Love Thy Language

"Cher, fail Chinese never mind right?"

Such is a remark that surprised me from one so young. True, going to the next level, or even higher education, does not require you to pass your Chinese Language. But to fail any single subject at the entry level, isn't that very telling of how well you have fared? Can one imagine what would be the outcome 3 years later, when the standard will be much higher?

Language takes a long time to improve, and only improves with constant usage, which includes reading, writing, listening and speaking. If you are one of those who only speak when the situation requires you to, things will only go downhill from here, as you will end up with less and less words to convey your thoughts into messages for others to receive. Likewise, if you think just reading through (or not even bothering to read) textbooks just before the eve of a language paper can do wonders, then you are wrong again. The cumulation of non-submission of work, non-reading of printed materials for a prolonged period of time will do much more harm than a week or even a year of focused study. Try not reading any text which has English Language for a year and you will find your mastery of the langauge stagnating or even detoriating.

French speak French, and the Japanese speak Japanese because they are proud of their heritage. The British and Americans speak English because it is their rightful language. For us in Singapore, we follow our racial roots, speaking our Mother Tongues and English because it is the administrative language in this country. Should one day come when all races in Singapore are unable to speak their own mother tongue (God forbid), then we have truly lost our identity and advantage of having a bilingual education. Why? The Mainland Chinese are starting to speak English in their nursery and primary schools, the English are starting to learn Mandarin at age 10. Should foreigners speak better than us in the languages we claim to know, where does that put us in the global arena? What do we become?

如果你不能够理解我接下来所要说的，那你应该是从来没有学过中文，因为中国人、台湾人、香港人、还有世界各地的华人都应该看得懂中文字。随着英国一些学校推行所有学生必须在10岁开始学习中文，以及法国和韩国的中文热，世上应该有越来越多人讲华语、写中文字。我虽称不上什么语言专家或天才，但我还能以自己懂得两种语言为荣。可是现在已经有越来越西方国家开始学中文，而中国开始全面推广学英文，我们双语的优势即将消失。

当然，许多目光短浅的国人可能会说：“我在我国只要懂得英语就行”，可是与欧洲各地的人民相比，我们是差得太远了。美国前国务卿阿尔布莱特(Madeline Albright)懂得6种语言，在国外与其他国家领袖谈判时，几乎不需要依赖翻译员。即使是一般的欧洲人，他们也至少会2、3种语言，其中当然少不了自己的母语。

学两种或以上的语言真的那么重要吗？是的。因为一旦我们和其他国家相比，自己的语文水平比不上，对自己民族的文化、历史、习俗的了解也不深，那我们还有脸面对世界吗？如果连邻国马来西亚的华人都觉得掌握自己的母语很重要，那我们是不是应该更认真去把自己的语言学好，并且再努力学习其他语言，才能更有能力面对将来的各个挑战呢？自己的将来都掌握在自己手中，选择在于自己。

要是真的轻易就说放弃，那和一个少了一只手的人有什么不同？