Sunday, February 04, 2007
Rudd Ka Bin
There it was again, this time somewhere in readers' comments at news.com.au:
"Did I mention that Mr Rudd speaks Chinese Mandarin fluently and respects Asian cultures?"
Yet another version of the persistent canard about Australian Labor leader Kevin Rudd's magical linguistic ability coupled, as it often is, with the implication that Australia's current PM is a cultural idiot next to Rudd.
In truth, I'd be surprised if:
a) The number of Australians with Chinese ethnicity who actually do speak fluent Mandarin doesn't number somewhere in the hundreds of thousands, if not close to the million mark;
b) A good number of those Mandarin speakers didn't have a snigger at the inherent ignorance with which said factoid was first presented by the cabal of triumphal Howard-haters in the local media; and
c) A sizeable further sub-set missed the sub-text that partly propelled the newsworthiness of the story: that it was unusual for a REAL (white, Anglo-) Australian, let alone a real Australian politician, to be a master of Mandarin. And this from the self-described culturally sensitive left.
Regarding b), the spin on Rudd's Mandarin speaking when he first became Labor leader was that he spoke an elite vesion thereof, a higher version, a cleritic version.
Any fool - at least anyfule with any kind of meaningful exposure to not only Chinese, but East Asian languages in general - knows that precisely the opposite dynamic is true, that polite versions of said languages are the first port of call for the new student. Real mastery comes with fluency in the nuances of class, sex, locality and and in the vernacular of the street.
Tin-Tin probably speaks better French, and my money says that John So will prove to be a better politician.
