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Click here to read the Otago Daily Times article about the Vocabulary Olympics. Read below the speech given by Mayor Peter Chin at the awards ceremony.
Speech given by Mayor Peter Chin, Mayor of Dunedin
Kia ora tatou, ni hao, greetings!
I am delighted to be here today on this special occasion, and it offers me an opportunity of addressing you in English. For most of us, this is our first language. But I know that there are a number of you for whom that is not the case and maybe, for some, for whom it is not even the second language. Indeed with the advent of texting it’s debatable whether even English is the winner when it comes to communicating!
Now, for those of you who may not be the sharpest knives in the drawer, or those of you who have not yet nodded off, you may have noticed that I am Chinese. My parents came from China, and brought up their family of myself and my five sisters, here in Dunedin, running a fish and chip business, but speaking little English and in the case of my Mother none at all.
We spoke Chinese at home, and I did not learn to speak English until I went to George Street Normal School at the age of 5. Throughout my life, the only language I ever spoke to my parents was Chinese.
At school, in the 1940s and 1950s, the only language you heard was English – no Maori, no Chinese, no Japanese, no Korean, no Spanish, only English.
Dunedin had lots of Chinese laundries, fruit shops and fish and chip shops– virtually all owned by Chinese - and often the Chinese were criticised for speaking to each other in Chinese, in the shop, in the presence of non Chinese. This was because, English speaking customers, not understanding what was being said, thought that they were being insulted or talked about in a disparaging way.
For me, sometimes at school, my fellow pupils would say: "Say something in Chinese", as though I was a performing seal in a circus. I was an amusement. For my part I was proud to be able to say something in Chinese, and to tell them what it meant. It was my point of difference that I could, and still can, speak another language.
Being able to speak Chinese has been hugely helpful, as from a very young age, I was able to help older Chinese who could not speak English, to go about their daily business. I used to take people to the doctor, or to the Immigration Department to translate for them.
In the old days, there was no encouragement to learn another language, because there was, and maybe still is in some places, a belief that English is the only language you’ll ever need. That is no longer the case, and schools and communities now recognise this. With the benefits of modern technology, enlightened teachers and motivated communities, there are far more opportunities to learn a foreign language, and we are all the better for that. Indeed, given our isolation from the world’s markets and New Zealand’s need to punch above its weight on the geo-political scene, it is imperative that new generations of Kiwis are able to converse with a multiplicity of nations. The world no longer accepts English as the dominant means of communication.
In addition there’s the argument, no doubt forcibly put to you by your teachers, that some understanding of another language enhances the understanding and pleasure we derive from English by discovering how many words we have already ‘borrowed’ from just about all other languages. English, as a language, has all the acquisitiveness of our very own kea!
 As individuals, and collectively as a school, you have entered into, and have won the Vocabulary Olympics and I congratulate you. As a school, as individuals, you will now be able to take your language skills to the world beyond Otago Girls’ High School, Dunedin, and New Zealand, and to use those skills as a tool for finding your place in the sun – at the very least a smattering of French or German or Italian or Japanese will help you find your way to the beach or the toilets!
In closing, which is one of the nice ways we have in English of saying I will soon be finished, may I offer a word of advice – which may be superfluous because I suspect you’re already onto it. It’s obvious that Otago Girls’ has many international students who have come here from all over the world, and part of their reason for being here, is to learn English.
What a great opportunity it is for us all, through the friendships you form here, to learn about their culture and their language. In doing so we may draw closer, perhaps, and avoid the misunderstandings of the past which have driven us apart.
Again, thank you for inviting me here and for listening to me.
Peter Chin
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