Chinese Dialects: Why our mother tongue matters

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Not Lost In Translation

4 min readFeb 9, 2021

“Sek teng um sek gong 識聽唔識講”

This is a phrase I frequently use with my elders during Chinese New Year. It literally means, “I can understand, but I can’t speak,” — a phrase I often use to describe my Cantonese proficiency, or rather, lack thereof.

Cantonese, Hakka, Hokkien, Teochew — are just some of over 200 varieties that exist within the Chinese language.

Although Singapore is not a Chinese country, the introduction of trade in the early 19th century led to an influx of Chinese immigrants that make up 76% of its population. What this means is that Chinese language varieties have become some of the biggest language groups in Singapore.

However, the number of speakers of these languages have dwindled over the years.

According to the General Household Survey 2015 conducted by Statistics Singapore, the use of English as the main language spoken at home rose from 2010 to 2015, while it declined for vernacular languages such as Cantonese, Hakka, Hokkien and Teochew.

This decrease is probably due to the influence of bilingual education and language campaigns such as The Speak Mandarin Campaign which encouraged the use of Mandarin over other Chinese variants. As such, the use of standard languages like English and Mandarin have caused the predominance of Chinese variants and dialects spoken at home to dip over recent years.

Media and regulatory bodies such as the Media Development Authority also emphasised that “All content on Chinese services must be in Mandarin” in its Free-to-Air Television Programme Code. This means that Chinese variants are mostly discouraged from being used on television, with minor exceptions.

As a result, Chinese dialects and varieties are a fast-disappearing phenomenon among Singapore’s Chinese youth population. Instead, they remain as languages mainly used by older generations.

What was once an effort to promote cohesion within our communities has cost us our connection with our roots and identities as Chinese Singaporeans.

The Silver Lining: What youths want

As a youth living in Singapore, I often find myself wishing I paid more attention to my relatives when they spoke in Cantonese. I would even blame my parents for not forcing me to learn the language while I was young.

Other youths such as myself have also voiced similar thoughts. Today Voices writer Ong Bo Yang suggests that dialects and language variants could be casually introduced into the curriculum as a third language just like global languages like French, German or Japanese.

Polls conducted by the National Heritage Board also indicates that Singaporeans want to know more about where they came from, and are willing to participate in events that feature aspects of their heritage they never knew about.

Mother Tongue: The road map of our culture

Singaporean youths clearly want to know more about their mother tongue and roots.

It makes sense for us to cultivate the use of our local vernacular and dialects. Indeed, language forms an integral part of our identity. This is especially so when language is embedded in many aspects of our lives, such as our food — from the Cantonese word, “char siew” (barbecued pork) to the Hokkien, “kopi-O” (black coffee).

In a globalised world where the Internet influences the way we speak, think and portray ourselves, it becomes increasingly difficult to stay rooted to our cultural heritage. It is important now more than ever to embrace our unique and diverse cultural identities — and one such method is through language.

American writer Rita Mae Brown once said, “Language is the road map of a culture. It tells you where its people come from and where they are going.”

In hindsight, I wish I was more curious about our cultural practices as a Cantonese Singaporean, such as understanding the meaning behind lou hei, rather than simply following the custom just because my parents told me to.

Had I known a little more Cantonese, it would have opened up many doors into my family history that I now still don’t have access to. While it is not too late, I hope to better understand my identity this coming year with this road map called language.

Written by Chrystal Hooi

In the spirit of Chinese New Year, I’d like to end this piece with some phrases in four Chinese language varieties. I hope that reading this provides some newfound motivation to connect with your roots through language.

Here are some Chinese New Year greetings in Cantonese, Hakka, Hokkien and Teochew:

恭喜发财 gōng xǐ fā cái
Meaning: Wishing you great prosperity