I notice that WCH can speak mandarin (Pu Tong Hua) very well and want to know how about the other Chinese players of Malaysia. A Chinese player of Indonesia can also speak Chinese, I just forget his name, but I remember he won the gold medal of Olympics 1992.
So does Lee Chong Wei, it is uncommon for chinese people in Msia under 30 not to know Mandarin. The reverse is true for the older generation brought up in a colonial environment and also for neighbouring Singapore .
It's a good thing for these players who can speak Chinese, they can communicate well with Chinese coach Li Mao, who said the reason of his leaving from Korea is that Korean players cannot speak Chinese.
Doesn't mean that peopel who speak and write Chinese well also think like the people of China, Taiwan or HK. In this respect they are no different from Singaporeans,Indonesians por even Malays. The only diff is that they learn Chinese to remain competitive, they (most of them ) know nothing of Chinese history, culture etc. Interesting last month the native people of Solomon Islands perseceuted their local Chinese for setting up a government biased towards the mainly Taiwanse,the poor natives toppled the Gov and burnt the Chinese properties. In the end China sent planes to re-settle the Chinese in China. This has happened in the past in many Asian countries.
It's almost 100% that all young Malaysians can speak chinese.. well the rest can speak in cantonese or any chinese dialeks.. Well, Malaysian's chinese are still stick to thier chinese traditions n culture... Malaysian's chinese are still behaving chinesely... We have many chinese schools here that uses chinese as a main language to teach n communicate... There are Indians n Malays can even speak chinese too because they go for chinese schools... So its not really that we dont know about chinese culture or history... Coz we learn china's history here in Malaysia... coz we are still pure chinese
hmm....maybe 88% of young chinese malaysians can speak mandarin....the others mostly speak english at home
WCH was coached as a junior by a Chinese national Han Jian/niu pi tang (?) There was an interview once with him and his coach. His Mandarin was v good.
I disagree. Maybe just 60-70%. There are a lot of young Malaysian-Chinese that could not even understand simple Mandarin words like "peng you" (friend), let alone speak the language. Reason : they attend national schools from young and have the mindset that English is much more important than Chinese language. Of course, I do not deny the fact that there are cases of non Chinese-educated students that can communicate in Mandarin due to family background, friends... They are much more influenced by the Western culture than the Chinese traditions/culture. My cousin who is a Hainanese, cant understand/speak a word of that dialect. And how many Chinese high schools are there in Malaysia? I know that certain national high schools provide extra classes for Chinese studies, but how many of them are willing to stay back after school/ in weekends to study the language? China history? I think they learn more about it watching Hong Kong/China tv series than learning it in school.
well, I was from Sabah (East Malaysia or Borneo Island where one of the Survivor season took place), and I went to a so called national schol ie they teach mostly in Malay and 1 class of English and Chinese (if you choose to take this class). My first language is definitely not chinese. But in terms of speaking, I can speak cantonese (what I speak to my parents at home), Hakka and mandarin (after living with a Taiwanese for 5 yrs in high school). Altho most young kids, I agree, dont know the chinese history, but in terms of culture, most chinese kids in Malaysia still follow it to some degree. I have not met one malaysian chinese who does not speak at least one chinese dialect. In fact alot of chinese in Sabah speaks at least 3 chinese dialects and some even 4-5 like my parents, my dad speaks hokkien and tao chew and my mom speaks hainan as well. bhaiyow
There is nothing to get worked up over. We cannot be like people of China although we can be if we choose to. Neither can we compete with people form China, so we must be slightly different,Chinese basically but international in order to survive. We are even better than many East Asians ,Singaporean etc because of the extra value, in fact next year onwards anyone can choose not to enrol in Secondary school but choose International Schools.
maybe i am studying is a total chinese school since primary... couldnt really get how serious is the condition out there... well... dont tell me dat they cant understand 'peng you'? It's because they study in oversea or sth? they should... i was english educated when i was small n i couldnt speak mandarin dat well... but it all changed when i started my chinese primary school n high school... everyone around me can speak chinese very well like Taiwanese... N we even speak some words that only taiwanese r using...
man... that is dead serious if they really cant understand 'peng you'... i've been thinking that almost every malaysian chinese can speak chinese very well until today... im shocked...
This is funny. His reason for leaving was not that he couldn't speak Korean but that they couldn't speak Chinese. Maybe we can expect Hariawan and Ardy Wiranata to give up on those useless Canadians soon because they can't speak Indonesian. Or maybe Park Joo Bong left Malaysia because they couldn't speak Korean. Alas, isn't this always the way? I'm sure it's hard for Tan Kim Her, too, but not as hard as it would be for Li Mao. I know so few people here who speak Mandarin. I'm sure Tan Kim Her speaks either good or great English but it's still got to be hard. I doubt the Korean players speak much English even though they need it to some degree for tournaments and such. I've never tried speaking to any of them in English. I'm always amazed when I go to places like Malaysia and the Philippines where I meet so many people who speak two, three or more languages. It's a wonder I haven't heard of more Malaysian greats coaching internationally.
well, Li Mao is actually a coach frm china who comes to malaysia to coach if i wasnt wrong... about malaysian coaches... actually there arent many malaysian greats coaching except the one i know, misbun sidek... n other coaches who are coaching malaysian team are frm indonesia or china.. We don't produce a lot of local coaches actually You cant expect our local coaches to coach internationally when we dont have enough local coaches for ourselves too
But for most of the non Chinese-educated, they can speak in Cantonese because Hong Kong series is very popular here. However, I know of some cases when they watch the Cantonese dramas, they will lose grasp of whats going on without the help of the subtitles. Sorry moderators, I know this is off-topic.