方言

方言 a.k.a. local dialect. I still remember we used to have poster drawing competition with the topic "多讲华语，少讲方言” when we were in primary school.

(if in Malay, I think it would be "Berjinak-jinak dengan Bahasa Baku, Mengelakkan loghat masing-masing" I'm not sure the translation is correct or not) XD

But, after listening to a programme by a Mandarin radio station in Malaysia which discuss mainly about the essentiality of local dialects and their roles in present and future society,

MY PERCEPTION CHANGE COMPLETELY!!

The DJ asked a very impactive question :

"方言真的那么重要吗？怎么重要？是纯粹文化保留？

还是它实实在在的存有如现今英语与华语的经济价值？。”

"Does local dialect really posses the reason/s to be kept alive?

Or just plainly a way to preserve some particular cultural heritages?

Does it play any significant roles in the economical point of view,

like how English and Mandarin being encouraged nowadays?"

The answer is very simple : "There's no answer to this"

Even though people may say local dialects work really well in tying the local communities together, they might as well forgotten that dialects not only created a language barrier among that particular groups of people, but also those who don't understand it.

You might say : "We still have the main languages"

But, do you think a group of people will really be able to communicate freely and stress-less when there're groups who're whispering around in their own dialects while others are talking in the main languages?

Don't you feel kind of awkward when you're in a group of people who speak language that you barely understand?

I used to struggle in that situation when I first went to KL, when English is spoken throughout the place. From my comfort 100%-MANDARIN-based kindergarten, primary & secondary schools, I forced my self to converse more in English.

From never-more-than-5minutes to around-5minutes, 10 minutes, half and hour and so on... ... till today! =) and

I've met somebody who yelled

"BASTARD! Can't you just talk in English, which all of us could understand?!"

at me when I talked to my friend in Mandarin when we're in a group of "rojak" (black, brown, yellow, pink, blue, green.... you name it, you got it) haha... I felt really furious and embarrassed when he harassed me at that time. But, I'm really glad that he did that and I didn't reconcile and mess up the whole thing. XD

recently, I like to dig up some of the old songs which I used to like

but don't really understand in the past.

It's fun to view it from other perspectives XD

盧廣仲-繁華攏是夢

random.... random .... and more randomness coming up!

Why?

because it's HOLIDAY!!!

p/s: "Trick or treat? treat? Come'on! Trick laaa... haha"