"Liak Boh Kiew"? "Catch No Ball?"
Today's Sunday Times carried an article about Singapore doctors being unable to speak the dialects. Especially the younger doctors.
Well the question is whether young doctor are expected to know how to speak 3 or more dialects, Mandarin and Malay? Why is it so surprising that young doctors can't speak those languages?
Let's see. In the 80s the government decided that all Chinese TV drama serials from Hong Kong would be dubbed in Mandarin. There was a speak Mandarin and not dialect campaign as I recall. Children studied English and their Mother Tongue ie Mandarin, Malay or Tamil. So it's obvious that young doctors should NOT be expected to speak dialects and 2 "Mother Tongues"!
But the way the article was written makes it sound like it's the fault of the doctors that they are not multi-lingual! That's a tad bit unfair I feel.
The problem is really with the older uneducated elderly majority. (I have previously written that this group of Singaporeans needs special medical care and communicators)
These patients also are one kind. The young doctor may be trying his best to speak whatever broken, half past six dialect to them but these old folks would show unhappiness or disgust and even lecture the young doctor for not being able to speak his dialect! No appreciation for the young doctor's effort are shown most of the time.
Is Singapore truly and English speaking country? Well perhaps for a certain majority of the pre-1965 generation, they are still stuck in that era.
posted by Dr Oz bloke @ 6:53 PM
7 Comments:
Most of my med friends can't even communicate in Mandarin. No joke. I always refer them as being 'americanised' coz they know how to speak English only.On the other hand, I think it has a lot to do with the upbringing by the parents and exposure to chinese dialects.
I can't say that I am very good in my Chinese dialects. When I was a nurse, I took up Malay basic conversation course and that certainly comes in handy ;) Funny how the patients start to think I'm a Nonya with my olive skin tone.-_-
Sad, but seriously how many youngsters can really speak dialects nowadays. Those who can speak are the ones, whose grandparents are still around, they still hear and use them at home.
Unfortuately, I can't really communicate well in dialects nowadays as compared to my younger days when my grandparents and parents are still around.
Dialects are not like English, Mandarin and Malay, which are still commonly and widely use in our daily life.
"Dialects are not like English, Mandarin and Malay, which are still commonly and widely use in our daily life."
That is not a correct statement generally. It depends on what socio-economic class you belong to.
In some workplaces, the dialects are all that are spoken!
My wife was told as a trainee teacher that all the graduates come from relatively good schools, good backgrounds etc. But they might have to teach at neighbourhood schools where the kids are very different from the people the teachers are used to interacting with.
Many people who come from uppder middle class, educated families and move into managerial or administrative civil service positions are just like those teachers. But they don't deal with the average Singaporean directly.
The "pulse" of the man on the street is thus not felt.
As a GP I see all kinds of people. You have english speaking polite people, english speaking obnoxious people, mandarin speaking nice people, mandarin speaking nasty people, dialect speaking courteous ones, dialect speaking uncouth ones, Malay speaking hospitable, and Malay speaking unhospitable.
I told my customer I "wa buay hiao kong hokkein" He replied "ni mm si teng nang ah! Buay hiao kong hokkein." Damn I swear I nearly want to twist his head off! Who the hell says chinese must speak hokkien! I am a bloody hakka! Not hokkien. Why don't he trying talking to me in hakka instead of questioning my race. Of course all I can do manage is "ni hui jiang hua yu ma?" Don't we just want to congratulate our EFFICIENT UNOPPOSED government for the successful speak chinese campaign.
Oh so "teng nang" means Chinese ar?
I always thought it meant Malay or Indian!
LOL!
Maybe NUS should start a basic communication skills course so that doctors can make an effort to learn basic dialects. Read an news article that an Indian doctor know Hokkein, Cantonese, Malay ,Tamil Hindi, English and Mandarin.
Maybe NUS should start a basic communication skills course so that doctors can make an effort to learn basic dialects. Read an news article that an Indian doctor know Hokkein, Cantonese, Malay ,Tamil Hindi, English and Mandarin.
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