Zaobao podcast series explores what It means to be Chinese Singaporean

Media personality Danny Yeo is one of the guests ina four-episode Mandarin podcast titled Same Same But Different A Chinese Singaporean Podcast, produced by zaobao.sg and presented by the Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre. In the podcast, he delved into what mother tongue means.

- Chin Soo Fang

Identifying one’s mother tongue in multilingual Singapore is not so easy, said media personality Danny Yeo.

The 49-year-old, whose work experience spans radio, television, theatre, writing and education, said his mother tongue should be Cantonese, which he picked up listening to his parents. However, he is Teochew, connects emotionally in Mandarin, and uses English at work.

“I was asked to do an impromptu street performance in my native language while attending an international theatre directors’ symposium in Italy and, lo and behold, I started to speak in Cantonese,” he told The Straits Times.

“It just came naturally and instinctively.”

To him, the mother tongue of many Singaporean children should be English.

“In Singapore, I do think that English is the real mother tongue for many children as their parents speak to them in English, and they grow up in a primarily English-speaking environment,” he said. Mandarin, Malay or Tamil wouldn’t be their mother tongue if they live 90 per cent of their lives with English. It would be their second language or even a foreign language.”