Our Desk | Mandarin or not?

Julie Zhu

I am pretty sure that not every single French citizen wants tourists to go to France and speak French to them. At least some people have a good education and know that English became a global language that is easier for people to learn as the medium for us to communicate with each other.

The same goes for Mandarin and Cantonese.

First of all, to all the so-called “linguists” – this is not an opinion for you because I regard all dialects as languages –  and no matter if one day the whole world’s social scince “experts” might transform the “no-wrong” opinions into “fake knowledge,” I will stick to my opinion: dialects are languages.

Anyway: should Macau learn Mandarin?

Are you interested in learning and becoming more knowledgeable about more things? Then you have your answer already.

Previously, I expressed the view that the more Macau speaks Mandarin, the more Mandarin speakers find similarities in Macau and the less they want to visit Macau in the future because people do not want to travel to places they are familiar with.

This opinion does not contradict the previous one because I am not presenting an argument about how to make Macau a better and more attractive city to mainlanders. It simply speaks from an individual perspective: should Macau people learn Mandarin and speak Mandarin well?

In Macau and Hong Kong, so often people try to “protect” their Cantonese or their “prestigious” English (which, by the way, personally, I think is the best language in the world). Isn’t it stupid that someone rejects a language because of such a reason?

For any individual, being able to speak as many languages as possible only gives them good credit in all senses: it is easier to get a job, easier to talk to people from all over the globe, and easier to read original texts rather than getting information (and therefore also opinions) from other people’s mouths.

There are many news sources and businesses in the world that will tell you about how Mandarin is becoming the new trend. But language is not about what trends tell you to do, it is about knowledge and evolution as human beings.

Some people from Hong Kong and Macau raise their low self-esteem simply because they know that, one day, they will speak Mandarin.

If this is the reason, then I believe that they have probably had enough from other upper classes, and that is the only reason they are now passing the same “prestige” to others who are taking up their old habits.

If Macau individuals do not want to learn the “low” Mandarin, maybe they can try to learn French, as speaking French seems to make people feel they are more upper class than others.    

Additionally, just another tip: do not fake being too proud of your culture because when the Spring Festival arrives you know who you really are. 

I mean, here comes the discrimination chain (food chain) again: Chinese who know French discriminate against Chinese who only know English, Chinese who know English discriminate those who end their English with a “la”.