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Every time I visit my hometown, I get praised for something I take for granted - being able to speak the local dialect. I spent the first 15 years of my life in that part of Zhejiang province and spoke nothing but that dialect. Sure, I learned putonghua in school, but it was a language we kids would use only when reciting texts. The downside was, my putonghua carries a slight accent that I cannot shake off even though I have been living in Beijing longer than in my hometown. My attitude towards dialects has evolved over the years. I saw it as a form of impediment for communication. When I first arrived in Guangzhou for graduate study in the early 1980s, I could not understand a single word of Cantonese and even some teachers could not get themselves understood despite their efforts to speak putonghua. Forget about the granny whom I asked for directions. So I wished the country's dialects would vanish and everyone could easily talk to one another. Be careful what you wish for, it may well come true. Well, the moment I realized my youthful wish is indeed coming true was when I overheard youngsters in my hometown conversing in putonghua even in leisure time. They can still understand the local dialect, but they do not have the willingness or ability to speak it. In another generation, the dialect will be gone. Multiple it by thousands, even millions, of similar incidents and you'll get the bigger picture of what's happening to the spoken language of Chinese. No wonder some people have taken action to defend their local dialects. | 
