How important is the Mandarin Language to Singaporean Youths? |
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By Smith Leong
• A video showing Singaporean youths speaking Mandarin (or something that is supposedly Mandarin) was posted online.
• The video basically shows us how bad the Mandarin standard is amongst youths in Singapore despite them scoring fairly decent grades at their Chinese GCE O Level exams. GUILTY AS CHARGED To make these youths feel a little little better, the video has garnered hundreds of likes and almost 2,000 shares and mostly because they can all relate to it.  AND THIS EPIC REPLY IS EPIC...  If you can’t read Mandarin, this lady basically mentioned that Mandarin is important because you can shop for cheap stuff on Taobao. Yup. Life skills 101. YOU DIDN'T ASK ME, BUT Remember the whole “mistake” in our education system and bilingual policy? So now we are neither good with English nor Mandarin? Is it really the case with most Singaporean youths or is it just a matter of how the subjects in the video were picked to portray this message? Do we simply blame it on our education system or is it a case like what the young man pointed out that it has more to do with what is being spoken at home? (Or rather… NOT spoken?)  What is language learning to us? Is it a matter of knowing it well? Learning (enough) to speak and communicate or just a matter of passing the annual exams?  P.S. Is it me or this problem doesn’t seem to exist in communities which speak other mother tongues? Anyone with insights on this? This article first appeared on Five Stars And A Moon. It is reproduced with permission. |
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