Wednesday, 16 October 2013

Globalisation Essay, Draft #2

Loss of culture remains a persistent predicament that has plagued many countries when concerned with the ill effects of globalization, specifically Singapore. The challenge faced in Singapore today is that there is a lack of appreciation for one’s own language heritage. One example of such deteriorating language culture is the erosion of dialects in Singapore (Vaish, n.d). Also, in modern society today, the use of Singapore’s own version of English, also know as Singlish, is frowned upon by the government and many citizens. This shows the lack of espousal towards Singapore’s unique culture. With the new generation of youth being more interconnected with other western cultures and mannerisms, there is increased difficulty in attempting to draw back these youth to their origins. The stray of the younger generations away from their roots could affect Singapore’s culture as a whole, where in the future, such cultural habits will not be passed down to upcoming generations. Such losses have an imminent effect on Singapore’s society, which could distort the representation of Singapore to other parties. Thus, to stay true to Singapore’s unique nature, solutions have to be executed so as to ensure that Singapore’s cultural integrity will remain intact.


Languages in Singapore can be viewed from two different perspectives. One can be that of competing fields, while on the flip side, they can be seen as compliments, which is the stand the government takes (Ong, n.d). However, globalisation pushes the stand for a more homogeneous use of language instead of one that consists of a variety. Youth of Singapore generally feel more comfortable with speaking English and their mother tongue rather than their own dialects. According to the “Census of Population” in 2010, 1,064,157 of Chinese Singaporeans prefer to speak Mandarin at home rather than their own Chinese dialects, which only 482,550 speak at home. It has also been a concern that Singapore’s policies such as the Speak Mandarin Campaign have actually eradicated the use of Chinese dialects (Gupta & Siew, 1995; Li, 1997; Ong, n.d; Pakir, 1993). So if such government policies are not effective, there may be other ways to bring back the essence of dialects so that it is not forgotten. A solution would be to include it into the local universities curriculum. Instead of giving the option for Singaporeans to study other languages, it could be made compulsory for them to take up a module that involves learning a local dialect from their own race, be it if you’re Chinese, Malay or Indian. It brings awareness to these students of other dialects that they might not be mindful of. This would be beneficial to Singapore, as the original diverse range of dialects would not just be condensed into a simplified version of Mandarin for example. Such knowledge will then be able to be passed on to future peers.

Another point encompassing language cultural loss in Singapore is that with globalization, the government has been trying to eradicate the use of Singlish, as more countries become aware of this unique language. ‘Singlish’ is a common informal way of speaking between Singaporeans, and differs from Singapore Standard English (SSE) in terms of grammar and vocabulary (Harada, 2009). The Singapore government feels that “English proficiency is a sine qua non of economic competitiveness” (Lee & Tan, 2011), and do not want other countries to view Singapore as inferior to them because of the language used. They thus initiated the controversial “Speak Good English Movement” in 2000 to help eliminate the issue at hand. However, Singlish is still a common way of conversation up until today, showing its ineffectiveness. Since Singlish is already adamant in the speaking practices of many, the solution to this problem should not be to eradicate it, but to preserve it as part of the Singaporean culture. There are many who view Singlish as a symbol of the Singapore identity, but there are also the handful of those who disapprove exceedingly (Ong, n.d). Thus, a balance needs to be struck in order to please both sides. Primary schools could teach younger pupils about when the appropriate occasions for Singaporeans to use Singlish are, and when they are not. This would allow them to be clear about it at a younger age so it helps foster a consciousness when using the two languages. Cultivating such habits from a younger age deters them from straying in the future.

Overall, it is important to educate the present generations on the history of Singapore culture as well as to cultivate habits that can be passed down for generations to come. It is difficult to exclude globalization from society in general, due to the rapidly modernizing world. Thus it is important to find ways to integrate it while still learning to appreciate the defining values of cultures, Singapore in this case, so that erosion of such culture will not take place.


References:

Dixon, L. Q. (2005). The bilingual education policy in singapore: implications for second language acquisition, retrieved October 13, 2013, from http://www.lingref.com/isb/4/047ISB4.PDF

Gupta, A. F. (1994) The step-tongue: children's english in singapore, Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters, p. 35.

Harada, S. (n.d.). The roles of singapore standard english and singlish, retrieved October 13, 2013, from, http://www.bunkyo.ac.jp/faculty/lib/slib/kiyo/Inf/if40/if4006.pdf

Lee, K., & Tan, I. (2011, February 05). What is singlish arh?, retrieved October 17, 2013, from, http://www.perspectivist.com/politics/what-is-singlish-arh

Ong, C. (n.d.). Some thoughts on the bilingual situation in singapore today, retrieved October 13, 2013, from, http://ldt.stanford.edu/~cong2811/doc/ap/20030230L.pdf

Speak good english movement, retrieved October 13, 2013, from http://www.goodenglish.org.sg/

Vaish, V. (n.d.). Globalization and multilingualism in singapore: implications for a hybrid, retrieved October 13, 2013, from,
http://repository.nie.edu.sg/jspui/bitstream/10497/3337/1/CRP22and23_04AL_Conf06(AERA)_Vaish.pdf

Wikipedia, speak good english movement, retrieved October 13, 2013, from, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speak_Good_English_Movement


No comments:

Post a Comment