Some of you may have remembered the ang-mo·, Michael Churchman who appeared on a couple episodes of PGHK.
This week, I spent the entire episode chatting with him. Obviously I am impressed with his ability, interest, and knowledge about Hokkien. And I’m curious as to how and why he started learning Hokkien. Find out in this episode.
He has also agreed to share his studies and knowledge about Penang Hokkien with us on our website.
Go to a new segment on PGHK called Learn More About Penang Hokkien to read Michael’s article.
After you listen to this episode, actually, while you’re listening to this episode, head over to How to Write Hokkien in the Roman Alphabet – An-choaⁿ iong Ang-mo∙-ji sia Hok-kian-oa and learn the standard way of writing Penang Hokkien.
Totally Love this episode.
Wow! Angmo Micheal speaks Hokkien, very rare, totally cool.
Jin Jia Ho!
Wow, he is awesome!
Maybe he is good in chao-wah too..
i am impressed :))
It’s an interesting episode. He’s right, the Hokkien speaking phenomenon in Taiwan (not sure about the southern region) and Xiamen is so so so much lesser than Penang. We should really be proud of ourselves. Mandarin and English will never vanish, one needs not put too much effort as long as he / she goes to school, it will be picked up. Hokkien is different, we need to spread the words and make Penang Chinese (who grew up in Hokkien environment) continue to speak Hokkien, especially to younger generation.
Penang Hokkien is not the only rojak on earth. No language is 100% pure. Look at how many Japanese words in Chinese, how many French words in English, how many Latin words in Spanish. Be proud of who we are…… Speak it forward.
I do write blogs in Penang Hokkien (Chinese characters). Ha……
https://www.penangdialects.com/
Hahhaaaa..I didn’t know that all the time I was writing in forum about penang hokkien is Ang Mor (ah bin),I thought he is just a chinese who like to learn more penang hokkien..
My surprise..when I hear this podcast,and he mention my name…kakakkakkaaaaa…
Love this episode a lot. Impressed with Ang Mo who take effort to learn Hokkien. It’s a shame nowadays for young Penangnites nowadays to shun our own language. Agreed with John. Awesome and Inspiring Ang Mo…..
Kam sia ka-liau lang e ho-sim e oa, (感謝共了儂个好心个話)
I couldn’t have done it without a weekly dose of PGHK from all of you. . .
i really enjoyed this episode. If it wasn’t mentioned earlier that it is a ang moh, i would thought he is a chinese. The good things about Michael’s hokkien is that he uses the word like ‘tapi’ and some others. Those are truly Penang Hokkien words, where we rojak with a bit of malay words.
Way to go Michael and look forward to your writings/articles.
To John, keep it up, you are doing a really great thing here, I am your no. 1 supporter.
Ps: I love the ghost stories the most
Miku said that as the show progressed, he had wanted to use more “pure” Hokkien in the podcast. But Penang Hokkien will always be “rojak”.. Such as our usual “tapi”, “bangku”, “longkau” or even our menu like”asam-pedai”, “perut ikan”. Or the times-table (as mentioned in the later episode #253), it was never our lingo (in the 70’s) to refer to the timestable as “seng-huat-piao” but instead it is refered to as the english noun. (Penang Hokkien tends to have more English and Malay noun than MANDARIN noun, because the Penang Peranakan are mostly English educated) As time goes by, more and more foreign words are also seeping into our Penang Hokkien, eg “mouse”, “notebook”. So, how do we find the balance here? Mix of external lingo, and mantaining the purity, where is the cut off, when is the time period considered as origin.
Yes indeed, and then which word for “mouse” to use as well? China uses 鼠标 (chhiú-phiau?) but everywhere else (HK, Taiwan, don’t know about SG and M’sia) uses 滑鼠 (kút-chhiú?). Almost all the words I learnt for bits of a computer in Taiwan are different from those I had to re-learn in China!
This brings up even more questions. Does Penang Hokkien always have to follow Mandarin in word usage? If so, then which Mandarin? I would say myself if it had to follow Mandarin it should probably be according to Taiwanese Mandarin, because Taiwanese Hokkien borrows these kinds of words from ROC (Taiwanese) Mandarin, rather than from PRC Mandarin. But that is just my opinion.
Hi Ah-bin,
If given a chance, do come to Penang, Malaysia. I am sure most of the PGHK ‘s fans would like to meet up with you. Hokkien Mee and laksa is a must to try.
Salute to have ang-moh guest in PGHK.
Welcome to Penang.
Eh ki tiau, mai ho Miku so lu.
A bo ka liao ke pin beh song ka jiak-cho. Kidding.
Penang Hokkien sometimes has its own way of naming a noun, very different from Mandarin. Remember the episode about “lan-chiau-chui” (semen) …ok, that’s X-rated….but just an example. Points to ponder.
Haha! Thanks Meow2, some day I will get there….
Very impressive to have an Ang Moh who speaks Hokkien so well. I salute you Ang Moh! Penang Hokkien may have a sister in Terengganu Hokkien. There are many similarities and we in Terengganu use quite a lot of Malays words in particular words from the Terengganu dialect. But that’s another story for another time. Look forwards to more participation from Ang Moh in future episodes. Thanks John for this episode.