Dialects help strengthen learning of Mandarin

I agree with Ms Jeraldine Phneah Jia Lin (“Allow the use of dialects on television”; July 7) that there is little linguistic research evidence to show that learning dialects has an adverse effect on learning Mandarin.

I grew up in an era where my whole kampung spoke Teochew — a dialect that became my mother tongue. In the 1950s, Mandarin was not a compulsory subject and students either attended a Chinese school, a Malay school or an English school. I studied Mandarin only in secondary school and passed my GCE O-Levels Chinese by the skin of my teeth.

My father used to read the Chinese newspapers in Teochew and I was able to see the connection between Teochew and Mandarin.

My competency in Teochew helped strengthen my learning of the Chinese language. Today, I read the Chinese and English newspapers with ease.

My children grew up in a different era where dialects were frowned upon. One teacher told them that dialects were a pariah language.

Now, my children are grown up and speak only English, some broken Mandarin and a little Hokkien that they picked up when they were in the army. They are illiterate in dialects.

I have spoken to young Malaysian students who are very fluent in Chinese, Malay and English. They learnt Malay because it was compulsory and they are proficient in Chinese because they attended a Chinese school. They can also communicate in English with non-Malaysians. When I was browsing in a bookstore, I was surprised to learn that Malaysian students who are Indian or Malay could speak Mandarin.

Let us not jettison our dialects, because by so doing, we are unknowingly throwing the baby out with the bathwater.