The usage of Chinese language is in increasing trend for Malaysian Chinese 華語是未來語言趨勢

使用率超越國英語‧華語是未來語言趨勢

There was an article reported in Sinchew Daily on 24-2-2009 on the survey conducted by MU, on the usage of languages and dialects among the Chinese students. Chinese/Mandarin is the most popular language used by them, with 51.8% ; English is 20.5% and Cantonese is 17.4%. The usage of Chinese language /Mandarin in the family is between 30%(with grandparents), 50% -60% with the family members. Family communicate with Cantonese is 30-35% with family members, and 40% with grandparent. Other dialects(other than Cantonese dialect) are with limited usage in the family. The usage of Hakka and Hokkian was with the range of 3-6%, but higher usage of 12-13% with grandparents. Other usage of dialects were insignificant ,even including Teochew. ( refer to Sinchew Daily星洲日報 www.sinchiew- i.com 24-2-2009)

This is an alarming trends for the usage of dialects. Except for Cantonese, if the trends continue, the younger generation may lost the dialects. This is because we are using more Mandarin for communication for our social activities. The survival of Cantonese are mainly because of Hong Kong movie and TV series; and the Cantonese are still popular in the main town like Kuala Lumpur, Ipoh, & Kuantan. But usage of Cantonese also reported downward trends recently.

The clan house of the weak dialects need to really work hard to promote the usage of dialects at home, otherwise it may be lost within 5 years. But on the other view it was the success of the Chinese language usage & Chinese education in Malaysia. This is the dilemma of Chinese in Malaysia, the popular usage of Chinese/Mandarin, will indicated declining trends of the dialects among the younger generation Chinese.