Losing the shine of bilingualism
Before I embark on a rather heavy topic for this week’s newsletter, I wanted to share this embroidery of a poem that my friend Sihui introduced to me when we first met.
Pat Schneider’s “The Patience of Ordinary Things” reminds me to be mindful and grateful for the every day, one step at a time. The embroidery is by Berny, a very talented artist whose work is currently at Esplanade’s Jendala visual art space until 29 August.
Singapore - a miracle story of harmonious race, religion and progress. A little red dot who grew to bring her own strengths to the international table of bigwigs. Ladies and gentlemen, that is a preamble of my homeland which is pretty much a fairytale of democracy, meritocracy and effectively bilingual people keen on buying TOTO.
Over the past weeks, this little red dot started to show signs of tempers bursting at the seams, with mean behaviour that felt egged on from underlying stereotypes (“you don’t think so, meh?”), and it is very tiring to watch this show play out. Even a local MP joined the fray with his snowflake powers. If you need a recap of what happened, click the link but what’s more important is the tips at the bottom of the article, on “How to hold a Constructive Conversation” vis-à-vis an argumentative skirmish on weather things.
Heartache at stupid behaviour aside, this is a great opportunity to finally begin reminding and admitting to ourselves that we aren’t free from our own biaises. The stereotypes we were told growing up have weaved its claws into our minds, and while our older generation didn’t have the vocabulary to say “hello, are you being racist? why are you talking shit about my friend?” or maybe to them 50 years ago, it really was just a joke. But we now know better, and we have that power and responsibility to correct ourselves.
This has been, and continues to be a heavy and sensitive topic, so let’s ease you in (already halfway through this email, NOW then ease?!) with a smattering of humour and then weigh it down with reality:
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Are we really still effectively bilingual? I can hear myself struggle, as do these youths, as they try to use their “mother tongue” to explain concepts to seniors. Here’s a hilarious one about Cancel Culture. TBH, what truly impressed me was the fluency, the true bilingualism, of the elderly in the videos, not the youths. We still have so much to learn!
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Since we’re at it, why not really learn how to spell the Malay words we use in our every day, like ‘leceh’ (excessively troublesome) and ‘terbalik’ (upside down)? Don’t be that culture appropriator without truly understanding others’ culture and language.
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My all time favourite and relatable death-to-bilingualism TikTok video that goes, “Hello, police? There’s this fight.. wo ke yi shuo shuo zhong wen? Ok. 看你.”
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Lastly, instead of laughing about how this CMIO establishment of ours “Cannot Make It”, and thinking it’s someone else’s problem to fix, let’s do our part in redefining what racial harmony means to us.
But seriously, here’s a sincere “take this first step” comic by @rachelpang. It would be super if you could spend some time browsing through this entire comic carousel.
Just took my first Moderna jab so gna rest now,
Medhā