Don’t unlearn your Chinese

A reader asked me why my posts were all written in Chinese. He wanted to share some articles with his children who studied at international schools; therefore, wanted some articles written in English. However, I told him that international school students should be encouraged to read more Chinese regardless of their interest and their current ability. The same applies to local school students, vice versa.

My mother’s friend’s son attended an international school in Hong Kong and attended University abroad. He graduated recently and was looking for a job. He received a job interview. He was asked to demonstrate his Putonghua skills. He failed. He was rejected by the company. I believe this is just one common story – my form tutor and other teachers at my school told me similar stories during our process of choosing IGCSE and IB subjects.

You might consider me as being stereotypical or even, a sales person for promoting the need for Chinese learning through propaganda. Frankly speaking, the messages of “the Chinese are taking over the world”, “the rise of modern China” and things like “Chinese is becoming an international language!” are indeed no joke. Believe it or not, the Chinese are regaining their long-lost expertise in technology, culture and many other aspects we do not currently know of. (Referencing my Economics lecture)

Have you heard of the phenomenon ‘reporting bias’, ‘recording bias’, ‘selection bias’ and other types of biases? There is a great possibility that works of Aristotle, Newton and other men who brought about revolutionary changes in the west were somewhat ‘over-reported’ – therefore, Chinese inventions like the compass, paper making, printing and gunpowder were less well-known of . (Referencing thoughts stimulated by my UGFN lecture)

Can you imagine yourself, being Chinese, having a Chinese surname and looking Chinese, scoring 10A*s but a C in second language Chinese in your IGCSEs? That’s really un-Asian! Can you imagine yourself being predicted straight 7s in all subjects across the IB but being predicted a level 2 for standard level Chinese B, hence possess a failing condition of the IB Diploma as a result?

Although English, without doubt, is the well-established and well-acknowledged international language, things change in our ever-changing world. It is a fact that many of our English-speaking teachers are active learners of Chinese and Putonghua. Some of them had previously worked in Mainland China, having a lot more exposure to the Mainland-Chinese culture (not just aspects of shopaholics and milk-powder ragers) through interaction with students, the community and the local culture.

Learn your Chinese and don’t make fun of the locals. Many of them are actually very-well educated and fluent in English – maybe you just haven’t met them yet. Although you may not want to be Chinese, the fact that you were born Chinese is unchangeable. You may opt for French, Spanish or other foreign languages but remember, don’t unlearn your Chinese; you will very likely regret one day if you unlearn it now.