article Mandarins for Mandarin
chrisannsue 번역보기 Whatever happended to Singapore’s real mother tongues?
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Singapore has almost wiped out its mother tongues
Elderly speakers of Cantonese, Hakka and Hokkien sometimes cannot talk to their own grandchildren
∙ Cantonese: 광둥어(홍콩을 포함하여 중국 남서부에서 사용되는 중국어), 광둥어 사용자
∙ Hakka: 하카어《중국 동남부, 특히 광둥(廣東)의 방언》(의); 하카 말을 하는 사람(의).
∙ Hokkien: 호키엔족(중국 푸젠(福建)-Fujian-남부, 타이, 말레이시아, 싱가포르, 인도네시아 등지에 걸쳐 거주하는 소수민족
cf) 화교(Chinese living abroad): 해외에 거주하는 중국인으로, 해외에 정착하여 경제활동을 하면서 본국과 유기적 연관을 유지하는 중국인 또는 그 자손을 말한다, 전 세계에 약 1,800만명이 거주하고 있으며 그중 90%이상이 말레이시아, 인도네시아, 싱가포르, 미얀마, 홍통, 타이, 필리핀등 동남아시아에 집중 분포하고 있다.
Asia
Feb 22nd 2020 edition
WHEN SANDY, a young Chinese Singaporean, learned that her grandmother was terminally ill, she signed up for a workshop in the Hokkien language run by LearnDialect.sg, a social enterprise founded to help Singaporeans communicate with the city-state’s older Chinese residents—including within their own families.Sandy is fluent in English and Mandarin, the official “mother tongue” of Chinese Singaporeans.Her grandmother spoke little of either.Before she died, Sandy thrilled her by asking in Hokkien, “What was your childhood like?” She was even able to understand some of the answer.
∙ Mandarine: 표준중국어(보통화), 고위공무원
Their language barrier was the product of decades of linguistic engineering.English has been the language of instruction in nearly all schools since 1987, to reinforce Singapore’s global competitive edge.But, depending on ethnicity, pupils study a second language—typically Mandarin, Malay or Tamil.These are intended, as Lisa Lim of the University of Sydney puts it, to add “cultural ballast” vis-a-vis English.In the case of Mandarin, its acquisition has been reinforced by the government’s annual “Speak Mandarin Campaign”, started in 1979.
∙ linguistic engineering: 언어지식을 사용하여 컴퓨터 체계의 응용을 향상시켜서 컴퓨터와 의 상호작용의 수단을 개선하는 과학기술로, 정보를 더 효과적으로 받아들이고 분석, 선택, 사용하고 나타낸다.

또한 자연언어 처리체계를 만드는데 그것의 비용이나 결과를 측정하고 예측하는 것을 포함한다.
∙ Tamil: 타밀 사람《남인도 및 스리랑카에 사는 인종》(의); 타밀 말(의); 타밀 문자.
∙ ballast n.(배의)바닥짐; (기구, 비행선의 부력조정용)모래(물)주머니, 안정감, 견실미
cf) have 〔lack〕 ~ 마음이 안정돼 있다〔있지 않다〕
∙ vis-a-vis: 상대해서, 마주보고
Mandarin is a standardised version of the language spoken by the people of the vast plains of northern China.Yet hardly any of the Chinese from whom Singaporeans are descended hailed from there.They came instead from the southern provinces of Fujian, Guangdong and Hainan, and so spoke different languages: Hokkien, Cantonese and Hakka, along with two Hokkien-related tongues, Teochew and Hainanese.
∙ hail from/be from: ~출신이다
∙ Fujian: 복건(福建)성(중국 동남부의 성)
∙ Guangdong: 광동(廣東)성(중국 남동부의 성)
∙ Hainan: 해남(海南)(중국 남지나 해상의 섬)
cf) 남지나(南支那): 중국의 딴 이름으로 ‘진(秦)’에서 와전
The Speak Mandarin Campaign sought to destroy Chinese Singaporeans’ real mother tongues, first by demeaning them as provincial “dialects” of Mandarin when they are in fact mutually unintelligible languages as different as English, German and Danish.Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s founding father, who started learning Chinese in his 30s, promoted the now discredited notion that humans have a tightly limited capacity for language: Hokkien and all the rest undermined the official bilingualism by hogging chunks of children’s memories.Further, the great tidier disliked the diversity embodied in these languages and wanted to forge a single Chinese identity—reason enough to foist on Chinese Singaporeans an alien language.

Lee also thought that China’s opening promised riches to those who could speak its official language.
∙ unintelligible: 이해하기 어려운, 난해한, 분명치 않은
∙ demean: 1.품위를(신분을)떨어뜨리다, 천하게 하다 2.behave
∙ discredit 1.존경심을 떨어뜨리다 2.신빙성을 없애다 3.불명예
∙ 이광요 (Lee Kuan Yew 李光耀) : (1923-2015) 싱가포르의 정치가.

싱가포르 자치정부 총리를 지낸 뒤, 독립 싱가포르 총리로 취임하여 26년간 재직하였다.작은 도시국가 싱가포르가 세계 수준의 금융과 물류의 중심지로 탈바꿈되고 세계 최고의 깨끗한 정부를 갖는 데 기여했다.그의 아들 리센룽은 2004년 싱가포르의 3대 총리로 취임하였다.
∙ hog: 독차지하다, 탐내어 제몫 이상을 갖다
∙ forge: 꾸며내다, 위조하다, 세우다
∙ foist on: ~에게 (억지로) 떠맡기다
So dialects were disparaged.In the early 1980s television and radio programming in these languages all but disappeared, cutting many people adrift.

“To speak dialect with your child,” the government warned, “is to ruin his future.” By the campaign’s own yardsticks, the success is striking.The use of Chinese vernaculars at home has collapsed, from 76% of Chinese households in 1980 to 16% in 2015.Over the same period, the use of Mandarin rose, from 13% of Chinese households to 46%.But the linguistic engineering has had an unintended consequence: the use of English is now increasing faster, especially among younger families: over 70% of households with children at primary school use it as their main language, undermining Mandarin and vernaculars.
∙ disparage: 폄하하다(=belittle)
∙ adrift: 표류하여, (정처 없이)헤매어, 빈둥거리는, 일정한 직업 없이
cf) cut(set) adrift: (매어놓은 밧줄을 끊고 배를)표류시키다
∙ vernacular: 방언
And so a debate about the costs of language policies has grown since Lee’s death in 2015.

The same year, the 50th anniversary of the nation’s founding was accompanied by an outpouring of sentimentality over Singapore’s roots.These days officials are a bit readier to tolerate Singapore’s linguistic variety.Lee Kuan Yew once called Singlish, the country’s vibrant mash-up of English, Malay and Chinese vernaculars, a “handicap”.Lee’s son, the prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong, claims to be proud of Singapore’s unique form of Mandarin.For instance, the Malay for “market”, pasar, has been imported as ba sha.That would be unintelligible to a mainland Chinese.Yet that only highlights a paradox Mr Lee does not acknowledge.On the one hand, he praises Singaporean Mandarin because it supposedly reinforces a Chinese Singaporean identity.

On the other, he frets about others stealing a march in China because of their more fluent Mandarin.
∙ ready: 즉시(쉽게)이용할 수 있는, 기꺼이 ~하는
∙ steal a march: 앞질러 행동하다, 기선을 잡다
∙ fret about: 노심초사하다
∙ basha: (인도)초가 지붕의 대나무로 만든 오두막집
Meanwhile, younger Singaporeans are embracing former mother tongues.Ski Yeo and Eugene Lee were motivated to found LearnDialect.sg upon seeing an elderly Cantonese-speaker in a nursing home struggle to communicate that she was cold.Health workers have signed up to their courses, while others want to say the right things at family gatherings over the lunar new year.There is an uptick in Hokkien television programming.And everyone admits that effete Mandarin is useless for swearing.
∙ uptick: 약간의 증가
∙ effete: 활력을 잃은, 시대에 뒤진, 나약한
∙ swear: (고어)~을 깊이 신뢰하다, ~을 분명히 알고 있다
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by Sue.