Social Commentary Learning dialects – a pain or a gain?

You started as a bilingual student, handling both English and Mother Tongue. Not too difficult, I presume? Now, as you grow older, add a third language to your workload, German, French etc. you choose. Starting to get a bit difficult? One day, you returned home from school and hurriedly finished your school homework. Finally. You proceeded to read the newspaper. The headlines read ,“MINISTRY OF EDUCATION MAKES LEARNING DIALECTS COMPULSORY.” Nightmarish?
From the hype and fuss over dialects arose a single question: Should the young generation, thus be forced to learn dialects? Many may think that it is of absolute necessity to learn dialects but I beg to differ. Why so? In this essay, I shall justify why I feel that learning dialects add onto the burden of children. Even if others may argue about its cultural value, that is controversial as well, because the value of a language is its usefulness, which I would elaborate on later.
Firstly, the younger generation should not be forced to learn their dialects as it brings about additional burden to the young on top of their school homework. Let us take a look at my curriculum, a Singaporean Integrated Programme student’s curriculum. My subjects are English, Chinese, double math, triple science and history. Not to forget my CCA and my other projects, I barely have time to relax. By adding dialect to my curriculum is equivalent to divesting my free time, which I hold on so tightly to, from me. I believe, not only I feel this way, many others definitely would have a schedule as tightly packed as mine. For example, a student not undergoing Integrated Programme has to take 2 languages, 3 sciences or 3 humanities plus one elective. Seemingly, their schedule is also equally packed as mine. Adding dialects onto our already heavy burden deny us the right to a healthy and stress-free living. Moreover, the claims made by Singaporean students about the stress level should be highly regarded since their claims are primary evidences and are thoughts about stress face by students, from the students themselves.
Now, you may think that dialects have deep cultural meaning but think of it this way, what is the whole point of having a language? A language’s purpose is just a communication tool is it not? Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew share the same sentiment. Quoting from him, “If you speak Hokkien or Cantonese, you reach some 60 million in Fujian and Taiwan, or about 100 million in Guangdong and Hong Kong. With Mandarin, you can speak to 1,300 million Chinese from all provinces in China,” This example goes to show that dialects can only be used when communicating with small groups who use them. A language is just like a satellite. Dialects, have a smaller communication radius and range when compared to those of international languages. Which would be preferred? Definitely, the more useful international language because you just have to learn an international language to be able to communicate to most of the people. Thus, in this world of globalization, dialects cannot be compared to international languages like English and Mandarin.
To boot, if the younger generations are not interested in learning dialects, there is no point in forcing the younger generation to learn. I am definitely not saying that no one should learn their dialect. My point is that it should not be forced. They will not be able to commit to the subject because they do not want to learn it in the first place. In my humble opinion, I feel that dialect courses should be made an optional course in the school’s curriculum. Since, there are mainly two parties involved in this argument, the dialect advocators and the dialect non-advocators, this way, with my solution, the best of both worlds are obtained.
As such, teaching of dialects should not be forced upon children due to it being an additional burden and its lack of utility. Hopefully, next time instead of “MINISTRY OF EDUCATION MAKES LEARNING DIALECTS COMPULSORY.”, you see “MINISTRY OF EDUCATION STARTS OPTIONAL DIALECT PROGRAMME.”