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Speechless in Suzhou dialect
Source: Xinhua |
May 22, 2012, Tuesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
DON'T speak in the local dialect or you will be reprimanded or fired.
That's a corporate rule of a company in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province. The company has been heavily criticized since its rule was disclosed on the Internet.
Are the attacks justified? Not necessarily. It's a government policy to promote Mandarin, so there's no problem when a company follows suit.
That's not to say you can't speak your local dialect in daily life. The Suzhou company only bars the local dialect in its corporate communication since it deals with customers from all over China.
You should forgo your "right to speak Suzhou dialect" when you talk to a colleague or a customer who comes from another place and does not understand Suzhou dialect.
Not long ago, some people in Shanghai launched a campaign to defend their local dialect and some in Guangzhou did likewise.
While their actions are understandable, it doesn't follow that they were doing the right thing. Something has to be sacrificed as history moves forward. Of the world's 6,000 languages, about half are perishing. It's sad, but inevitable.
A uniform written language is crucial to national unity. China has many local dialects, but there's no difficulty in communication because China has a uniform written language.
Europe used to have a uniform written language, that is, Latin, but European states chose to have their own written languages, so they had English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Greek, Italian, Swedish and etc. The barriers of written languages estranged nation states so much so that the Roman Empire eventually broke up. It's difficult to put them together nowadays.
So there's nothing wrong in promoting Mandarin, and there's no need to worry too much about the secondary role of local dialects.
That's a corporate rule of a company in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province. The company has been heavily criticized since its rule was disclosed on the Internet.
Are the attacks justified? Not necessarily. It's a government policy to promote Mandarin, so there's no problem when a company follows suit.
That's not to say you can't speak your local dialect in daily life. The Suzhou company only bars the local dialect in its corporate communication since it deals with customers from all over China.
You should forgo your "right to speak Suzhou dialect" when you talk to a colleague or a customer who comes from another place and does not understand Suzhou dialect.
Not long ago, some people in Shanghai launched a campaign to defend their local dialect and some in Guangzhou did likewise.
While their actions are understandable, it doesn't follow that they were doing the right thing. Something has to be sacrificed as history moves forward. Of the world's 6,000 languages, about half are perishing. It's sad, but inevitable.
A uniform written language is crucial to national unity. China has many local dialects, but there's no difficulty in communication because China has a uniform written language.
Europe used to have a uniform written language, that is, Latin, but European states chose to have their own written languages, so they had English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Greek, Italian, Swedish and etc. The barriers of written languages estranged nation states so much so that the Roman Empire eventually broke up. It's difficult to put them together nowadays.
So there's nothing wrong in promoting Mandarin, and there's no need to worry too much about the secondary role of local dialects.
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