The learning of dialects

Post 69 Mother-tongue

There was a piece of news in the Chinese daily saying that an expert in Hakka or Kejia dialect(客家方言) from Taiwan would be in Malaysia conducting Hakka lessons for young Malaysians who are from the Hakka clan in China. This is to ensure that the younger generation would not lose touch of their mother-tongue in a distant land.

Kejia dialect is one of the main sub-divisions of the Chinese language spoken widely in southern China by the Hakka people and their descendants throughout Taiwan, Southeast Asia and around the world.

John Milton (1608–1674) was the English poet in favour of elevating the status of English language and to phase off Latin which was an Italian language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Latin is deemed to be a very difficult language to learn.

Richard Mulcaster (1531-1611), the High Master of St Paul's School in 1596, started a movement in making English as the language of learning in the English-speaking world; his love for the language led him to say:

“I love Rome, but London better, I favour Italy, but England more, I honour Latin, but worship English.”


16 November 2010
(9 November 2010- on vacation)