2024-02-21
23 分钟Discussion keeps the world turning.
This is round table.
So this is fun.
We are doing a special program talking about mother language, multilingual interrogation, and on the special day of international Mother Language Day.
And when it comes to multilingual education, the first thing that comes to mind is my memory of my classmates.
In primary school, there are a few classmates who, you know, their parents have told them not to speak the local dialect.
We had a strong dialect, but these kids, they come to the school, they talk to us instead of all in our own local dialect.
They speak very good Mandarin.
And at that point I was feeling well.
These kids are weird.
That's me, pretentious.
That was me when I was you, Halleen.
Yes, I was that kid.
I did not know how to speak my local dialogue dialect.
To this day, I understand why parents and members in the family speak the local dialect, but I do not know how to do that.
And when I try to imitate them, because I am older now, I do not have the talent anymore, I sound weird.
That is why actually standard Mandarin is my mother tongue.
Okay, why did your parents choose for you to speak Mandarin instead of the local dialect?
That is the funny thing, they didn't actually say anything like, you should not be speaking local dialect, only Mandarin, but they didn't also specifically speak local dialect to me, they only speak it to each other.
And when they speak to me, they use standard Mandarin.