For the Same Reason

When I went to Taiping Sentral on Sunday, I happened to meet a friend who asked me if I know of anyone who could teach French. My friend's daughter had wanted to learn French and I asked aloud, why French, of all languages. For me, it is always better to learn Tamil since there is a large Indian population here and Thai would be the next best. There are local Thais living in little Thai villages and while a number of them could speak Chinese, particularly, the Hokkien dialect, Thailand is not too far away in the north and learning Thai would come in handy when one is to visit Haadyai or Bangkok. My friend's daughter said French is an international language and it would do good to learn it. I suppose learning Mandarin would be good too then, the latter being an international language too; but that aside, I wonder now if my friend's daughter could speak Mandarin. It would not surprised me if she, like some people, places English high up the pedestal and refuses to learn Mandarin, even giving French an honourable second position as the next language to be learned. French is not even spoken here. Without being prodded, my friend went on to add that it would help if the family would to migrate. In 1991, the Chinese community made up 28.1% of Malaysia's 18.38 million population and in 2000, they made up 26% of the country’s 23.27 million population. Chinese analysts attributed the de­­cline to the community’s preference for small families, marrying late, women professionals opting to remain single and migration. My friend had cited a difficult life for wanting to migrate. I thought that would sum up for everyone.

Comments

Liudmila said…
Learning languages is a kind of challenge. Mandarin has to be something "normal" and not interesting, as such.
footiam said…
Mandarin is taught in schools and widely spoken here; so, it is really something normal.
Anonymous said…
You see! Teens need to be different, they don't appreciate normality.
footiam said…
Sometimes, it does not pay to be different.