For the most part of my life, language-learning has been more rooted in as an academic obligation rather than borne out of personal passion and interest. While the studying of mother tongue languages have been implemented in the local education system to strengthen our connections to our ancestral origins and deepen understanding of our cultures so that we may embrace them – academic pressure may create a counter effect and cause students to dislike learning their mother tongues.
Personally, back when I was younger, I did not see much value or purpose in learning Chinese given that my first language is English – my main medium of communication with friends and family. Additionally, I felt like Chinese was difficult to learn, which made me dread Chinese class all the time. I am sure that many others can relate to this. Till this day, I still remember my classmates and I dragging our feet to Chinese class and complaining about why we had to learn Chinese! In fact, I was really looking forward to never having to speak or write Chinese again since I was to be exempted from taking Chinese as a subject in Junior College.
When I entered university, we were given the opportunity to take foreign language courses as our elective modules and it was then that I truly discovered the joy of learning a new language. Throughout my three years in university, I have taken Spanish, Thai and Korean as language electives and each module was a unique experience where I got to explore the different intricacies of each language. Isn’t it a profound and satisfying experience to see words that seem like meaningless symbols at the start suddenly make sense to you and become associated with various meanings and ideas? Undoubtedly, it is also fascinating to see how certain languages have overlaps between each other, a reflection of how various cultures have influenced each other.
Thinking back to those days, maybe I would have enjoyed Chinese class a little more if I had taken the time to appreciate the intricacies of the language, instead of viewing it as a mere academic obligation to be fulfilled in a paper chase.
This piece was written by our #SGUnited intern, Hannah Lin. Hannah is a fourth-year psychology student.
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