Is it stupid to learn dialects?

In a forum letter to the Straits Times, Chee Hong Tat, private secretary to our Minister Mentor, says that Chinese Singaporeans should just learn English (to connect to the world and contribute to the GDP of the country) and Mandarin (to connect to China in future when it becomes a superpower). 

So is this his personal response or an official response from the MM? And to call learning dialect stupid? Quote: It would be stupid for any Singapore agency or NTU to advocate the learning of dialects, which must be at the expense of English and Mandarin.

Ban the use of dialects?

So the Teochew assosciation, Poit Ip Huay Kuan,is stupid for giving courses on speaking Teochew? Maybe the government should ban the speaking of any dialects and impose a fine on people who converse in Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese, Hakka and such, further enhancing our reputation as a 'fine' city. With the rising unemployment rate,  we can employ some people as 'dialect terminators' prowling the streets in undercover and issuing summons when they hear Hokkien vulgarities. A good place to hunt will be in army camps. 

We are only half-bucket in both English and Mandarin

Not that we are any good in English and Mandarin anyway, are we? Except for the 5% who can converse in perfect Queen's English, the English speaking standard in Singapore is, sad to say, torrid. The incompatability with Mandarin affects many Chinese in pronouncing their 'r's and 'th's. Many subconciously has the same sounds for 'three' and 'tree'. Already is usually spoken as 'olredy'. And many of the bad habits were picked up from the teachers we learnt from. We may be able to understand each other, but a foreigner will have to second guess what we are trying to express many times. 

Our Mandarin is not that great too. Try translating a finance or science article into Mandarin. Maybe that was too hard. How about trying to say 'lettuce' and 'broccoli' in Mandarin? Do you know? bbqchickenwings don't even though there is an A to show for his AO level Chinese. Singaporeans (at least the Chinese) are substandard in their English, and worse in Mandarin. 

Perhaps the linguistically less talented people should focus on just one language after all. 

A painful history as a result of the bilingual policy

bbqchickenwings is not advocating the removal of the bilingual language medium in our education, although there can be some tweaks to improve the system. bbqchickenwings was born into a Teochew family. The parents speak Teochew to each other and their siblings but Mandarin to the kids. As a result, bbqchickenwings grew up being unable to communicate well with his grandparents. The weekly visits and conversations with the grandparents always revolve around the same feel sentences, such as 'How are you?' 'I am fine' and then bbqchickenwings will scurry away, unable to add a few more sentences in Teochew. It may not seem to matter when young, but being a adult (at least officially) now, it seems embarassing that bbqchickenwings can't communicate with the grandparents last time. 

We should celebrate the use of dialects which really makes us Uniquely Singapore

There should be a greater acceptance in diversity. The multiple dialects, languages, race and religion is what makes Singapore such a beautiful place. Singlish evolves as a result of such vibrance and also due to our inability to master any of the languages well enough. The use of dialects has integrated into our daily life. Ordering a plate of Chee Kway with extra Cai Po can only be done properly with the use of dialect for the names of the food. It is simple stuff like this that gives us a sense of belonging (which is increasingly diluted with the huge migrant influx recently).

Is there a need to use such a strong statement to defend his superior's policy?

Minister Mentor Lee decided last time that everyone should just learn English with one mother tongue. The mother tongue was standardized. Mandarin for Chinese people, Malay for the Malays and Tamil for Indians. Oh and there are the 'others' who don't fit anywhere. They can choose and pick a 2nd language from the three. Chinese Dialects were not part of the equation. They have become a dying breed due to our government policies and it may be a waste of time to be learning them. But it is unneccesary for the MM's secretary come out and say that it is STUPID and FOOLISH to learn dialects. They are insulting for our heritage and history.

The end.

PS: Why are we then still using dialect names in our pink I/C. Redbean brought this issue up before. Excerpt: The next phase of change was the hanyu pinyin campaign. This was another of the unifying efforts of the govt, to do away with dialects and have a common language. It's effects turned out to be a bit of a rojak. Tan Ah Kow became Chen Ya Kou. The father and son had differently written surname in English, From Mr Tan to Mr Chen.

We went from dialect to hanyu pinyin. Somewhere during bbqchickenwing's primary school years, everyone had their names changed from hanyu pinyin to dialect again. But bbqchickenwings did not. And now, bbqchickenwings still don't know why he has a different surname from his father in their I/Cs.