Monday, December 07, 2009

谈国语

我是华校生。中、小学时我同时唸华文、马来文(国文)和英文。三种语文科中,最好的是华文。(废话,这还用说吗?)不过上大学后,因为用英文较多,程度有所提升。相反的,中文略有退步,马来文就更不行了。我厌恨马来文媒体立场偏激,中学毕业后就几乎没有阅读过马来文报章。

后来我到美国加州工作。在那儿,我生平中第一次因为自己的马来文差而感到惭愧。我的美国同事,以为马来西亚人必定精通本国的国语,但其实并非如此。当时我是以Malaysian,而非Chinese自居。对美国人而言,Chinese就是中国人。美国华人不是Chinese,而是Chinese American。理论上我可以告诉别人我是Chinese Malaysian,但不想囉哩啰嗦的解释。。。

环顾四周,菲律宾来的同事,包括该国的华裔,似乎都讲Tagalog。印度的工程师,包括我的锡克籍好朋友,都讲Hindi

记得中学时,我的一名华文老师曾经这么说:『华人必须讲华语。』但他忘了自己同时也是马来西亚公民。

当然,我们无需全盘使用马来文,但至少不应该把它当成外语来看待。除此以外,英文是大马没有法律地位的de facto lingua franca,也不能忽略它。

13 comments:

  1. 中三时,被教国语的巫籍女老师踩到一文不值,说华小出的学生的国语程度连幼稚园生都不如!不过也多亏她,我的国语才能好。

    ReplyDelete
  2. my malay has gone from A to D now..lol. it got so bad even when i call streamyx to complain, i have to press for the English option otherwise i will be tongue tied!

    ReplyDelete
  3. 看來我們的背景是一樣的, 我小學讀華小, 中學讀獨中.. 現在中英文都還不賴, 就是馬來文真的很不能見人 :p

    我們應該稱為Malaysian Chinese.. :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  5. christine
    或者是差了點。

    xin
    Haha... me too...

    SK
    Malaysian Chinese = 在馬來西亞的中國人
    Chinese Malaysian = 華裔馬來西亞人

    ReplyDelete
  6. 还好我会华语也会国语,英文就不精通,要掌握三种语文还蛮难的,学习环境很重要,我这里小地方很少人以英语交谈,少讲差不多要忘了。。哈哈。。。你不要那么多感触,大马华人很多人会讲国语但不会写。。。

    ReplyDelete
  7. 国语嘛
    我通常都是对外劳说
    尤其是在小食中心的时候...XD
    或是在嘛嘛档 ~ :P

    ReplyDelete
  8. malay school at secondary school, and local U. So i think my malay WAS not bad.

    but i am not sure now. hopefully i still can speak Malay when i back home.

    that day went to renew my passport, the reception girl spoke Malay to me (it was very simple and normal conversation only). I reply with very poor Malay, after that I change to English.

    Shame on me...

    ReplyDelete
  9. 花木兰
    我也承认很少人能够精通三语,但至少不应该为了维护母语而排斥国、英语。

    迷迭香
    Next time you speak with your Indon maid :P

    kikey
    Oh so studied in Malay school. Apparently your Chinese is good. Our 董教总 has complained too much.

    ReplyDelete
  10. yea pity us we gotta learn 3 main yu yan

    A smile from SJ =)

    ReplyDelete
  11. our maid is from cambodia... speaks english :p

    ReplyDelete
  12. I think this is a problem common to a lot of bilingual or multi-lingual countries. Look at Canada, we have so much debate about French and English...!

    I was shocked when I was in HK that a lot of people had a poor grasp of reading and writing. People would speak Cantonese, learn English at school, and that's it. They seldom wrote in Chinese. I read the menus at the restaurants better than my boss!

    ReplyDelete
  13. 我認同你的看法!

    馬來語作為nusantara最具影響力的語言, 我們不能用民族優越感來否定它的存在價值!

    作為華人, 我們學中文是理所當然, 但馬來文是我們的國語, 也有必要掌握到至少能寫能講! 我到印尼和東馬的小鄉鎮, 以馬來語和當地人溝通, 可以感受到馬來語在本區域的無遠弗屆地位, 也感覺到身為馬來西亞華人的語碼轉換能力而自豪!

    ReplyDelete