Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[verossa]

Being grown up in indonesia,i certainly need to learn bahasa indonesia.
i am a chinese, thus learning chinese is what my parents have emphasized to me since young as it represents my identity.Alsp due to my parents do not have chance in learning chinese language,they hope me to be able to speak and write it well.

english is the official language in singapore,i was again forced to learn it as my parents were so sure they will send me to singapore to study after finishing my secondary school in indonesia.


i have been through a difficult time,trying to write and speak the 3 languages at the same time.i realised the hectic as my parents don't even speak these 3 languages at home but another chinese dialect,mian nan hua.the worse is the indonesian school back in my time only emphasize learning indonesia,none other than that.

after coming to singapore,i need to choose a mothertongue,i am not really good at chinese.thus,being afraid of unable to cope well,i choose another language as my mother tongue,malay(which is similar to indonesia as only certain pronounciation and vocabulary are different)


now,i am 18,and i can use the 4 languages fairly OK,but i realised i am not really fluent in all the 4 languages.i have problems with my oral english,writing certain level of chinese words,my oral indonesian doesn't sound from indonesia, and i am not good at local malay slang(though i can read and write in formal way fairly well,but i am unable to express myself during communication with their way of speaking,often i found my self lost in catching a story that is told by my malay teacher,but in exam i am an A grade student.

learning many language has certainly has its benefit,but the problem is you will be hardly FLUENT in those languages u learn.although you understand their languages,it doesnt mean as an acceptance,i am a chinese,understand malay,but i will never be regarded as part of their community.racism do exist in some form,although not obvious.(esp true in asia countries)besides it's almost impossible to deepen your language to a certain deep extent.
i would rather just bilingual in chinese and english and speak these 2 languages real fluent,then having bits here and there.

thus for parents ,please dun force ur children in learning many languages.it will be enough just to concentrate in the languages that are really useful in their life.