From: chou@cs.washington.edu (Pai Hsiang Chou)
Subject: Re: Language
Organization: Computer Science & Engineering, U. of Washington, Seattle
Date: Sat, 29 Aug 92 06:28:53 GMT

In article <Btq9o5.CGo@acsu.buffalo.edu> v999qx29@ubvmsd.cc.buffalo.edu writes:
>
>   Is it a sin to speak one's mother language in the public where most
>of the people are of the same language group but there happened to be
>some 'new-comers(only 40 years compare to 100 years and up)' who for
>some reason never learned to understand that language.


Traditionally, Han Chinese have been an advanced people
in technology, academics, compared to their weaker neighbors.
The have used humane justifications to sinitize their
"barbaric" neighbors by intermarriage over milleniums, but
they have had no respect for other peoples' culture and
heritage.  As recently as 1943, KMT was still banning Miao
costumes and Miao languages.  Anyone who does not conform to
the Han ways of things is condemned and ranked in the bottom
of the social ladder.

H"ol"o are a sinitized people.  Taiwanese H"ol"o
people were not only people in the frontier, but they
have also been people of colony under Japanese and Chinese.
They were never ranked even close to the top of the
social/political ladder, and therefore all attributes
associated with them are non-mainstream and are to be
condemned.

Furthermore, the oppressive and destructive language
policy in education and media in the past 40 years
have caused tremendous psychological wounds in non-Mandarin
Taiwanese speakers.  With new children being born every day,
if we don't take actions soon, this linguistic wound
will be fatal, and our mothertongues will be lost forever.

Taiwanese have been too polite.  For example, H"ol"o speakers
usually switch to Mandarin when someone in the group does not
speak H"ol"o.  This reflects a lack of confidence in our own
language and heritage, possibly for the reason that it's
"not Chinese enough."  Young women especially tend to be
ashamed of using their non-Mandarin mothertongues, because
they are afraid of being associated with the low-class image.




>   It sounds absurd if the language is not Taiwanese. But ...............
>...................................
>   There was a joke that someone ordered chicken noodle in a restaurant then,
>after the waiter brought him the noodle, he changed his order to beef noodle
>and returned the chicken noodle. After he finished the meal he refused to pay
>because the beef noodle was the substitute for that chicken noodle . So, he 
>didn't have to pay for the beef noodle. As to the chicken noodle, he didn't
>eat it at all. So he didn't have to pay for it either.
>   Seeing Taiwanese language gradually fading away, I am just like that puzzled
>waiter feeling unfair but stopped by that fierce-looking customer's unquestion-
>able answer. 


This is a very interesting analogy, because there's a lot
of truthfulness to it.  Many people think of non-Mandarin
mothertongues as the languages of the blue-collar workers,
servants, illiterates, and people with no taste/class.
Mandarin, the newcomer language, forced the other languages
into a submissive position, and these speakers dare not
challenge it because they are afraid of offending the newcomer.

Newsgroups: soc.culture.taiwan