and
the Government must choose bilingualism over dialects.

One must remember the core objective of the Speak Mandarin Campaign: To
enable everybody to understand a homogeneous spoken mother tongue instead
of multiple dialects.

English as the common language enabled Singapore to progress, flourish and
connect with the West, while Mandarin helped to unite the
Chinese-Singaporean community, helped them to communicate easily with
Chinese overseas as well as preserved our roots and culture.

We should maintain the status quo. Our Government did not put a complete
stop to dialects. There are DVDs in dialects available in shops. There are
dialect news reports on the radio and dialect classes run by clan
associations.

We must acknowledge that it is impossible to revive dialects fully in
Singapore, given the nature of our bilingual education, which has helped
students to connect with others globally while staying anchored to their
culture.

Nor it is our Government’s intention to make dialects extinct. When deemed
necessary, the state would accord more space for dialects, such as in getai
and opera shows, and its use in the media to promote important policies.

http://www.todayonline.com/voices/safeguard-bilingualism-do-not-bring-back-dialects


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