Local dialects necessary

Comment on "Civil service jobs harder than they look" (China Daily, Oct 15)

This article notes that local dialects are necessary for some positions. That's common sense, as Mandarin is just a textbook language for the majority of the country.

Learning local dialects is a skill that not everyone can master. Often, in many countries, candidates that speak more than one language are entitled to a premium salary. Speaking many forms of Chinese should be akin to this.

It seems the civil service commission has the wrong idea about this, as the wording in this article suggests that speaking local dialects is "downgrading" for civil service employees. And isn't it a little condescending to refer to the majority of the population of China as the "common people"? Speakers of local dialects are no more "common people" than those who speak perfect Mandarin and took a civil service position so that they can sleep on the job.

As a nation, China should celebrate its greatly diverse cornucopia of cultures and ethnicities, languages and traditions.

Andrew, on China Daily website

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(China Daily 10/26/2012 page9)