13 October 2011:
你會曉福建話無？
快哋嚟睇嚇呢段視頻先！(You may directly skip to 1:11 to avoid the introduction about television in Singapore.)
If you are below 18 years of age, I am almost certain of two things: (1) You don't know who these two are; (2) You don't know what they are talking about.
How many of us below 18 know how to speak Hokkien, Teochew, or Cantonese? I suppose many of us probably hear it from our grandparents or parents or relatives, but how many of us actually take interest in it and learn it?
It's easy to see why dialect is losing its selective participation nowadays. First, there was the policy of having no dialect. Secondly, dialect was seen as being useless in daily life.
In September 1979, the Speak Mandarin Campaign was launched in Singapore. Soon after, dialect was being banned on television, radio, and almost any other media platform. The reason for this policy was that Singaporeans were unable to be competent bilingually, and dialect usage at home was the main reason for it.
Hence, dialect was banned. 30+ years later, it has become that dialect is almost like a lost art in Singapore. Sure, you can still hear it occasionally in public transport and hawker centres, but who are these people speaking in dialect?
It is 99.9% adults. Adults who have learnt dialect before or slightly after 1979. I would say that people born in the 1990s have almost no knowledge of dialect. The only time they would be forced to say it is when their grandparents who don't know English or Chinese uses it to communicate. Again, that is very rare too. Most grandparents nowadays know how to speak Chinese, and they would not use dialect to speak to their grandchildren anymore.
To the 99.9% of people out there, dialect is probably so insignificant. It seems so, anyway. Simple reasoning would state that if dialect is so important nowadays, why would most people not use it anymore?
But I am the 0.1% that finds dialect important. Of course, dialect can never be more important than our English and Chinese, but it is of importance too.
Singapore dialects are very unique. In fact, I would say that all dialects are unique, not only Singaporean ones. Dialects, like languages, reflect some viewpoints or trends in particular generations. They are very colloquial, and you can see from there a unique perspective of history or geography.
For example, the colloquial Singaporean hokkien term for Indian is "geh-leng-ah". This phrase is not present in 閩南語, which is the "standard" for Hokkien. Why then, would this phrase come to existence?
There are two versions. (1) The Indians in Singapore used to live mainly in Serangoon (think Town Plan by Crawfurd in 1823). And somewhere in that area, there was a street called "geh-leng". And "ah" means fellows. So the Indians were known to be "geh-leng-ah", or the fellows from "geh-leng" street. After a while, of course, people misused the phrase, and it became slightly derogatory.
(2) Another version would be that the Indians used to handle cows, and they used a bell to assist them. Because the bell keeps making the sound of "kling-klang", people used the sounds and called them "kling-klang" fellows. Personally, I believe the first version, since I have seen the street name before, but I forgot what it was in Chinese. However, the second version was told to me by my grandmother, and of course that would be rather reliable too, since she lived in that era.
But regardless of either version, I think it is evident that these dialects actually reflect our way of life. In 閩南語, there's a phrase "細漢煩惱伊袂大，大漢煩惱伊袂娶". This phrase reflects parents' worry. See how dialect is so apt at capturing our various ways of life. And because dialect is so unique to an area, it makes the phrase even more precious.
Yet, people are "abandoning" dialect. On the one hand, I don't blame them: it was a policy to ban dialect too. On the other hand, why would they throw away such a valuable piece of their culture?
If our dialect vanishes within the next 50 years, a lot of valuable history and information about the way we speak or live may be lost. Dialect will be something like a rare art. Some people think that losing our dialects in Singapore is not a big deal; since we came from China, there will surely be dialects left in China, where there are so many people speaking them.
But no, it is not true. Like I said earlier, dialects are very unique. The China form of Hokkien in Fukkien province will definitely not have "geh-leng-ah" in their vocabulary, and their grammar will surely be different from us slightly. Singapore is only 40+ years old, and it would be saddening to see such a unique part of our culture and heritage go.
And even if you want to learn a dialect now, it's also too late. You can't go online to learn, because Singaporean dialects are not online. The only ones you can find are those from China or Taiwan, and they are not local at all. The only way you can do so is by approaching your elders who are still around, and talking to them. Yet, how many are willing to do so? This item will surely be at utmost low priority in anyone's To-do list, if it can ever get in.
Of course, there is slightly more freedom on dialect nowadays. It wasn't the case last time. If a radio broadcaster or TV personality accidentally blurted out one word or two in dialect, he / she would be fined. Which, personally, I don't see the point. It's alright to fine someone if an entire program of dialect is being played, you can say that it may affect people that are trying to grasp Chinese and English at the same time, since they need to learn the dialect too.
But how does one word affect these people? Chances are, they would probably know the word already, so it doesn't hinder their progress. And even if they did not know the phrase prior to this, and even if they set out to find out what the word was, it's not as if their bilinguality will drop significantly! It's just a word ...
Anyways, back to where I was. There are slight allowances of dialect now on TV or radio, like the infamous 我問天 song that played for countless months every day at 7 pm. Or that Yes! 933 DJ 坤華 could sneak in 蘋果 in Cantonese for his program's trailer.
Hopefully, more people will appreciate dialect, and there will be more chances of using dialect next time. Of course, most of all, I hope that the ban on dialect will be removed. Compare it with all the housing, transport, and education policy that the government needs to fine-tune now, I am sure they'll surely place no importance on it now. So let's see if it ever gets lifted ... :')