Please No More Announcements in Mandarin at Stations.

No More Announcements In Mandarin At Stations

I received this from a Blog reader (initials 'mfc') who says she is Chinese. 

Dear Syed,

Came across this interesting article in the Star...

TRANSPORT operator SMRT (Singapore) has brought an abrupt halt to announcing station"names" in Mandarin in addition to English, amid an online debate over the issue.

It had said initially that the Mandarin announcements on some trains were a trial which began in October and would go on until next month. But the trial ended on Wednesday.

The issue has stirred much discussion online. In a Nov 30 Facebook post, local writer Ng Yi Sheng, 32, said he felt the move was to “accommodate the growing number of Chinese-speaking immigrants” here and that his non-Chinese friends found it “deeply alienating”. His post went viral.

Others asked why this was being done now, as station "names" have long been announced only in English on SMRT trains. Some asked if the operator would consider announcing "names" in Singapore’s other two official languages, Malay and Tamil.

An SMRT said that it had started the trial after receiving “considerable public feedback suggesting we announce station names in Mandarin to assist passengers, especially older citizens, who rely on announcements during their journey”.

It considered announcements in all four languages, but found that the Malay and Tamil pronunciations of many station names were similar to English.

The spokesman said: “Some station names in Mandarin, however, sound very different. Take for instance, City Hall (Zheng Fu Da Sha), Somerset (Suo Mei Sai), Redhill (Hong Shan), Lakeside (Hu Pan) and Pioneer (Xian Qu).

“So, we started a trial that included in-train Mandarin announcements of the station names on some trains on our North-South and East-West lines from the first week of October.”

Among those who did not agree with the SMRT move was Member of Parliament Zaqy Mohamad, chairman of the Communications and Information Government Parliamentary Committee.

Commenting on its explanation that the use of Mandarin was meant to help older citizens, he said: “I’m sure there are elderly Malays or Indians who may have the same difficulty and can be helped.” — The Straits Times / Asia News Network"

Here is a follow thru comment by the Blog reader mfc : 

• Now, can you imagine if this were to happen in Malaysia? Can you imagine if MAHB decided that there would no longer be flight information announcements in Mandarin? 
• All our "We're Malaysia First, Chinese Second" hypocrites would be screaming blue murder and claiming it to be yet another case of blatant discrimination by the Umno ruled government and a failure of the MCA to defend Chinese culture in Malaysia, or some crap like that lah. 
• Will these same hypocrites take their case to Singapore and stand side by side with Singapore Chinese to press for their "mother tongue" rights? Oh no! Wait! They can't! Because even Singapore Chinese were against the Mandarin announcements on MRT trains. 
• With Hong Kong and China mainland Chinese both pressing for more English in the education curriculum, and now Singapore Chinese against Mandarin announcements on MRT trains, I have therefore come to the conclusion that the only true blue Chinese in this entire world are those living in Malaysia. 
• Proud to be Malaysian First! In case some of your readers don't get it, the previous line was sarcasm ok.
• Thanks.  Regards,  (yes, i am chinese!)

My comments : People are getting too worked up over every little thing. I feel that the Singapore MRT need not announce the stations in all four languages. English and Mandarin will be enough. I always believe in being practical. Everyone in Singapore understands English or Mandarin.

In the LRT in Malaysia, Malay and English are enough. Everyone in Malaysia understands Malay. And there are so many tourists and foreigners in the country - most of whom can understand basic English.

Why do we make announcements on trains, planes and buses? To give people information and directions. That is all. Just like the street signs. Street signs, LRT and airport announcements are not places to show off ethnicity, religious supremacy and other such crap. 

I agree with the points by mfc. There is too much paranoia among people over everything. There is a very simple reason for all this. Lack of respect and lack of trust.

People dont give the due respect for the other person's rights. This is the beginning of all problems. And there is not much effort done by each and every individual person to earn your neighbour's trust. We need to teach this in the schools - especially in Malaysia.

Every country has its own special problems to deal with. To me Malaysia is the most unique, fantastic, mixed up bag of nuts on the surface of the earth.  We have our problems. We have to teach a subject in school or incorporate it into the curriculum - how to respect your neighbours and other human beings and how to earn peoples' trust. 

Respect your neighbour and earn their trust.  Plus we also need to seriously teach people from young that 'we need all human beings'. Also 'pelanggan kita bukan musuh kita'. (My wife and I ran into more of this recently.)

Thank you mfc who sent me this.  We need more honest writing like yours which are critical of some (not all) members of your own community.  Honesty should build strong bridges. 

Sumber : Blok Out Side the Box ( Thanx Syed Akbar)

MWbmt