Tuesday, March 04, 2008
Today I saw an article in the papers, that set off this entry.
Not long ago, at our Changi Airport, an angry tourist made a complaint, in fluent English. It turned out that when she was exchanging for foreign currency, the other party gave her what I called a 'speech insult'. Apparantly, the person on duty showed bad manners.
Both parties involved are Chinese. One is from China, and the other, a Singaporean.
Troubles arose when the tourist communicated with the teller in Mandarin, but the latter told her colleague in English,"I don't know what she is talking about!" This seriously hurt the tourist's pride, so this created an unhappy atmosphere. Actually, that staff can speak Mandarin, because when her superior intervened to make peace, she explained her standpoint in Mandarin.
If that staff replied in Mandarin right from the beginning, wouldn't things be peaceful for both parties?
There really is a need for us to review on whether do we subconsciously always think that it's superior to be able to speak English. To add on, why do some of us find it unbearable to listen to a strong Chinese accent? Do we still want to blindly continue having this sense of superiority in language? If the answer is 'yes', then it would be a matter of time that we'll be left behind by the international community. With a population of more than 10 billion, China is moving towards the World, fitting into the international society's economy, and many people from different countries in the world are learning Chinese language. Do we still want to remain ignorant, with no foresight, thinking that the world is centralised in Singapore?
It is unfortunate that we have some of the Singaporean Chinese who are ignorant of China's development. There may be some black sheeps from China who committed crimes in Singapore, but those were only from a small group who brought disgrace to their country. Also, most could only see Chinese nationals as laborers in Singapore. In fact, there are more who are executives, and probably would not take Singapore market seriously. Why are we feeling so complacent of ourselves? I remember that when I was in Hong Kong for business, my (ex) colleagues from other countries were very impressed that I was able to converse in English and Mandarin well. I could still recall how proud I was to hear that. They even thought that Singaporeans could only speak English. I've friends who idolised the West and other countries like Japan. Moreover, they think it's cool. When comes to speaking Mandarin as a laughing stock, few will come to the defense of our mother tongue. This is an unfair attack on China. Our government gives us the opportunity to master 2 languages, it's a pity that some could only succeed in one. It is not cool at all to be bad in Mandarin. In addition, you are my laughing stock if as a Chinese, you know nuts about the Chinese language.
狗不嫌母丑，子不嫌家贫。
Posted by Buzz and Mulan at 10:31 PM