Youngster Need Dialect Classes To Communicate

[Mahjong74]

Very sad to know that a lot of Chinese youngsters nowadays don't even

know how to speak dialect anymore.

 

Dialect classes for NUS volunteers

 

http://news.omy.sg/News/Local%2BNews/Story...035-333138.html

 

 

COMMUNICATION can be a challenge, especially when dealing with the elderly.

 

For National University of Singapore (NUS) economics undergraduate Genevieve Ng, a volunteer with NUS Community Service Club, not understanding Cantonese proved to be the biggest challenge when it came to helping a particular elderly woman.

 

The woman, who was in her 70s, could not understand a word Miss Ng, who speaks Mandarin and English, said.

 

The 23-year-old was tasked along with other volunteers to help clean the woman's one- room Jalan Bukit Merah flat three years ago.

 

"Without a translator, my friends and I were lost," recalled Miss Ng. "We weren't sure what to touch and what not to touch."

 

Likewise, the woman was unable to direct them, and often lost patience with them.

 

Thus, Miss Ng is glad that the Community Service Club has introduced dialect lessons for volunteers, and she attended its first Cantonese workshop last Monday.

 

The NUS club has been around for a decade and has some 300 student members. The club's dialect classes, which began last year with the introduction of Hokkien classes, are taught by student volunteers.

 

Last Monday, the student lounge at NUS was a hive of activity, with 20 students congregating around trainer and fellow club member So Man Shan, 21, during the two-hour workshop. Miss So, a geography major, came to Singapore from Hong Kong at the age of two.

 

She taught her fellow students common phrases and simple greetings, and also how to ask about aches and pains, in Cantonese.

 

The dialect lessons are the brainchild of club member Tan Hong Yu, 25, a chemical- and biomolecular-engineering undergraduate who has been an active volunteer at various organisations for nine years.

 

He noticed the language barrier between elderly beneficiaries and young NUS volunteers during home visits to the terminally ill.

 

Mr Tan himself started brushing up on his Hokkien at the age of 16, so that he could better help the needy. He said: "When we speak their language, the elderly tend to be more comfortable with sharing their fears."

 

Miss Ng said: "No matter how broken the dialect we speak may be, the elderly feel happy when we can communicate with them."

 

 

 

[Qpik]

Youngster nowadays only fluent in @#$%^&*! regardless of their education level.

 

 

[Mockngbrd]

learn dialect for wad

[Qpik]

seriously, why not? more kinship?

 

fm my personal experience, my smattering command of Hokkien, Teochew & Cantonese helps to break the ice & handy when it comes to travelling.

[Nzy]

Sometimes might be because the parent's are afraid that learning dialects will affect the child learning other languages. My parents spoke only English and Mandarin when I was young because they wanted me to learn how to speak these two languages fluently before I went to school. They didn't bother with dialects cuz it is not needed in school and anyway television also have no dialect.

 

For the older generation almost everyone speaks in their own dialect so its normal to learn. My parents can speak Hokkien, Teochew and Cantonese fluently but then when they speak to me at home they don't want to use these cuz English and Mandarin in more important in school. Don't know dialects still can go JC/Poly/Uni. Fail English or Mandarin and hard to get into any of these already.

Edited May 9, 2012 by Nzy

[TMCTR88]

As a teenager myself, I'm ashamed to not speak Hokkien..

Once I was at the coffeeshop and this auntie came to small talk with me, ask me how old etc.. Then she started to speak in Hokkien but I didn't understand anything, she was like "Huh, you no speak Hokkien ah?"

 

But at least I can understand a little bit, just not the pronunciation part!

[Evillusion]

I learnt my hokkien during my ns...where got need to go dialect class!

[Mockngbrd]

i understand the basis of dialect to communicate wif older folk and Taiwanese xmm but it's nothing wrong or shameful about not knowing if you have not been taught.

[Sk65]

i think its more important for kids to speak gramatically correct singlish

 

before we move into this dialect issue.

 

[Seaweed]

more than twenty years ago...i was walking and speaking hokkien with my fren....a old uncle walking past say....only "ah beng" speak hokkien....he is surprise I can speak such good hokkien....well !!!! [laugh] and then actually quite true...how many of you all actually heard pple shouting "369" in mandarin ?? They only do it in hokkien !!!!!

[Mockngbrd]

more than twenty years ago...i was walking and speaking hokkien with my fren....a old uncle walking past say....only "ah beng" speak hokkien....he is surprise I can speak such good hokkien....well !!!! and then actually quite true...how many of you all actually heard pple shouting "369" in mandarin ?? They only do it in hokkien !!!!!

 

mayb now they shout 369 in english

[Happily1986]

Sometimes might be because the parent's are afraid that learning dialects will affect the child learning other languages. My parents spoke only English and Mandarin when I was young because they wanted me to learn how to speak these two languages fluently before I went to school. They didn't bother with dialects cuz it is not needed in school and anyway television also have no dialect.

 

For the older generation almost everyone speaks in their own dialect so its normal to learn. My parents can speak Hokkien, Teochew and Cantonese fluently but then when they speak to me at home they don't want to use these cuz English and Mandarin in more important in school. Don't know dialects still can go JC/Poly/Uni. Fail English or Mandarin and hard to get into any of these already.

 

I have the same experience as you. However i make it a point to pick it up. When i started, people laugh at me say my hokkien lau hong one. Cos my mother speaks in a mixture of hokkien and teochew sometimes and i am really relying based on what i can understand and from my memory to speak. I am sure you can understand but cannot speak well. Now at least i can hold a simple conversation at the very least.