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Guest: Xiamen Ah Long
Ah Long and I discussed the future of Hokkien in Penang. It is certain that most of you who listen to the show, intentional or not, are supporting the growth and re-popularize the usage of Hokkien.
However, there are still a lot of work to be done to preserve or mother tongue. Parents are focusing so much on English and Mandarin that we are losing our identity as Chinese Penangites. Not only in Hokkien, but other dialects as well.
This is a challenge for me and for of you to go out and spread the good news of preserving Hokkien and other dialects. As parents, you may want to start by speaking to your children in your own dialect. And send them to classes like the ones organized by Penang Performing Art Center (Penang PAC)
Penang Performing Art Center (Penang PAC)
福建话戏剧班 捍语言创意 Kwong Wah Jit Poh’s Article (in Chinese)
A good lesson and something to be aware of for all regardless of dialect! Thank you!
after 20, 30 years Hokkien dialect may become same destiny as like other minor dialects nowadays , if we dont do some countermeasure now.
I totally agree with Xiamen Along and very appreciate what he is doing now.
and i all the while appreciate John doing PGHK free and never give up.
Take me for example,
I am Teow-Chew-Lang but i don`t know how to speak Teow-Chew, but only can understand a bit.
when my grandpa and grandma were still alive, they always mad at me saying Teow-Chew-Lang dont know how to speak Teow-Chew!
and mad at my father saying why didnt teach your son speak Teow-Chew!
and my mom`s side, they speak kind like [Sin-nin dialect??], and i totally blur when my mom use [Sin-nin???] dialect talking to my aunty.
i dont want to same things happen to Hokkien dialect in future, just like what is happening now to my family (Teow-Chew-Lang donno speak Teow-Chew, Sin-nin-lang donno speak sin-nin dialect)
I personally very agree to Long’s view. That is whay PGHK changed me a year ago. I will fight for hokkien in my way.
@jitpun
my grandma said the exact thing to me hehehe. Moved to Australia when young and my parents only spoke english to us. I can understand hokkien but can barely speak.
funny story: once my grandma asked a 10 year old me to put some soy sauce on her rice. I mistook Thoi iu for iu and put canola oil on it instead.
because she was polite she ate the whole thing…..but complained to my mum later on why her sauce taste so funny 😛
Very good topic this round from John and Long. I’ve also downloaded Ah Long’s Master Dissertation in the Penang Hokkien Class on why we’re abondaning our mother tongues. Thought provoking and get to know more now. Thanks a lot. You guys are doing great stuff in preserving the Hokkien Dialet.
very interesting topic and am impressed with the speaker Xiamen Long’s view. You opened my eyes and i can’t imagine if there is no one speaking Pg Hokkien in Penang in future, it will be like an island without its soul :p
Thank you so much for the sharing & the promotion of Penang Hokkien.
Anyway, in most of the case, i realized i am not Hokkien.頂多i am just a 呉語系里的闽南語系里的～Penang Hokkien.
Because in Japan (I live in Yokohama near by China Town) a lot of 福清人, their language is not 福州,but 福清。(As a Malaysian, the only Chinese Dialect which i could not understand is 福州話 & 海南話 for my case)
In Japan, i am very very happy when i meet up with Cantonese speaker. however, in most of the case, people like in the age of 60-80 they still could speak Cantonese..for 40~50..they could speak but not fluent (i mean those Cantonese people who was born in Japan)..& for the age group 30-40, a lot of them (Mainland Chinese) also barely able to speak Mandarin as well.(Eventhough they went to Chinese school)…
For my case, my priority is English-Mandarin-Cantonese-Penang Hokkien-Hakka-Malay….however, my kid is only mostly speaking in Japanese..but i only try to speak to him in English & Mandarin ..even until now..age 4…he could understand my English & Mandarin but still seldom speak in English & Mandarin..but only Japanese. :O
i will 継続加油。 By the way- Is Xia Men Ah Long = KK the 988 DJ ? the voice sounds the same!!! :O 小鄧 Tin
I appreciate Ah Long’s passion and his effort to preserve the unique hokkien dialect! I am a Penang hokkien Lang and very proud of being one. BUT the whole issue about preserving hokkien dialect is deeper than just a cultural preservation. I think Malaysian Chinese has move towards a progressive mode when Mandarin has become a common favored language. If we think deeper it is not entirely a bad outcome. The demographic of Malaysia is very divisive with many different races. Lately due to political challenges, political institutions are playing racial card so badly. We Malaysian Chinese can’t afford to further divide ourselves anymore if we continue to label “we are Hokkien, you are Cantonese and they are Hakka or etc”. So if one common language like Mandarin can bring Malaysian Chinese together, it is not a bad development. So many parents are merely following the langauge trend and their preference of Mandarin over Hokkien as language at home should not be criticized.
Anyway, I do support the preservation of hokkien dialect with the awareness that hokkien is never a primary language in Malaysia nor a secondary one. Every year, many minor languages are disappearing not because people do not love their languages but a process of assimilation.
Chowchow, I respectfully disagree.
I am a Hakka. But I also value Hokkien a lot. I see dialects/languages as heritage. Not decisive tools.
Now, I most certainly do understand your point about how people would use that to be decisive. But it certainly it up to the person.
Plus, we are not discouraging the usage of English, Mandarin and Malay. We are encouraging people to open to the idea that language learning isn’t one or the other.
I am very proud of the fact that my growing up encouraged the use of that many languages around me.
What I’m trying to combat is the feeling of shame when it comes to our dialects. That’s the part that is the most sad.
John, thanks for responding. Before I go further, I must say that I am a great fan of your podcast because I love Hokkien. What you are doing is a great contribution to the preservation of Penang Hokkien!! Please give yourself a big clap!
I m glad that u disagreed so that I could put in my 2 cents worth. Before listening to this episode and even at the point of listening, I sound every moment very much like Xiamen Ah Long. I was very critical of many Hokkien parents who do not speak Hokkien to their kids. I was also very offended by those who feel ashamed of the dialect. However, after listening to the comment given by Xiamen Ah Long, I felt I was being echoed thus leading me to a humbling thought. He quoted a few examples of how a girl could not order the food due to the limitation of hokkien and finger was pointed at the mom for not teaching the girl hokkien. But that could be a baseless accusation. perhaps the girl was brought up in a foreign land. I am not a parent yet, but the interview overall had been overly critical on parents. The Malaysian world we live in today has definitely been more globalised then the one we lived in back in the 70s, 80s or even 90s. Back then, we had the privilege of being raised in multi Chinese dialect environment but globalization today has pushed parents to be global thinker and their reluctance to preserve the dialect is definitely more than then the feeling of inferiority of the dialect (I believe there is still a fraction who feels inferior of the dialect). With the quality of Malaysian education that do not produce students that are fluent in major languages such as Malay, English and Mandarin, how could parents further push another dialect?? Well this is a further topic to discuss thus I do not wish to elaborate here.
To make it short, I hope Hokkien lovers do not overly critical of parents but emphatize the challenges they are facing especially with the quality of education their kids are receiving at school.
If a parent prefers to enroll the child in an English or Mandarin drama and speech class rather than Hokkien, I think we know the reason. If a child has only once a week to do so, which would you choose? If a parent with tight budget, which would they choose? A language that gives their child global competitive edge or for the love of heritage? The idea of having having Hokkien class is awesome but it lacks the competitive advantage. Why put Hokkien to compete with Mandarin and English and suffers low enrollment? Hokkien class can be done as a supplemetary class to Mandarin rather than a stand alone class. By doing this, it helps to preserve the dialect too. My point is, in order to preserve the Hokkien heritage, it is not to compete with Mandarin but to work hand in hand together.
However, I do hope the Hokkien drama and speech class receives a good turnout so I could be proved wrong 🙂 I got too sentimental over this topic because I hope there is a way to preserve this dialect by identifying the right problem rather then being too critical.
We are all talking about the same thing. But our ways of approaching this are very different. I know Xiamen Ah Long. It’s his passion and even a slight frustration that may make him sound pushy and critical. But I’d rather him being passionate than risking people
Not giving it a good thought about the future of our mother tongues and heritage.
Again, we are talking about doing the same thing here. And I really do understand your way of approaching this. I would sound your same method if I’m talking to a friend, a coworker, a cousin. But on the show, we needed a voice that is more extreme and louder cut the point across. Moreover, those who listen to the show are already somewhat more supportive of Hokkien anyway. Preaching to the choir, in you will.
I understand your point. And most of all appreciate your support. And at whatever level of velocity we go about protecting out heritage, we should all do something.
🙂
开张= kai tiong/tiang
前途 =tsian too
Just finish “tia”. Actually that’s correct and happen to my house as well. I personally feel proud with hokkien especially I know Penang Hokkien & KL Hokkien. I always force people to speak by start the conversation with Hokkien. Like those young gen, haiz…pitty to them. I am start getting my kids with hokkien but seems like they are like you! haha first few words from them are “nene nen pok” “Pang Pui” & they keeps laughing after this. Since after “Li de fu shen” (A small box that announce multiple dailect for news & advertistment & so on), so long didn’t listhen to something “original taste” I support you guys!
Hi, John…
I think we maybe can make some road show to encourage people learning hokkien and teaching the children hokkien too…
You might organise with PenangPAC when you back on 2013.
Never too late ma…:)