Language Differences In English

Unlike some countries’ dialects, which only have differences on their accents, many Chinese dialects pronounced words totally different compared with Mandarin, which makes them special. Although the quantity of Chinese population grows up every year, the number of people who can speak their own dialects is going down. I was born in Hangzhou, and have lived there for eighteen years; when I was young, I always heard people talked with each other in Hangzhou dialect. However, less and less people speak it now, as there are a huge number of external population comes into Hangzhou, to find jobs and live there. Back in 2000, people still got used to speak with dialects; however, because the government has made several policies that forced people to speak Mandarin through the years, Mandarin becomes popular.

It is pretty hard for a person to learn a language if he or she does not live in that environment. For instance, my sister immigrated to Canada since grade three; at that time, she knew nothing about English. After half year, she had not problem communicating with others in English, because those people she touched everyday only speak English. It is good that the government wants people to speak Mandarin, so that there would be no gaps between different areas of people; however, at least they should offer some class that could teach people to say their local languages. According to the news from CNTV, “… every year several dozen language disappear around the world.” Also, experts who accepted this interview believed that “the disappearance of languages will surely lead to the gradual disappearance of many diverse cultures around the world, and therefore cause the loss of many of the world’s rare and colorful cultural traditions, ways...

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... cities, but in Hangzhou and Shanghai, there are a few spare-time schools, which teach people how to say local language. This kind of course should not found by good-hearted people, it should be the local government. Founding dialect course is the best way for people to learn and to protect dialects, so that we can still hear them after generations and generations, instead of calling them “extinct” dialects and saw them from history books. Dialect means more than just a language, it is also the representation of the city; furthermore, it is the treasure that our ancestors passed on, to tell us about their lives, and make us have a deeper connection of the city.

As I mentioned before, I am “Hangzhouness”. By the time I decided to use dialects as my topic, I have searched about the history of Hangzhou dialect, and I found it actually has some impressive past records.