Chinese topic

During the Chinese New Year, I attended the group worship near the oil pond subway station. I saw a banner at the intersection, which read the three characters "He New Year", and the photos of the deputy prime minister of Huang Xuncai were printed next to the New Year.

This horizontal bar is extremely eye -catching, and the person who sees it seems to hear that Deputy Prime Minister Huang is loudly giving the residents in Chinese.The story is not over yet. When I was about to take the elevator, I found that there was a large "wealth" posted next to the elevator. I looked closely and found that the "Deputy Prime Minister and Treasury Minister Huang Xun Cai" said below.

Chinese New Year likes to hear "Congratulations on getting rich". Vice Premier Huang's name has the word "wealth". It is just the Minister of Finance. The folks generally laugh at him "God of Wealth".This is the ingenious imagination caused by the unique and multi -meaning of the block. I believe that those who understand Chinese will make a smile when they look at it.Obviously, if the congratulations only use English, you can't play this taste.

At this time, a child pointed at the words of the wealth and asked the parents around him in English: "What does this mean?" The mother's answer was: "Fortune (wealth)".The child suddenly realized that this Chinese character was obviously strange to him.

We still see many parliamentarians hanging banners in the government's house area, congratulating residents of the happy New Year, and Chinese congratulatory words are often attached to the banner.Although some of these English congratulations have already occupied a larger and more prominent position, it is still a must.

Political leaders insist on taking the lead in using Chinese in the most important festivals of the Chinese people.If even Chinese New Year cannot be used widely in Chinese New Year, when will Chinese language be used and where can it be used?How can young people believe that Chinese has an irreplaceable position in inheritance culture?

In addition to political leaders, we have also seen some company institutions for decades. During the Lunar New Year, the New Year's New Year to the public, the display board in front of the new MRT bus appeared in the Chinese language of "Jade Rabbit Welcome to Spring, Entering Ping An".Congratulations, instead of replacing Chinese pinyin or English, let people feel a persistence of the company's maintenance of cultural traditions.

It is ensured that Chinese festivals, especially Chinese, can continue to maintain a place of martial arts during the Chinese New Year. It sounds like a very urgent event, but the long -term is related to the success of Singapore's bilingual education.For a young Chinese who are more than ten or twenty, a so -called mother tongue that does not need to use in the Chinese New Year can be imagined.

I believe that some readers have noticed the trend of Chinese Chinese gradually fading during the Chinese New Year."Happy New Year" has obviously become the top Chinese Chinese New Year congratulatory words, and young people are rarely congratulated in Chinese."It is now replaced by the English version of" Wishing You A Prosperous Chinese New Year "; English -led network and social media platforms generally like to use Roman Pinyin's" dialect congratulations ", such as" huat ah! "(Send ah!), Even if Chinese characters appear in the room, it is more as a background embellishment.

A friend received an electronic greeting card from a local public institution and found that there was no Chinese language on it.He said with a bitter smile: "I received an electronic card from a friend from American friends, at least there was a big blessing on it."

Chinese losses in the Chinese New Year stage that originally belonged to it, just reflecting the dilemma of its continuous use in Singapore.A language that has no practical use in life and can be replaced at any time is difficult to be grasped for a long time.I learned Japanese in college, and I was able to interpret the Japanese roommates in the dormitory for a while, but the Japanese I met at work after graduation can speak English.The available language is naturally deserted.

It can be imagined that the pure English greeting card received by a friend is just one of the widespread use of Singaporean companies.No matter whether it is a decision maker or a designer, it is inevitable that most people can read English anyway. Why add less familiar Chinese characters and bother themselves?This kind of "logic" is easily used in other things that are large and small, such as many single -language signboards, signs, notices, menu, and pure English operation mobile software that has a headache for many years.To this logical trace.

Of course, the most dangerous thing about the "logic" of Er Er is that as long as it is more than 20 years, all Chinese people can understand English and whether they need to use the "problem" of Chinese language to naturally solve them.If we do not do anything according to the current development trend, the Chinese community in Singapore will likely go to that step.

Young people who do not choose to worship each other in Chinese are now accounted for the majority, and it seems unlikely that they suddenly change their language habits in their middle age.In the case of most Chinese people using English as a lifestyle, Chinese use space can only be further compressed, such as to help children speak Chinese and speak Chinese and facilitate Chinese passengers.

But is this the result of our joy?Li Guangyao, the founding of the country, has repeatedly called on the Chinese parents to communicate with their children at home with Chinese language at home and hand over the tasks that teach their children English to the school, which is to point out the key factor of "learning Chinese must create a favorable environment" to the public.Unless you can continue to use Chinese in your life, it is easy to master this ancient Chinese language that is completely different from English.

Li Guangyao's speech at the 30th anniversary ceremony of the Chinese Movement in 2009, it is clear that this dilemma is clear: "As more and more families speak English, it is a big problem to learn Chinese.The main challenges faced by the Chinese Movement are not the struggle between Chinese and dialects, but to reverse the trend of English speaking English. "

14 years have passed, and his words are still in his ear.We must ask ourselves honestly: Does the trend of Li Guangyao's deep concerns reversed?Can the family environment and external social environment create more favorable conditions for the learning of Chinese?If not, can we do something quickly to ensure that children will not lose their roots as a Chinese in Singapore, and continue to retain their competitive advantages in a future world with equal emphasis on Chinese and English?

The author is current affairs commentator