Why Learn Chinese?

by Eunoia Junior College

During my internship, I noticed a girl who was not proficient in the Chinese language but was incredibly attentive in the Secondary 3 class I was teaching. Whenever I taught Chinese composition writing, she would copy down all the model sentences incessantly. Afterwards, she would annotate every single new Chinese vocabulary in English. Teachers all love hardworking students, do they not? Just then, I felt that I should be ashamed of myself if I don’t manage to teach her well.

Yet, her answer to a survey questionnaire shocked me – she did not like the Chinese language at all. To her, it was useless. I went to her after class the next day, hoping to talk about her response. She was practising for tingxie (Chinese spelling) with her classmates then. Once again, she admitted that she disliked the language and felt that it was difficult. 

Nonetheless, she was indeed studious. She diligently practised writing the new Chinese characters that would be tested for spelling, again and again. She said that even if she had memorised the words by heart, she would still forget them shortly after the tingxie test. “Is Chinese really useful?” She asked me in all sincerity.

I was at a loss for words. The Chinese language is definitely of use if one wishes to connect with the Chinese-speaking world or work with China, a rising superpower, then the Chinese language will definitely be of use. There was a series of advertisements a few years back, in which Caucasian cast members could pronounce Chinese words more clearly than I can. At the end of the advertisements, the slogan “华文谁怕谁（I don’t fear you, Chinese!)” was flashed on the screen. These advertisements were, in fact, screened as part of the Speak Mandarin Campaign. How could one say that the Chinese language is impractical when even the Caucasians were speaking it now? But the word “fear” stood out too much to be ignored. Had I shown those advertisements to my students, I was afraid that this would have ended tragically.

Perhaps I should have reiterated that the Chinese ought to learn to speak Mandarin? I was reminded of another incident with another class, which I had gone to relief-teach. Their  learning attitudes then were atrocious. 

I asked one of the girls, “Don’t you want to properly grasp the Chinese language?”

She replied with a question, “Why should I? I’m not even Chinese.” It turned out that she was from another race, and I was left speechless. 

What exactly is the point of learning languages? What’s wrong with not learning your mother tongue? “Don’t you find it hard to study Chinese?” Another teacher intern asked  me. Even though she was born in China, she was raised in Singapore and had wholly embraced the Singaporean way of life. I could not have told her apart from any other Singaporeans.  “It is easier to form words in English. And even if there is a word you don’t understand, you can still somewhat spell it. But for Chinese, you have to get all the strokes correct in order to form a character. When picking up a language, isn’t it most important that words are easy to form? ”

“Easy”– a key word that is ever so closely linked to the concept of practicality.

Is the Chinese language challenging to pick up? According to the experiences of Singapore’s founding Prime Minister, Mr Lee Kuan Yew, it is a language that requires hard work. The speech he made during his book launch had a lasting impression on me. 

He expressed, “It would be tough to survive in Singapore if one does not know how to speak English; it will be your lifelong regret if you do not know how to speak Mandarin. We should learn to speak Mandarin not because of the rise of China’s economy, but  to understand our  cultural roots.” One would have mistaken these stirring words as those that would have been spoken by Chinese education advocates. He might have indeed felt remorseful. However, Singapore’s education policies for the Chinese language currently focus mainly on the spoken tongue, not so much on reading and writing. While Chinese lessons are  undoubtedly much easier  now, are we able  we preserve our  cultural roots this way?

Then again, which is more important: to understand one’s cultural heritage, or to be more practical? 

The little girl told me, “What’s the problem? My friends and I  speak in English in school all the time.” She sounded almost identical to those“successful” figures who disdainfully brag, “I only speak English. Even so, I can still afford to live in a big house and drive a big car.” 

Ardent supporters of the English language policies would confidently claim, “Singapore would not have been able to reach where it is today if English had not been the main language.”

We can’t possibly turn back time. If Chinese were to be Singapore’s main language from the very start, what would Singapore be like now? For a start, Singlish– something that we now take much pride in– probably would not have existed.  Also, how would the different ethnic groups communicate with one another? Would our economy still prosper as it does now? The essentiality of English in modern Singapore  is not one to be arbitrarily questioned. It would be difficult for Mandarin Chinese to go head to head with the English language taking into consideration pragmatism and the assumption that one can only master one language.  it may even be accused of being an impediment that burdens Singapore and hinders her from moving forward. Is Chinese that important? My English-educated friends barely spoke Chinese in their lives. Yet, they are still doing well. It is not fair to assume that they are failing at life, is it?

If Mandarin is so unpopular and unwelcomed, even less needs to be said about dialects. Singapore’s Speak Mandarin Campaign has been implemented for 30 years and seemed to have  made remarkable results.  Youths in Singapore hardly know any dialects now. Has the sacrifice of dialects increased the Chinese proficiency of Singaporean youths? Definitely not. In fact, quite the opposite. I often have to use English to aid in my teaching, but I could never use Hokkien or Cantonese to explain certain words. What should I tell the students? Should I say that dialects are not our mother tongues? Or that dialects play no significance in preserving our cultural roots??

As a mere relief teacher, I stopped myself from elaborating further into ethnic pride or languages being the medium in preserving cultural identity.  Instead, I only explained the formation of the Chinese characters briefly, using the few words that I had tested them to write in the tingxie. No one will ever ask if a piece of art is “useful” when created, would they? Even if she has yet to recognise the beauty of Chinese characters, at least it would be less tedious for her to prepare for tingxie. 

   “That is actually quite interesting,” she said as I was about to leave. And those genuine words were enough to soothe my heart. 

Nevertheless, there are some things which I still cannot get over. If the purpose of studying is to find out more about the world, we should start by understanding ourselves better. It is always a shame when people wish to know more about themselves but do not know much about their own culture  or mother tongue. And what is even more of a pity is when any race completely loses grasp of languages that were once theirs, never knowing what they had lost.

Afterword: I wrote this article to pen down my thoughts in July 2012,  after a 4-week internship at a neighbourhood secondary school in Singapore.

Translated by Yew Rui En Rachel

游睿蒽 (20-A1)

为什么要学华文

上个月当实习老师时，我注意到我中三班上有个小女生，华文程度不好，但上课时很专心。老师教写作时给的例句，她一直抄一直抄；然后在每个生词旁都写下英语注释，一直写一直写。老师都喜欢好学的学生吧。那时候就觉得，若教不好这样的学生，我是应该感到愧疚的。

但后来填调查问卷时她的答案却有点出乎我的意外。她完全不喜欢华文，她觉得华文没用。隔天课后找她聊聊，那时她在和她同学练习听写。她再次坦承她不喜欢华文，说华文很难。但她的确是个很乖的学生，要听写的那几个生词，她很努力地写了一遍又一遍。她说背熟后听写过关了，也就会忘了。她很诚恳地问我说：华文真的有用吗？

我该怎么回答她呢？如果要在华人世界生存，要和崛起的中国打交道，华文当然有用。几年前新加坡有一组广告，里面几个洋人把华语说得比我还字正腔圆，广告最后打出“华文谁怕谁”的字样，竟是“讲华语运动”的广告。洋人都讲华语了，你能说华文没用吗？但那“怕”字太突出了，如果要我把那组广告播给学生看，我怕会徒生悲凉。

或许我该和她重申“华人就该学华语”的论调？我没有。我只想起了另一班的学生。那时候我去代课，班上几位同学的学习态度都很差。我问其中一位女生：“你难道不想学好华文？”她反问我：“我又不是华人，为什么要学华文？”这让我无言以对的居然是位马来同胞。

学语言到底需要什么目的？不学母语有错吗？和我一起实习的一位老师，来自中国，但自小在新加坡长大，已十足是个新加坡人的样子。她用英语问我，你不觉得华语难学吗？英语容易拼写，听到不懂的生词也可以大概拼写出来，不似汉字一笔一画都讲究。语言难道不是容易写最重要吗？

“容易”，那可是个和“实用”紧紧扣实的关键词啊。

华文难学吗？以新加坡建国总理李光耀的经历来说，那是需要“苦学”才能掌握的。记得去年他在新书首发仪式上的一番话，令我印象相当深刻：“要在新加坡生存，没有英语会很辛苦，没有华语你会后悔莫及，并不是因为中国崛起，是因为你自己要了解你自己的根。”俨然华教人士口吻，闻之足以动容。我相信他是真有悔意的。但如今新加坡的华文教育政策，只重口语，不重读写，易则易矣，却要如何保住文化的根？

话说回来，是了解自己的根重要还是实用重要？

小女生用英语和我说：“我在学校和朋友都讲英语的，一点问题也没有。”

有所谓成功人士语带不屑：“我只讲英语，还不是住那么大间的房，驾那么大辆的车。”

英语政策的铁杆支持者言之凿凿：“新加坡若不是以英语为第一语言，根本无法取得今天的成就。”

历史无法重来，新加坡当初若以华语为第一语言，如今会落入何等境地，恐怕没人能预测得了。大概没有那Singlish来引以为豪了吧？各族之间会怎么沟通呢？不会有如今的繁荣昌盛了吗？当今英文的重要性，没有人可以随便置疑。实用主义加上鱼与熊掌二选一的假定，华文忽然好像变得很难与英文正面交锋了，一不小心甚至变成会拖累国家前进的包袱。华语就那么重要吗？多少受英文教育的朋友，一辈子没讲几句华语，也是活得好好的，岂可就此说他们做人失败？

华语如此，方言就更不用说了。新加坡“讲华语运动”推行了三十年，效果可谓显著，年轻一辈的新加坡人，通晓方言的已寥寥无几。牺牲了“没用”的方言，华文程度却不升反降。我在课堂上频频以英语辅助教学，却无法用福建话或广东话来解释特定词语了。面对学生，我该怎么说呢？方言不是属于我们的语言吗？方言里没有文化吗？

所以那天我这小小的代课老师没和那学生说什么民族大义，也没谈语言如何承载文化，我只就她听写的那几个词讲了些汉字的造字法。就像画一幅画时不会问“这幅画有用吗？”一样那么纯粹。如果她还无法体会到文字的优美，至少听写也不必学得那么辛苦吧。临别时她诚恳地说：“That is actually quite interesting.”足慰我心矣。

但有些事情我还是无法释怀的。如果说读书求学是为了更了解这个世界，那了解世界当从了解自己开始。想了解自己而不了解自己的民族、不了解自己的母语，那总是教人可惜的。而更教人可惜的是，一个民族完全忘却原本属于自己的语言，却再也不知道自己已缺失了些什么。

后记：2012年7月，于新加坡邻里中学实习四周后有所感慨，遂作此文以记之。

作者：庄祖邦

(Eunoia Junior College MTL Department)  

我为何选择翻译本作品：我想翻译这篇文章的原因有几。第一， 我能够跟这篇文章产生共鸣。我认为现代青少年大多都没有意识到华文的重要性，所以他们才会以那么不认真的态度学习这门语言。第二，我觉得很多人都对学习华文有特别大的误解。比如：很多人都以为华文是个特别枯燥的科目，字不但有很多不同的笔画，词语还有无数个搭配方式，实在难以掌握。其实，换个角度来说，学习华文何尝不是件有趣的事。因此，我想通过翻译《为什么要学华文》，利用既朴实，又有趣的故事情节，将华文推广给更多青少年。