Missed Multi-lingual Moments
I shall cut to the chase after having drafted and lost an entire draft.
Opinion: It is really really cool to be able to switch between 2 world languages. You will get so much more out of life. (By world language I mean any language that can claim to be used by people across two nationalities).
Did you manage to catch the sights and sounds of the recently ended elections? If you did not, you would have lost out on a golden opportunity to hear the voices of the different ethnic groups. Why you might have even heard Foreign Minister BG George Yeo speak in Teochew! Inasmuch as Jack Neo's movies are popular with what in Singapore we call "heartlanders", the chance to hear their dialects intoned was what in fact drove many a curious citizen to the hustings. Everything sounded funnier and coarser in dialect, the words pointed to worlds more plebeian, more in touch with reality, like a comfortable cup of black Kopi with condensed milk sitting at bottom, served elegantly at a hotel instead of downstairs in the familiar kopitiam.
People who needed to hear it all explained in their dialect or mother tongue lapped up the speeches, the rest strained to catch the local joke or witty twist to declared slogans. Mockery has no friend greater than an auntie who gets to hear the jibe in dialect.
So what am I getting at? I wish I could read the Chinese newspapers as well as some secondary school pupils can nowadays. I know schooling has its pressures. But some subjects are not just academic goals to be met. Each language is a unique key to a special room. I know cos I have some doors closed to me. Had I been fluent in Chinese, I would be reading Chinese on the Internet, I would have read Lu Xun and other great Chinese writing in Chinese instead of being beholden to English translations. Now whenever I "get it" in Hokkien, Cantonese or Teochew, it is also a reminder of all the could-have-beens. What could I have missed on other occasions when I couldn't read it or understand it? What experiences passed me by?
They say "Seize the day!". I say "Seize the meaning, grasp what's meant" and fewer moments in life will pass you by. Trust me.
Opinion: It is really really cool to be able to switch between 2 world languages. You will get so much more out of life. (By world language I mean any language that can claim to be used by people across two nationalities).
Did you manage to catch the sights and sounds of the recently ended elections? If you did not, you would have lost out on a golden opportunity to hear the voices of the different ethnic groups. Why you might have even heard Foreign Minister BG George Yeo speak in Teochew! Inasmuch as Jack Neo's movies are popular with what in Singapore we call "heartlanders", the chance to hear their dialects intoned was what in fact drove many a curious citizen to the hustings. Everything sounded funnier and coarser in dialect, the words pointed to worlds more plebeian, more in touch with reality, like a comfortable cup of black Kopi with condensed milk sitting at bottom, served elegantly at a hotel instead of downstairs in the familiar kopitiam.
People who needed to hear it all explained in their dialect or mother tongue lapped up the speeches, the rest strained to catch the local joke or witty twist to declared slogans. Mockery has no friend greater than an auntie who gets to hear the jibe in dialect.
So what am I getting at? I wish I could read the Chinese newspapers as well as some secondary school pupils can nowadays. I know schooling has its pressures. But some subjects are not just academic goals to be met. Each language is a unique key to a special room. I know cos I have some doors closed to me. Had I been fluent in Chinese, I would be reading Chinese on the Internet, I would have read Lu Xun and other great Chinese writing in Chinese instead of being beholden to English translations. Now whenever I "get it" in Hokkien, Cantonese or Teochew, it is also a reminder of all the could-have-beens. What could I have missed on other occasions when I couldn't read it or understand it? What experiences passed me by?
They say "Seize the day!". I say "Seize the meaning, grasp what's meant" and fewer moments in life will pass you by. Trust me.
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