From the title, you probably already guessed it. The mother tongue is in fact threatened with extinction in Singapore. It is common to see young Singaporeans speaking English fluently, but when it comes to their native language, they have much more difficulty expressing themselves. In recent months, Tropic Monster TV has held an April Fool's joke to test the Chinese skills of young people in Singapore. Unfortunately, the majority of young people interviewed did not even understand the question asked in Chinese. Besides Chinese, Tamil has become a classroom language due to the emphasis on writing rather than speaking, leading to a decline in Tamil language skills among young people. This begs the question: what are the implications of this language loss among young people for older generations of Singaporeans? Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay The Left Out Generation Most of our grandparents communicate in their own native languages ​​and dialects. More and more young Singaporeans are unable to speak their native language fluently, leading to a language barrier and generation gap between grandparents and their grandchildren. Aware of this phenomenon, the Ministry of Education (MOE) launched a series of videos to promote the use of the mother tongue. One of the videos had a profound effect on me. In the video, a young girl does not speak Chinese fluently. Her grandfather, who only knows how to speak Chinese, suffers a fall, but because she cannot converse well in Chinese, she is unable to express care and concern for her grandfather. Imagine this: your family comes together to enjoy a meal. Everyone is there, young and old. Everyone is talking and laughing and just enjoying quality family time. You step away from a conversation with your siblings for a moment, a moment just long enough for you to see your grandmother sitting silently in the room. She seems to be the center of the buzz, but the truth is that as a Chinese monolingual, she doesn't understand any of the conversations that are taking place. She smiles at you nonetheless, but there’s a deeper sense of emotional detachment in her eyes. Our bonds and interactions with our grandparents may be significantly limited due to our inability to speak our native languages, making them feel less emotionally connected to the family as the majority of conversation takes place in English, thus preventing them from engaging in conversation. Although unintentional, it is inevitable that older people will eventually feel isolated. Perhaps seemingly small actions, like starting a conversation with them in their native language, will make them feel included in the family. Loss of cultural identity The Malay community has a traditional Malay saying, “Bahasa Melambangkan Budaya,” which translates to “language.” is the mark of culture. Language is much more than just a means of communication; it is art and philosophy. Language conveys ideas and philosophies specific to the culture from which it originates. In The Analects, there is a saying 子曰: “三人行，必有我师焉。择其善者而从之，其不善者而改之。”, which teaches us that there are always good things to learn. other people. The Tamil saying “எண்ணித் துணிக கருமம்” means to act after careful consideration. Each language has its own distinctive features and values ​​that we can learn from. Although many Singaporeans today believe that the values ​​and teachings passed down through their mother tongue are not.!