My goodness. Never underestimate Hokkien. It's a globally spoken dialect among the chinese immigrants in the whole world, but we seem to ignore its importance due to the proliferation of the Cantonese language by media. Even a lot of us thought that Cantonese is more global than Hokkien.
This is proven wrong these few months, by myself, in Hong Kong. You guys know that Hong Kong is the major source of proliferating Cantonese media and Cantonese-speaking people. Even if your dad and mum are Hokkien, you will convert to Cantonese because that's the tongue the locals use to communicate. But even here, in Hong Kong, there are a lot of hidden locals (yes, they are born in Hong Kong) who actually master Hokkien and Teochew fluently.
I am very, very surprised.
I am not surprised by my supervisor from my intern company because he obviously has a tongue mixed between Hokkien and Cantonese. I once asked him why is that so and he said he moved from Hokkien to Hong Kong about ten years ago. Well, that's acceptable. But I really got shocked when I was buying food at my uni food court nearby, which all its employees are 100% Honkies, caught me off guard by talking Hokkien to me suddenly. This is really astonishing. Because at that moment I was talking to a Penangnite with Hokkien and then she interfered in the middle with fluent Hokkien. That, is a huge surprise.
But the ultimate surprise came to me not more than a few hours ago. I was celebrating with my colleagues after work. On the way we ride on MTR and suddenly I caught that guy, who is 4 years my senior and a definite locally born Honkie speaking Hokkien fluently. Then both of us start to communicate using pure Hokkien (not Penang Hokkien, lol), leaving all the other colleagues in shock because they never knew too. I am so, so, so, so surprised.
There are a few more cases, but I will leave that to the future posts if I actually have the mood to write them anyway. The lesson? Hokkien works everywhere. Knowing Hokkien and finding a person who actually speaks it in a foreign place tightens the bond between that person and you almost instantaneously. Of course, Hokkien here I mean the Min Nan dialect, which comprises of Hokkien of Quanzhou, Hokkien of Zhangzhou and Teochew. Do not discard your mother tongue if you think that nobody really cares about speaking Hokkien. Well, I can prove to you, actually a lot of people care.
And ya, about the proliferated Cantonese spoken nowadays, it is not what it is years ago. It is what I call modern Cantonese and actually Honkies don't speak the Cantonese we know nowadays about 70 years ago. And yes, I will blog about that. It is too long a story to tell in this blogpost alone.
For you guys punya information, I gonna start posting a continuing series of posts called 淺談華文 (Gliding through the Chinese Language) which will focus on dialects, origin of dialects, difference between Teochew, Zhangzhou Hokkien, Quanzhou Hokkien & Penang Hokkien, origin of the modern Cantonese, the connection between Cantonese, Hakka, Hokkien and Mandarin, the Min Bei language (Hokchiu), the role of Min Nan language and Cantonese in history, the origin of the putonghua we are taught these days and many many more. In fact, I have been doing a lot of research by myself since Upper Six. I guess it's time I try to at least realize them into words because I think it will be really helpful to you guys and the language researchers outside as well. Well, really, it's not boring. I never research boring stuff on dialects haha. Let you guys in on one of the interesting things i have been thinking and researching about: What is actually 'beh'? Why we have this 'beh' word so widely used and can we actually write it out in Chinese word? Then why do Taiwanese say 'beh' in a different tone? Did you notice that? Why is that so?
Haha maybe I will discuss on that one first. It depends on my thought and mood actually, hehe.
Anyways, time to catch a sleep. And yea, respect your mother tongue. And be sure you teach it to your kids because it is what identifies you and your offspring of our ancestral origin. And it is practically useful when you are doing business outside Malaysia, especially. Imagine you are dealing business with a Honkie and suddenly both of you found out that you guys speak Hokkien. What a miraculous deal it will turn out to be!
It is a blessing. Be proud of Hokkien. Be proud of the Min Nan dialect.
This is proven wrong these few months, by myself, in Hong Kong. You guys know that Hong Kong is the major source of proliferating Cantonese media and Cantonese-speaking people. Even if your dad and mum are Hokkien, you will convert to Cantonese because that's the tongue the locals use to communicate. But even here, in Hong Kong, there are a lot of hidden locals (yes, they are born in Hong Kong) who actually master Hokkien and Teochew fluently.
I am very, very surprised.
I am not surprised by my supervisor from my intern company because he obviously has a tongue mixed between Hokkien and Cantonese. I once asked him why is that so and he said he moved from Hokkien to Hong Kong about ten years ago. Well, that's acceptable. But I really got shocked when I was buying food at my uni food court nearby, which all its employees are 100% Honkies, caught me off guard by talking Hokkien to me suddenly. This is really astonishing. Because at that moment I was talking to a Penangnite with Hokkien and then she interfered in the middle with fluent Hokkien. That, is a huge surprise.
But the ultimate surprise came to me not more than a few hours ago. I was celebrating with my colleagues after work. On the way we ride on MTR and suddenly I caught that guy, who is 4 years my senior and a definite locally born Honkie speaking Hokkien fluently. Then both of us start to communicate using pure Hokkien (not Penang Hokkien, lol), leaving all the other colleagues in shock because they never knew too. I am so, so, so, so surprised.
There are a few more cases, but I will leave that to the future posts if I actually have the mood to write them anyway. The lesson? Hokkien works everywhere. Knowing Hokkien and finding a person who actually speaks it in a foreign place tightens the bond between that person and you almost instantaneously. Of course, Hokkien here I mean the Min Nan dialect, which comprises of Hokkien of Quanzhou, Hokkien of Zhangzhou and Teochew. Do not discard your mother tongue if you think that nobody really cares about speaking Hokkien. Well, I can prove to you, actually a lot of people care.
And ya, about the proliferated Cantonese spoken nowadays, it is not what it is years ago. It is what I call modern Cantonese and actually Honkies don't speak the Cantonese we know nowadays about 70 years ago. And yes, I will blog about that. It is too long a story to tell in this blogpost alone.
For you guys punya information, I gonna start posting a continuing series of posts called 淺談華文 (Gliding through the Chinese Language) which will focus on dialects, origin of dialects, difference between Teochew, Zhangzhou Hokkien, Quanzhou Hokkien & Penang Hokkien, origin of the modern Cantonese, the connection between Cantonese, Hakka, Hokkien and Mandarin, the Min Bei language (Hokchiu), the role of Min Nan language and Cantonese in history, the origin of the putonghua we are taught these days and many many more. In fact, I have been doing a lot of research by myself since Upper Six. I guess it's time I try to at least realize them into words because I think it will be really helpful to you guys and the language researchers outside as well. Well, really, it's not boring. I never research boring stuff on dialects haha. Let you guys in on one of the interesting things i have been thinking and researching about: What is actually 'beh'? Why we have this 'beh' word so widely used and can we actually write it out in Chinese word? Then why do Taiwanese say 'beh' in a different tone? Did you notice that? Why is that so?
Haha maybe I will discuss on that one first. It depends on my thought and mood actually, hehe.
Anyways, time to catch a sleep. And yea, respect your mother tongue. And be sure you teach it to your kids because it is what identifies you and your offspring of our ancestral origin. And it is practically useful when you are doing business outside Malaysia, especially. Imagine you are dealing business with a Honkie and suddenly both of you found out that you guys speak Hokkien. What a miraculous deal it will turn out to be!
It is a blessing. Be proud of Hokkien. Be proud of the Min Nan dialect.
