Here are my thoughts on: Word of Mouth Radio 4 May 31st 2010. The programme is not on iplayer unfortunately but an overview is here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00s0d1d

This programme gave a fascinating insight into the future of the Chinese language, specifically Chinese written characters. As English marches on as the lingua franca of the world, the programme looked at pinyin the way of writing Chinese characters in our alphabet and the influence of this on Chinese culture.

The discussion centred on the question of maintaining cultural identity through Chinese characters versus simplifying the language and lessening the time needed to learn it by using only pinyin. This raises several issues of how language interplays with culture, identity and business. Perhaps it would benefit the Chinese economy if their future linguistic context mirrored that of Singapore in terms of its multilingualism and the clear economic benefits the Singaporeans have reaped from their four language policy. And would it help balance the global march of English feared by many if Chinese were easier to learn for foreigners whose languages use the Roman script? The worries are of course that China could lose some of the Chinese-ness that the writing style brings to the culture.

Still, it is worth thinking about what government or financially driven multilingualism means for everyone, not just those privileged to be able to learn another language at school. In Singapore the population is small therefore it is relatively easy for the government to implement a country wide language policy. And having three second languages to choose from at school gives diversity and more freedom of choice for young people, which may help to maintain the cultural mix in Singapore. China on the other hand is vast and has many dialects. How realistic is it to expect vast swathes of the population to become expert at English? The alternative could be to increase the number of Chinese speakers in the world. Would switching to pinyin from Chinese characters help a large enough number of foreigners to learn Chinese and make it a new lingua franca to compete with English? Saying that I think I remember a push in the 90s to get all business undergraduates in the UK to learn Japanese, which doesn’t seem to have been very successful.

The programme also talked about how in Singapore Singlish is banned from the media. The presenter Chris Legdard interviewed “Mr Brown” a prominent Singaporean satirist who uses Singlish as a basis for his humorous radio show. (Have a look at his website for more info www.mrbrown.com). What he highlighted in the programme was the dangers of government influencing language policy given that those people most affected are not the elite. In Singapore language policy is firmly in the hands of those who speak 2 or more of the official languages. Would changing Chinese have a negative effect on those who most need the power of language to improve their future? Or in China would simplifying the language by using pinyin bring more foreign investment and trade to China and therefore more success for all?