Stupid to advocate dialects???

I need to get this out soon before I burst into anger more. I read with disbelief on the forum page what someone of high position in the government's office wrote. 'It is stupid to advocate dialects' and even quoted MM Lee Kuen Yew as an example where he stopped using dialects for his National Day speech. My goodness!!!!! Dialects is our roots as a Chinese. Why disown our own roots? I remember in one of the preaching sermon by one overseas pastor who said that if we disowned our own roots, we would lose ourselves and became poor. What has this person do? What is this person trying to advocate? Why view dialects as a 'low-class' language?

In the social service sector, I find that many young people do not know how to speak dialects. Their main languages are English and Mandarin. However, there are still a majority of the elderly that we serve in the community who only understand dialects. Are we to ignore them in order to advance into a better society? I agree with one of the readers in today's forum that many young people do not know their own dialects, thereby causing a communication breakdown between the young and the old. If we are to continue ignoring the learning of dialects, we are telling the whole world that we are not only ignoring our roots but also our elderly who need our help so much.

Compared to the past, nowadays so many people do not know their dialects, causing the elderly to have problems communicating to the doctors, nurses, government agencies. When I bring my grandmother and some elderly for their medical appointments, it is so disappointing to find a Chinese who does not know any dialects. It is like a chicken and duck talking to each other. This causes much frustrations and confusions to the elderly. Like one of the elderly who has to undergo chemotherapy in a hospital, he is so frustrated whenever he has to face a doctor who does not know his dialect, Cantonese. He does not understand what the doctor says and the doctor does not understand what he says. Even if the nurse around, it does not make any difference because the nurse is a foreigner.

I definitely think that it is good to educate and advocate the young to speak dialects. If we don't advocate the young in learning dialects, we not only lose our roots but ourselves. In the route of advancement, we must NEVER forget that it is through our dialects, we find ourselves. Let those who find it stupid re-think their decisions and their positions in life. Are they able to communicate with the elderly and know their needs better? OR are they advocating that the elderly are useless and wasting the nation's resources?