Guests: Dragon, Gonkia, Ong Boh Niao Niao
This episode is for the Chinese educated, and for the non-Chinese educated who wants to learn more about the craziness in a Chinese school. All the guests are Chinese educated, including my mother, Ong Boh Niao Niao, who was a teacher for many years in several Chinese schools. Share your own experience and stories in our Penang Hokkien forum.
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It’s called “Chian….HUAR….Ee”!!! ….not “Chian…HUAH…Ee”-lah!!!!
Same-same one-lor!!!…both of us r Chinese educated n yet …still “Blur-blur” big time one, ha!!!!
Thanks Ah Hua. Very pai seh. I typed in cepat cepat, then selected the wrong hua.
It should be fixed everywhere.
so i studied in pcghs and i was in form 3 when they decided it was a bright idea to have all students wear different colour strip of ribbons sewn on top of our school badge. i.e, blue ribbon for form 1, some weird beige colour for form 2, violet for form 3, deep pink for form 4, and green for form 5 :\ (and i still remember lol) we’d get demerits if we don’t have the ribbons on.
so everyone came up with a bunch of ways to have the ribbons on. some just scotch tape their ribbons on whenever there’s a spot check. haa.
it’s weird. :S
i am from C.H.C.H.S, i still remember my school badge number was 93015
93 = year 1993 when i study remove
015 = my number…
i found out just chinese school got number only, for malay school they have Name only, number is better coz ppl cant name you on the spot…hee
are u sure that ?? is pronounced hua uu? i say hua yi…
Shuahuan,for those Malay School they also implement those badge with numbers follow like Chinese School
I still rememmber after i finish secondary school,i start to see those Kebangsaan scholl to have their badge with name and number also.
Most of the ppl sew the badge on the school shirt and ppl always said they looks like those prisoner to have each of them with numbers..
If the teacher call them by those numbers,it really sounds like a warden calling a prisoner..Hahaha;)
when i was in English school, local dialects for both Indians and Chinese are not allowed. i think if im not wrong, if you spoke a word of the dialect, you’re punished and supposed to pay 10 cents for each word… so i guess it doesnt only apply to chinese schools…. so pity my friends and i cause we’re not supposed to speak hokkien back in school!! haha but you know, being young we’re supposed to be rebellious! and some more i was school prefect…hehehe got la…break the rules for a while…kekeke.
I still remember me and Khun Tu school just neighbour …Same like her that time eventhough we all are school prefects,sometimes we also become 1 head with all the students…
Like me and some friends,we all have some eating Kuaci experienced when we are having class that time..
Until 1 day when almost all the class also addicted by Kuaci,some1 report to teacher.Then i still remember the Penolong Kanan came and call all those prefect out 1st..We all are the 1 that got scolded the most that time…
Huhh…
i thought ?? is pronouced as hua gu, hua gi (taiwan), hua gw (??)…
hi, john
i noe which teacher d
she taught me also…
hehe
In Penang Hokkien ? is u4 (derived from gu4), the consonant g- in front is always dropped, just like ? is pronounced as ua4 instead of gua4. I confirm this from my octogenarian grandma who was raised in Georgetown. Sinkeh and their descendants might still pronounce it as gu4 or gua4 or other variants.
I want to add that my grandma calls Mandarin as kok1u4 instead of hua1u4, but the u4 is the same character ?. gu4 or u4 is the literal pronunciation of ?. I believe the other pronunciatioin i4 or yi4 or gi4 as used some other Penangites’ Hokkien and Taiwanese Hokkien is the colloquial pronunciation of ?. I believe the way ? is used in this context (serious academic or formal words) literal pronunciation is traditionally prefered but after Hokkien is not being taugted formerly in school after May 4th movement in 1912 this rule might have collapsed in both Taiwan, China and Malaysia and many people use colloquial form (which is heard more often) to substitute the literal form. Another example would be the pronunciation of ??? as Kiu(literal)OngIa instead of Kao(Colloquail)OngIa traditionally but nowadays many pronounce KaoOngIa. Still another example would be the pronunciation of “?” in ??, ??, ??, ??. The ? in former two are commonly prononced in ?’s literal pronunciation which is kian3. (??: tsai1kian3, ??: kian1tsiao3). The last two are commonly pronounced in colloquial pronunciation kni1(?? : kni1bin3, ??: kni3tioq1). However as in KiuOngIa or KaoOngIa, HuaGu or HuaU, TsaiKian of TsaiKni, it really doesn’t matter as long as it can be understood by people around you. Penang Hokkien is not standardized, yet, and there is really no authority to say: A is right, B is wrong. KiuOngIa might have be the only “correct” pronunciation in the past but with more people pronouncing it as KaoOngIa the former might one day becomes outdated or archaic to be used and makes sense to others. When an “error” or variant is estrablised it no longer be considered as error or variant but instead becomes the standard or common way. Furthermore the usage of colloquial or literal pronunciations, both are legally part of Hokkien pronunciation, already part of Hokkien, shouldn’t be too taken seriously. For me I am only bias against excessive use of foreign (non-Hokkien pronounced Chinese) words in Penang Hokkien as this kind of practice threatens to destroy Penang Hokkien by turning it into a Malay or English pidgin, just like Baba Malay in Melaka or Singlish in Singapore.
Forgot to say that Kok1u4 above is written as ??. Malaysian Chinese refers to Mandarin as the “National langauge” before Malaya or Malaysia exists.
Also as clarification the “foreign words” I mentioned above refers to
1. non-Chinese language (eg English, Malay), and
2. non-Hokkien pronunciation of Chinese characters
Penangknia:
Yes, I also say U instead of Gu at home. My octogenarian grandmother also says Kok U…… I remember I kept correcting her telling her that my Kok U is Bahasa Melayu…… Just like GIFT – can you check for me how does your grandmother say ? Many people say Leh Mut, but my granny says Leh Mit. Is it also a peranakan thing arh ? ^^
I am hokkien born in penang but live in europe for 25 years. PCGHS was my school and you would be fined 10c if speak hokkien in school. Real silly and hated everything about it then!!!! But today, I just miss it soooooooo…. much and hope to get in touch with old peers but dont know how????
Na Na, thanks for your comment. I remember days where we were to be penalized for using Hokkien too. It’s considered a dialect, and not to be spoken in school. Only use proper languages. Which is why we have this mentality that Hokkien is for the “uneducated”. I’m trying to reverse that exactly. Taking all the dirty humor out from this show, it might not be too “uneducated”. But hey, who am I kidding, most of us get vulgar every now and then. Admit it publicly or not!