I think this is most useful because the televised live debate between Lim Guan Eng and Dr. Chua Soi Lek was in Mandarin, a language which is not understood by everybody in Malaysia and that includes me, a Chinese and I am certainly not proud of that.
Last night, I was at a local supermarket, TF, and I asked a sales assistant for the pharmaceutical section. She replied in Mandarin and I spoke in Cantonese. She spoke Mandarin to an Indian colleague and mentioned something which suggested surprise that I did not understand her! Later I walked past the same Indian girl and heard her spoke in Mandarin, and I presumed she must have studied at Yook Kwan School!
It would have been ideal if the same video of the debate carries a subtitle for the benefit of those who could not understand or follow the language. Sometimes, even for those who understand Mandarin, it is not always possible to understand everything that was mentioned. There were calls for a debate between the two politicians in Bahasa Malaysia or English. But it would not be the same.
Source: The Malaysian Insider:
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