Forgot to blog it out yesterday.

I was walking to the bus stop after lecture ended, and met with a woman on the way. She was around 40-50 I guess.

So we met, and she stopped me to ask me something.

Then she opened her mouth to fire off a question(presumably about NUS), but paused, and instead asked me "Do you know how to speak Chinese? (In chinese)"

I was really stumped. For a moment I didn't know what to respond until I finally said "Ya (in english lol)."

Then we proceeded to get on with the technical stuff (directing her to PGP and all that) and we parted.

This was a really short incident but it really left me thinking deeply. I guess in a way this reflects how our generation of citizens are gradually seen "abandoning our roots" as so many people claim (especially the older generation). So many people think that in the course for global education, the young generation has discarded the mother tongue in favour for english. Well it does not help that our education is also mainly taught using english.

I read the report in today's newspapers about how Malaysia was going to convert back to making mother tongues the first language in their education system, 6 years after making english the first. My first thought about it was: That's not very good, how to remain globally competitive when these people want to look for a job? Maybe in Malaysia ok, but outside the country or in foreign companies, it will be very hard. However I realised for a huge country to be compared to Singapore is probably not a very fair judgement. Singapore is small to begin with, which makes it easy to administer and control their education policies easily. In Malaysia's case, starting a "english first" policy in their education system was probably a disaster waiting to happen with the severe lack of english-proficient teachers available. That and children who already started learning in their mother tongues really struggle to keep up with the change.

Ok this has probably derailed A LOT. Just wanted to make a point that despite all the criticsms people can say about Singapore giving huge emphasis on english, the govt has made a good point which nobody can reject. The Westerners were the superpowers of history and even till now, it makes sense that we move to their rythmn. In a way, I feel relieved that I'm learning english more than chinese.

Don't say that I'm "throwing away my roots", I'll roll my eyes at you. Maybe I'm not that proficient in Chinese anyway (I'll admit it, it's a little hard for me to remember the characters when I write occasionally and I don't talk too well), but language isn't everything. There are many other things that can signify my ethnicity. Things like consuming Chinese cuisine almost everyday (although I have my western cravings occasionally), watching Chinese shows (yes I do but I just don't tell you. But local shows are really terrible), praying at the temple (I'm not a buddhist anymore but I still do it), believing in Chinese superstitions (which are plain silly, sometimes I tell myself not to do it but I end up doing anyway), celebrating Chinese New Year or other Chinese festivals (mooncake festival! <3) - don't tell me I'm not a Chinese?

Saying that since you don't speak Chinese = abandoning Chinese roots is as good as saying since you learn Korean, you have Korean roots! If that's the case, swee man I go learn Japanese now. I'll throw away all my Chinese customs and be one with Japan. Only then can you say I'm abandoning my roots ok?

But I'm not. I'm still in Singapore, living life like any ordinary average Chinese here. So people who are lambasting our generation as root abandoners(lol at this term I'm using), maybe you should take a step back and think about it. Indeed language is one of the basic building blocks of being Chinese, but I don't think it equates to everything.

Besides, I CAN speak Chinese anyway, just not as well as expected. Gah.



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