Thursday, November 26, 2009
Irritated
Read in today's Strait Times forum..That a person is complaining and is requesting for MT to be not as critical in PSLE.
As much as what he said is true,
that the medium for business transactions and spoken language is not going to be Chinese internationally any time soon,
I think it is rather disappointing for a person with a Chinese background to turn their backs on the language itself.
Due to the mere fact that his son is unable to get a satisfying A in the recent exams for MT,
like all his other subjects have,
he is requesting for MT to be not as critical in the PSLE.
And his point is that, due to the ugly mark of C in the PSLE certificate,
his son will be in a school unworthy of his brain?
Is that how Singaporeans wants to project their image as?
Kiasu?
Firstly,
The Chinese language is a profound and beautiful language that oughts and deserves to be respected.
Not to be treated as a language that is looked down upon.
In the reign of emperors in ancient history, where globalisation is still unfound,
It's MT that brought our cultures today.
If we ever deny MT as our background,
wouldnt we be an empty shell that is only beautiful on the outside,
but empty on its inside?
Secondly,
What makes us unique in Singapore, is our races.
Our multiracialism.
How many countries in the world could have people from so many various races living and interacting with each other?
Given our short history of only about 44 years,
it is impossible to create a language of our own.
Much less the Singapore borne, Singlish.
Differences in our backgrounds created a platform for people from different countries to interact.
Given that humans prefer familiarity,
it is more reasonable that countries prefer to work with those that are "familiar".
And that they are similiar in some ways or other.
Thirdly,
The reason as to why MT is included in the PSLE, O levels and national examinations,
is part of a process to nurture bilingual elites.
It does not mean that a person can do exceptionally well in both languages,
but time has shown us that it is possible for a child to handle both langauges at the same time.
And moreover, some of the students could even handle a third language.
Who said that a person could only do a language at a time?
Language is alive.
It is not about memorsing a textbook or memorising good phrases and idioms.
It is about using and speaking it.
If the parent do not use it themselves, how can they wish for their child to excel?
We are not born geniuses, but we can work hard to become geniuses.
By removing or reducing the importance of MT in national exams, it is short-sighted.
Based on the erroneous misbelief that both languages could not coexist, we are shortchanging ourselves into believeing that one language is superior and the other inferior.
And in actual fact, there is no such thing.
For example, in chinese, each character is profoundly complex and have meanings behind them.
What about alphabets, the building block of English?
ABC? What meaning do they possess?
We say, A for apple. But just, what is "A"?
In addition, I feel that English letters are oddly similiar to Greek.
Alpha in Greek, Beta in Greek.
Makes up "Alphabet" of English.
Check the dictionary, English words do not have pure English background,
For example, "pathos", based on the Greek meaning of "foreign bodies".
Just how much percent of English words are based on the genuine Old English?
We dont use Shakespeare's "Thy" and "Thou" these days, do we?
We get English only after British colonialism, and it is NOT our language.
