Will it disappear? Many "little Ruian's" can no longer speak dialects! Where will Ruian's words go?

“Currently, some elderly people in their 60s and 70s cannot speak Mandarin; people in their 40s and 50s can speak Mandarin but not standardly; people in their twenties and thirties can speak Mandarin fairly well and usually can’t speak Mandarin well. Speak dialect; children under ten years old can only speak Mandarin. If this generation grows up, they may not be able to understand Ruian dialect, and Ruian dialect will slowly die out!" This is the lament of many older generations of educated people, They saw many people communicating in standard Mandarin, but they could not understand the Ruian dialect. Will "Ruian Dialect" disappear? This may be a "gossip" that only sees discussion but no results, but it is a real issue worthy of attention. This practical problem has also attracted the attention of the cultural circles in our city. The establishment of the Municipal Language Arts Association is the result of their joint efforts. They publish books on dialects and dialect songs, and hold dialect song competitions... They are passing on and promoting the Ruian dialect through their own efforts. Where the Ruian dialect will go requires the unanimous attention of all Ruian people.

Ruian children are performing Ruian dialect programs

Phenomenon

Half of the students cannot speak Ruian dialect fluently

“My nephew said before going to kindergarten She speaks Ruian dialect, and she only spoke Mandarin when she entered kindergarten. Now she is in the first grade of elementary school, and she has basically forgotten all the Ruian dialect she could speak when she was 3 years old. "Children today speak two-thirds Mandarin plus one-third." Ruian dialect is very 'foreign'"... native Ruian people cannot speak Ruian dialect, or even understand Ruian dialect. This phenomenon is more prominent among the new generation of "Little Ruian" people.

There is a public welfare course in the city library, which includes Ruian dialect as an elective. Ms. Ji, the teacher of this course, once conducted a survey. Among the more than 20 students in the class, more than half of the students could not communicate in Ruian dialect. Only a few students in the remaining half could communicate in Ruian dialect fluently. The rest People only know some simple daily expressions.

The reporter also conducted a similar investigation in a third-grade class in an urban primary school. For 75% of the students in this class who were born and raised in Ruian, Mandarin has replaced their hometown dialect and become a more comfortable communication tool. Only about 10% of the students think that they are "more proficient in their hometown dialect."

Learning Ruian dialect is not as good as learning English

Citizen Mr. Zhong’s 8-year-old daughter is learning Bubble English at New Oriental. Although she cannot speak Ruian dialect, she can master a simple and fluent English. English expressions for daily communication. Mr. Zhong said that the couple usually either speaks Mandarin or communicates in simple English with their children at home. Even if there are elderly people at home, they try to ask them not to speak Ruian dialect in front of their children. “In the future, there will be a lot of opportunities for children to use dialects when they grow up. If you don’t have enough, it’s better to learn more English”.

"Learning foreign languages ??is king these days" "Dialects are not tested in the college entrance examination"... There are many netizens who have the same idea as Mr. Zhong. They do not expect their children to speak Ruian dialect well, thinking that they can It would be good to learn English well.

There are English training classes everywhere in Ruian. There is no English learning environment, and parents are trying their best to create one. But when it comes to dialects, there is obviously a very good language environment. As long as you use it more and communicate more in daily life, learning it well is almost a matter of course. However, many parents don’t want to spend this time and would rather their children don’t know the dialect. It’s very sad!

Explore

There are many reasons for the disconnection of "Ruian dialect"

There are many factors causing the dialect to be "out", such as: the unremitting Mandarin promotion campaign, the new Ruian people The increasing number of people, the weakening of dialects by strong business culture and global culture, etc.

Schools are a front for promoting Mandarin. "Please use Mandarin" slogans can be seen everywhere in the teaching building. Whether it is speaking in class or communicating after class, students are generally required to speak Mandarin.

A class teacher told reporters that the class held a themed activity at the beginning of the term. One of the programs was dubbing a short article in Ruian dialect. As a result, the students' dubbing was so varied that the whole class laughed. A ball. This teacher has also made inquiries among parents. Some parents do not want their children to speak dialects for fear of affecting their ability to learn Mandarin. Others are children who are unwilling to speak. Both of these phenomena are slowly weakening dialects. "The children's living environment lacks the conditions for exposure to dialects, and there is no way for them to learn authentic dialects."

The nanny who spends time with the children takes away the "Ruian dialect" The influence is also evident.

Nannies are now in thousands of households. In addition to doing laundry, cooking and taking care of children, most of them are not locals of Ruian. Many parents find that their children's babbling includes Northern Jiangsu dialect, Anhui dialect, and various southern and northern accents. "Today's 'non-mainstream' children will grow up to be 'mainstream-influencing' elites tomorrow. If the local dialect is broken among them, it is conceivable that Ruian dialect will disappear in the future." Some netizens are very worried about this.

What would happen if local dialects disappeared?

"If the Ruian dialect dies, first of all, it will be difficult to pass on intangible cultural heritage such as Ruian drum lyrics, and may even die along with the dialect." Ji Wenwen, president of the Municipal Language Arts Association, said that the dialect is losing ground , loss of place, and abnormality have caused gaps in artistic inheritance, and dialect culture is being lost in large quantities.

"Take the Ruian drum lyrics as an example. How many young Ruian people still listen to the drum lyrics today, and how many people can understand the Ruian drum lyrics?" Ji Wenwen said, the dialect is gradually lost, and those who can understand it With fewer people speaking the dialect, the audience for Ruian drum lyrics will naturally be smaller, and the inheritance will become even more of a problem. If the dialect does not have a certain way of inheritance and remains on the fringe for a long time, then the inheritance of Ruian drum poetry is tantamount to making a pot without rice and planting a tree without roots.

In this regard, deputies to the National People's Congress proposed a motion as early as two years ago, hoping to attach importance to Ruian Drum Ci and other intangible cultural heritage, and through protection and persistence, urge the Ruian dialect to gradually return to its rightful status, and Continue to play their role as carriers of important local cultural relics.

As the saying goes, "There are different customs in five miles, and different pronunciations in ten miles. I would rather sell my ancestral land than forget my ancestral language." Dialect is the language of life and the bond that maintains emotions.

"If the dialect is lost, then Ruian people can no longer be called 'Ruian people'." Ji Wenwen also said that whenever a Ruian person is out of town, he will verify whether you are a Ruian person. It's not the place of birth on the ID card, but the fluent dialect. When a Ruian person cannot speak the Ruian dialect, he or she loses the most basic culture of Ruian, and the fellow villagers also lack emotional ties.

Protection

The Municipal Language Arts Association was established to promote dialects

In order to promote and protect Ruian dialect, with the promotion of people from the cultural circles of our city, the Municipal Language Arts Association The Art Association was established in 2012. Ji Wenwen, a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference who has always been concerned about the promotion and protection of Ruian dialect, serves as the president.

After the establishment of the Space Association, it immediately started compiling "Ruian Dialect Folk Songs". "In the promotion of dialects, the most important thing is to get the new generation of children interested in dialects. Only if they are willing to learn dialects can dialects be passed down forever." Ji Wenwen said that Ruian has many dialect folk songs. After the collection was established, they found someone to compose the music. Being able to sing and speak is both interesting and entertaining.

Soon, the book "Ruian Dialect Ballads" was published, which was loved by many children. There is also a CD at the back of the book. Children can not only learn the dialect through words, but also hear the words. Ruian dialect with a smooth accent.

Striking while the iron is hot, the Municipal Language and Arts Association decided to organize the Ruian Dialect Song Contest, hoping to promote the singing of Ruian nursery rhymes through the competition, showcase the artistic style of Ruian children, and strive to build the Ruian Dialect Nursery Rhyme Contest into Ruian’s high-quality culture brand. In 2013, the first Ruian Dialect Song Competition was held with great fanfare. The competition was divided into three categories: infants, children and combinations, and four competition venues. Nearly 600 children from across the city participated.

The initiative to promote Ruian dialect has also been supported by the Municipal Education Bureau. This competition has now become a competition event in the city's primary and secondary school student art festival.

"By becoming a competition event in the art festival, the competition will have sustainability, and schools and parents will pay more attention to it. This is a good thing for the promotion of dialects."

This year is the third dialect singing competition. At the competition site, many parents said that they must learn Ruian dialect. Through this competition, their children have become more interested in speaking dialects and their courage has also been exercised.

It is understood that in recent years, Ruian’s CPPCC members have proposed proposals every year calling for the importance of inheriting and promoting dialect culture. In 2009, the Propaganda Department of the Municipal Party Committee organized and compiled a book "Selected Ruian Nursery Rhymes", which was a gratifying step towards rescuing dialect nursery rhymes and was appreciated by all walks of life.

Currently, some members of the CPPCC are collecting various Ruian dialect sayings, hoping to publish them in a book in the future to contribute to the protection and inheritance of the Ruian dialect.

Opinion

To promote Mandarin, we must also promote dialects

Small dialects contain big culture. I believe that Ruian dialect is a local language that has been widely used by tens of millions of people in daily life for thousands of years, covering all aspects of daily life from astronomy and geography. "Sometimes when we talk about something or something in Mandarin with others, we may not understand it, but if we express it in half a sentence of Ruian dialect, we can understand it immediately. This is the unique charm of Ruian dialect."

How can children learn to speak Ruian dialect? I think some people's suggestions of asking teachers to teach, holding training courses, etc. are a bit superfluous. "Two things are enough", parents or one party who can speak Ruian dialect and a family atmosphere that speaks Ruian dialect. Because if a dialect can only be passed down by holding training courses, it means that this dialect is not far away from extinction. "An appropriate space should be left for dialects, and each can play a positive role." Children should be able to speak both standard Mandarin and authentic dialects. They should have this bilingual ability within Chinese and play their respective roles in their respective divisions of labor. The communicative role of language is the most ideal.