Immersion

The Answer is Immersion

A Second Language Acquisition theory notes that when students find themselves surrounded by the target language with little or no dependence on a mediating mother tongue, their ability to think in the target language accelerates dramatically.

So these street urchins up there acquired many dialects under the immersion theory. With a mother who speaks perfect Teo chew, we could only but use the sing song dialect for daily survival with our dear mother. A mother so dear she is, she meticulously spoke to us and taught us the dialect in perfect intonation.

But, horror of all horrors, dear old dad won't hear of us speak Teo chew to him. Being so chauvinistic, he would only converse with us in Hakka. Woe it was to us for surely it wasn't easy using that dialect. But speak we had to cos he could not speak any other thing except Hakka. Mother is more accomodative...she would speak Hakka to dad but then when she sees us she automatically switches to Teo chew. SO YOU SEE. We were immersed so we speak...the target dialects of our parents.

And thanks to the Hokkien community surrounding us. We had to speak Hokkien for acceptance.

Then our very far-sighted parents, always thinking of the brightest future for us, sent us to English medium schools. They say if we are to survive for the future we must know how to speak English well. So to English schools we went.

On top of everything else, we use Bahasa Melayu to speak to our Malay neighbours, friends and in school.

Then at the same time, they felt very sorry when we could not understand Mandarin, so they sent us to Chinese class in the evenings to read Mandarin. Also, POL classes were the in-thing in those days where we acquired some Mandarin. I still remember this :

ker ren lai ( a guest is here)

kan pa pa (to see daddy)

pa pa pu chai chia (daddy is not home)

wou ching ker ren sien chou sia ( I invite the guest to have a seat)

chai her ee pei cha (and have some tea)

So when as adults we came up to Kuala Lumpur the Cantonese speaking ethos forced us to speak and understand the lingua. So, we are survivors...my generation.

Immersion and daily use is the answer. You lose a language when you don't use it. So speak the language and dialect.

This is Celine. She is of mixed heritage and is a delight to reflect on her language acqusition pattern. At the age of 2-4 she spoke English with her parents and the Indonesian help taught her Bahasa Melayu. Por Por tried some teo chew with her but with little success. No immersion and no daily use.



Then the family left for the Far East to Macau. In Macau she spoke English and Mandarin was mandatory. She began to speak some degree of Mandarin. At the age of 6-7, Esther and I while on a visit there, helped her complete her homework ...writing Chinese characters ...in the wee hours of the morning. She wept and would not dare go to school without accomplishing her homework. Poor girl. Hundreds of characters. But this was a glorious period for Por Por...cos she spoke to Celine over the phone in Mandarin. You can imagine the pride. My grand daughter speaks Mandarin! By this time she lost her Bahasa Melayu. No one spoke to her.

Celine and her parents left for Europe after Macau when she was 8 0r 9? In Nuremburg, Celine speaks German to her father, paternal grandparents and friends. English is spoken in school and mum uses it too. Her mum like any other ambitious mum buys tons of Chinese books but I doubt it worked out cos Mandarin is hardly used after Macau. So now she loses another language while gaining another one...a language that is used for survival with the community around her. By the way, who do you think is Celine's mum among the siblings above?

Today at the age of 10 or 11? Celine speaks English, German and lost her Mandarin and Bahasa Melayu. But there's a second chance. She is leaving for the Far East again and maybe the immersion with the Chinese people there could salvage her Mandarin skills and Por Por will be grinning again. Immersion and speak it and it's here to stay...the lingua.

So it is true. From the reflections above, we lose a lingua when we are not immersed in it and when we stop using it. As simple as that.

So for the couple above, a word of advice to you both on the arrival of the new addition. Grandpa Kan must speak Teo chew only, grandma Kan must use Hakka only, wife speaks Cantonese and husband speaks Hokkien. Send him to a Chinese school and ask the 'buay chek' (third uncle)to be his mentor. Then ask Karma to speak Bahasa Melayu and once in a while you can send him to me for special English drummings. There...an all rounder and no one can cheat him of a single penny in the future.

If your fore fathers and parents have done it, so can you.

Be immersed and speak it - that's how you acquire a linqua.