Back to the days when I was in high school, there was this star student, a brilliant Chinese boy who was the son of a school principal. The boy had just got his examination results and when he was asked for his performance in his English paper, he blushed. He was so embarrassed that he did not get a distinction but really, he did not do that badly. He got a B and he was just embarrassed because he had spoken English his entire life, with both his family and friends alike and thus, had expected more. There is no doubt that languages play an important role in our lives. A human being learns to speak his native language and this native language accordingly gives him his identity. Oversea Chinese sometimes faces problems with languages. Besides having to grapple with the problem of mastering their own mother tongue, there are the national language and the International Language to think of. In the process of living in such a complex society, some oversea Chinese like the brilliant boy do lose their own mother tongue especially when the family emphasizes on the national or international language which some believe to have a more economic clout.
Perhaps, the story of the first premier of Singapore, Mr. Lee Kuan Yew, should be shared here. The premier had studied for two years in Choon Guan Chinese School but later was sent to English schools to complete both his primary and secondary education. The switch was to make him educated and the equal of any Englishman, supposedly then a model of perfection. The switch wiped out what little Chinese education he had from his mind but he had this to say in his speech of 1972 ‘I was foolish enough when I was young not to listen to my grandmother who sent me to Chinese school to learn Chinese. With the language, went the fables and proverbs, a whole value system and a whole philosophy of life’
Is losing a mother tongue such a tragedy?
Comments
Forgoten lithuanian I feel as my mother tongue (after 30 years I could read and understand it!!!). Italian is only learned one.
I worked with ukrainian children that came to their mthers in Italy and go to school here. They don't know their language and literature so as they are learned in school. Now they learn italian and identify themselves as italians. But italians don't identify them as italians, they see only foreigners speaking italian language.
So, they have the ukrainian roots broken, but will never become real italians. They are persons without roots. THIS is the tragedy, not the language as fenomen.