Meet the people keeping dialects and heritage languages alive in Singapore
Beyond the buzz over Teochew box-office hit Dear You, some Singaporeans are determined not to let dialects and heritage languages fall out of use – by teaching, documenting and speaking them.
In Singapore, a growing number of individuals are taking steps to preserve dialects and heritage languages from being lost. One such example is Eugene Lee, who volunteers at a nursing home and recalls a resident who could not communicate her discomfort because she was more comfortable speaking in dialect than English. Lee and his wife, Ski Yeo, co-founded LearnDialect.sg, a platform dedicated to teaching Hokkien, Cantonese and Teochew.
Their lessons are primarily aimed at healthcare professionals and nursing home workers, many of whom are migrant workers from Southeast Asia. There is also a growing interest among Singaporeans in learning heritage languages. For instance, the Chinese box-office hit Dear You, which is in Teochew, drew large crowds who preferred to watch the original dialect version rather than the Mandarin-dubbed version.
The demand for dialect learning extends to secondary school students who want to understand their parents and grandparents better. This interest is heartening, as it may help to slow the decline of dialect use and keep the unique cultural heritage alive in Singapore.
Written by urgent.news from Channel News Asia's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
