What an irony!
After decades of using draconian measures to erase dialects from our society, now special classes are being organised to teach dialects to our students. Comparable to the flawed population policy, the govt's language policy had again created another social problem where our young are unable to communicate with our old.
Like I said before, the way we attempt to embark on social engineering will have deep consequences on society and the people. The govt better have a second look at it's current FT policy as we are beginning to see signs of further cracks in our society, which I believe will be even greater consequences than any of the flawed polices in the past.
Think about it
Deen Lee
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/070506/5/singapore274568.html
Sunday May 6, 8:17 PM
Students learn dialect to communicate with elderly
SINGAPAPORE: A group of primary school students has taken up special classes to learn dialect to communicate with the elderly.
These Paya Lebar Methodist Girls' Primary School students are learning Hokkien and Cantonese which are mostly used by the older generation.
For most of these students who only speak English and Mandarin, dialect is literally a foreign language to them.
Lynette Tan, PLMGS (Primary), said: "I don't speak it at home. Using simple phrases like 'lei hou' (Cantonese greeting) and 'le ho bo' (Hokkien greeting) will definitely bring us closer to the elderly from Touch Senior Centre."
Besides bridging different generations, learning a dialect also brings different races together.
Shafiqah Nabella, PLMGS (Primary), said: "It is interesting and I can use phrases like 'le ho bo'(how are you?), 'wa e mia se Shafiqah' (my name is Shafiqah) and 'man man sek'(eat slowly)."
And helping the students to practise speaking dialect are the uncles and aunties from TOUCH Seniors Activity Centre.
Mark Jit Tine, an elderly from TOUCH Seniors Activity Centre, said: "I'm very happy to teach them how to speak Cantonese, the kids are very bright. And I try to teach them slowly because I don't want this language to be lost."
Julie Lam, Director of TOUCH Seniors Activity Centre, said: "This learn-a-dialect session is really a prelude to our fund raising project called Love in a Bouquet.
"Through this learn-a-dialect session, our elderly clients are tutoring the students in dialect for the first time and we hope that it can bridge the communication gap and strengthen inter-generation bonding."
So far, 140 students from Primary 3 to 6 have been picking up new phrases and communications skills, and they are clearly having fun in the process.
- CNA/so
What An Irony - Student learning Dialect 
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