Tag: language politics

How included we feel and how much included we want to be: a newcomer’s perspective

Fangzhe

This morning, I was commuting to my class. There were only two days left before the traditional Chinese New Year, but the joyful atmosphere, which has already been rare even in China these days, was apparently nowhere to be found in a carriage of the subway in a country thousand miles away. Suddenly, a naïve voice from a Chinese boy next to me drew my attention: “妈妈，中国农历新年是在情人节那天吗?”(Mum, is Lunar Chinese New Year on the Valentine’s Day?) His mother did not say anything, and the boy quickly added: “还是你也不清楚呢?” (or…you are not clear either?) , followed by an awkward silence. Thanks to the conversation still, that is one of the few things that remind me that Chinese New Year is around the corner. 

Currently, the Chinese population no doubt takes up a considerable proportion of the immigrants in Quebec. However, a lot of us will find ourselves outsiders of this ‘unique’ French-dominant place (Allen, 2006). 

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Is your mother tongue going to be extinct?

Hsinhua Wu

I speak Mandarin, Taiwanese and English.

Mandarin is the official language and generally spoken in Taiwan. Taiwanese is one of Chinese dialects. I speak it at home. It is my first language, but after going to school, it became my “second language”, second best language due to lack of practice. In some occasions, I try to “read” Japanese to my grandparents. Japanese is their second language. They always laugh when they hear my poor pronunciation. Taiwan was under Japanese rule for 50 years between 1895 and 1945. It is not uncommon to meet elders in Taiwan speaking Japanese. Besides English, Japanese language is popular because of the complicated relationship between Taiwan and Japan and its pop culture. However Korean’s popularity is starting to equal to Japanese. 120 Korean dramas in total have been televised in Taiwan in half year of 2011 (Hyun-kyung,2011). Young Taiwanese people tend to have a better command of English, Japanese, Korean than of Taiwanese. Taiwanese faces threat of extinction in Taiwan.

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