Baoling Mei

Professor Justine C. Matias

Freshman Composition ENGL 11000

25 September 2021

Cover Letter

Mother tongue is everyone’s native language, and it is the earliest and most natural language that all people learn during their infancy. A person can have one or more languages at the same time, and in general, the second language that comes into contact with is called a foreign language. Definitely, this situation is exceptional in China.

The pronunciation of Chinese varies from region to region, and people who are hundreds of kilometers apart may not be able to communicate 100%. Although everyone is expressing Chinese characters, if you take the sense of hearing as the standard, the dialects between regions cannot be communicated at all. In linguistics, there is no obvious boundary between language and dialect. This may also be because there is no distinction between dialects in other countries, and the most likely problem in communication is the accent. When Western linguistics is introduced into China, it will be considered in principle that if they cannot communicate with each other and cannot understand each other, they should be defined as languages rather than dialects. Due to the differentiation and unification of different processes in the development of ancient Chinese society, the Chinese gradually changed. When distinguishing Chinese in other countries, the choices that arise are Mandarin and Cantonese are the most common. Since the official language of Chinese is Mandarin, there have been controversies about the mother tongue earlier. Cantonese cannot be used as the mother tongue. Mandarin is the common language of the Chinese people and the spoken form of the Chinese national language, but this seems to be Speaking Cantonese as a dialect is not the mother tongue of our Cantonese population. In fact, Mandarin is a kind of “common language” born out of Beijing pronunciation and northern dialects. It was officially born in the 1950s, while Cantonese was basically formed by the end of the Song Dynasty at the latest. So in the scope of the country, Cantonese is a dialect. Cantonese spoken by overseas Chinese all over the world can be called a language.

When I learned about these things, it also reminded me of stories that happened to me. I also encountered the same problem. Language became my first obstacle in life. The first language I studied was Cantonese, and when I was young, and due to environmental problems, I thought that everyone’s communication was in Cantonese. When I moved to a place later, I found that I couldn’t understand what everyone said. I discovered that besides Cantonese, there are other languages I don’t understand. And that also became a hindrance to my life. But after I learned that dialect, I thought that mastering one more language/dialect would help me more, communicate with different people better, and enable myself to master more knowledge.

Learning and understanding multiple languages will enable you to adapt to changes in different environments, and will also enable you to have keen insight into languages. This will not only give oneself the advantages of employment and life also mastering multiple languages can also embrace a new world, develop more interests and enrich one’s own experience.

Written Literacy Narrative

Any native language is the most beautiful language. For me, Chinese, my mother tongue, is the most beautiful language in the world. With the changing of the times, traditional culture is constantly being transformed, and what makes me feel terrible is my mother tongue—Mandarin. Now some people who speak Mandarin don’t even know how to pronounce it. There are also many people who have substandard pronunciation. Many people go to learn foreign languages and go to foreign countries for further studies. I did not say that this is bad, because learning a foreign language allows us to better communicate with different people, and going abroad for further studies can also broaden our horizons, but we should not ignore our mother tongue.

The biggest difference between Chinese and English is that there is no local dialect in English. The biggest difference in each place should be the accent, but its vocabulary, grammar, and even pronunciation are inseparable. But in Chinese, it is different, and there will be differences in dialects in different regions. For example, the most common is Cantonese in the Guangdong area. If you have not been exposed to these dialects in your life, you will not understand them even if they are speaking in Chinese.

I still remember the most impressive thing is that when I first came into contact with the language, I was learning Cantonese, but in that city, I was in at the time, speaking Cantonese would not be a problem for my communication. At that time I made a mistake because I thought everyone communicated in Cantonese. But things are not as simple as I thought. When I moved from the original place to another place, I found that I couldn’t understand what the people around me were saying. Later, I discovered that things were beyond my imagination. Teachers and classmates would use Mandarin to communicate during class, and when the class was over, everyone would use the local dialect to talk. At the time, I was still young and didn’t know anything. It just happened that I didn’t understand either of these two languages. I only knew Cantonese. So I felt that in school, I didn’t know their language and no one would play with me. Because everyone has problems with communication and dialogue, I feel very lonely in school. Everyone has their own friends and they have their own common language to communicate, but I can’t even understand the daily conversations and even the content of the lectures, and I can’t get into it at all. So I was also very frustrated, but fortunately, I was still young and my ability to learn languages would be much better than now. I began to work hard to learn these two languages, even if I can’t fully understand them. At least I must be able to communicate with others in my daily life and slowly increase my vocabulary. Fortunately, the teachers I met were very friendly. The teachers saw that I was not accompanied by friends in school, and understood that I could only understand Cantonese. They would take me to study and accompany me to the end of class. Literally, I can understand these languages, so I took the first step bravely to join the circle of friends and play with them. Therefore, this experience has also allowed me to acquire multiple languages at once so that I can get along with and communicate with different people better.

Perhaps it was because I had this experience when I was a child, so when I moved from a place I was already familiar with to a strange place in the United States, I was not as timid as I was at the beginning. Instead, I will actively work hard to learn a new language. Although this language is much more difficult than learning Chinese at the time, it is a brand new language after all. Fortunately, there is no such thing as a dialect in English. As long as one has enough vocabulary and understands certain daily expressions, then communication is not a big problem. At the same time, there are many Chinese people in the place where I live. Everyone speaks the same language. In addition, I have mastered Cantonese, Mandarin, and my home dialect, so this allows me to understand more people around me. Let me not feel so lonely at the beginning, because I can find people who speak the same language to communicate with me.

But now, as far as the mother tongue is concerned, many people will forget their original intentions. Chinese should be the easiest language for Chinese people, and Cantonese as a second Chinese language should not be forgotten by people. With the progress of the times, people began to use Internet chat frequently without verbal communication, and typing has become the most common thing most people do when chatting. Because of this, people nowadays rarely write, and people forget a lot of words, and occasionally they want to write one or two words, only to find that they can’t write them at all. Therefore, we also need to speak and write more in our daily lives in order to maintain the heritage of language and culture.

Mother tongue is a language that a person first learns, and everyone has their own mother tongue. The mother tongue is the carrier of national culture and the root of national survival and development. In today’s era of multicultural competition and convergence in the world, the mother tongue has received more and more general attention. We cannot do without our mother tongue for exchanging thoughts and feelings, appreciating literary works, and mastering scientific and cultural knowledge. It can be said that we feel our mother tongue, learn our mother tongue, and use our mother tongue every day. However, learning our mother tongue does not necessarily require us to reject foreign languages. While we learn our mother tongue well, mastering one or more foreign languages will also enable us to better communicate our thoughts and feelings, appreciate literary works, and master scientific and cultural knowledge, etc. It is also of great benefit to the survival and development of our nation.

dialect video：https://youtu.be/d9eCNdv0XMQ