Madam – 1 Billion – that’s the number of people in the world who speaks Mandarin. The most spoken language in the world. But… 350 000- that’s the number of Chinese people out of 47 million people living in South Africa.
Mandarin comes from most of Northern and South Western China. More than 960 million native speakers.
In 2009 China has become South Africa’s largest trading partner. Experts say that speaking Mandarin will give South Africa a better chance to leverage relationships with Chinese partners.
But will South Africa really benefit from learning and speaking Mandarin?
“As Sadtu we see it as colonisation. As much as during colonisation some people were complicit in selling our souls, that’s what’s happening now,” says South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) General Secretary, Mugwena Maluleke.
Despite strong disapproval by influential Sadtu, the Government is going ahead with plans to introduce Mandarin to public schools.
If Sadtu is against introducing Mandarin to our schools and the Government is for it, then who in our Government is making the decision?
Grade 4 to 12 have the option to learn Mandarin from January 2016, but it is not even one of our official languages.
“We have never had the need to speak Mandarin to negotiate business deals. It is more important for our children to learn one of our indigenous languages. I feel each district should learn an indigenous language of that area,” said a distraught South African mom.
The Government maintained in addition to strengthen business ties, the country agreed to cooperate on educational matters.
“As China is South Africa’s biggest trading partner, it is important for our children to become proficient in the Confucius language and develop a good understanding of Chinese culture” -Anonymous
“What is the use? The Government should rather use the money needed to train the teachers to educate pupils for something else like poverty alleviation. How will our children learn to speak in pictures anyway?,” a young South African complained.
“They can’t even teach English and Afrikaans or Zulu properly, now they want to teach a language that is not even official in this country. It won’t work,” said Craig Pedersen, another young South African father.
Deno Govender also commented: “It’s a ridiculous idea. Can you imagine Australia offering Afrikaans an an official language? That won’t happen. We are trying to pacify the Chinese government to create more investment, but we can not speak our own language. It’s just a political strategy to win votes because Chinese believe they are white in South Africa, and so the ANC needs those votes, because the DA will take it, so it’s just to appease the minority.”
Will speaking Mandarin benefit South Africa?
No – The Chinese are buying out South Africa slowly, and before the Government rubs the sleep from their eyes, they will have control of mining and the industrial sectors. At the moment they are the only ones who are in the textile industry and are thriving. Look how they are treating their workers! They get locked in from 8am to 5pm.
Yes – The benefit would be for the ANC to win votes. It will almost never happen. but if it does, the benefit is we learn a foreign language. So if we want to invest in China then we at least can converse. South Africa is part of BRICS. If BRICS unite, we can change the international currency. Then we should learn Mandarin.
But what South African language will be taught in Chinese schools other than English?
The question still stands, should Mandarin be taught in South African public schools or not?
Lisa Perrins
Response from Alex Liu, Chairperson of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce Newcastle:
Dear Editor,
Thank you very much for this opportunity for us to respond. In the beginning of the announcement (about Mandarin will become one of the foreign language options being taught in schools), we were very excited, in some way, it indicates that Chinese are being recognised in South Africa.
We also heard about the protests from Sadtu and others, some of the reasons are absurd (i.e. colonization, Chinese buying out…), but some are legitimate and need deliberation, for instance, does it benefit our children?
There are other indigenous languages more important to our children than Mandarin and do we have enough qualified teachers for Mandarin classes? One may also ask the question about decision making process by the Government as this announcement seemed to have surprised many South Africans, including Chinese South Africans.
If I may come back to the head of the letter received by you, 1 Billion – that’s the number of people in the world that speaks Mandarin. The most spoken language in the world. But… 350 000 – that’s the number of Chinese people out of 47 million people living in South Africa.
We have to correct the figure- there are 1.3 billion population in China and more than 50 million overseas Chinese in the world. Speaking Mandarin does not only help you to understand the 350,000 Chinese in South Africa, but 1.3 billion people in the world.
Does Mandarin benefit our children? I can come up with a few reasons.
1. Potential business with Chinese, not only in South Africa but all over the world, especially in China.
2. Potential higher education in China/Taiwan/Hong Kong/ Singapore. You may be surprised to find out how many South African matrix graduates are studying or planning to study in universities in China.
3. Exploration to more Asian cultures like India, China is an ancient culture in Asia. One cannot understand China via English.
The above are just some thoughts came from my mind. I wish I have more time to deliberate (am occupied by other emergencies). Hopefully other members may add more.
But there’s one thing about Mandarin everybody neglected and I need to bring to you attention. I was told the Chinese to be taught in the class will only be (simplified Chinese), traditional Chinese (which are used in Taiwan, Hong Kong and other areas) will not be included, which is a shame, because simplified Chinese only came after 1949 by current Chinese government, one cannot understand Chinese classic literature through simplified Chinese.
Traditional Chinese is worth the recognition if the Government is serious about Mandarin. Thank you very much.
