Guests: Xiamen Ah Long, Ah Leng Dragon, LapChiong, Katakpuru, Charbour, ShuaHuan, Pak Hai Gina, Ah Tox, Ah Bong, LiuLien Kueh, Ah Chuah, Liulien Chi, Si Lui Bak, & Shua Hu.
Meeting many of my listeners at a beach cafe in Penang. The recording is in stereo. If you listen with headphones, you can get a sense of the surrounding. It’s almost like LIVE. Meet all the first-timer guests.
Wa si Eng kok lang tua Pinang su sar chap nee liow, wa ho suka thnia loo a chit chat ka oh PHD. Im an Ang mo living in Penang and listening in to improve my learnong of the language. Its been a great help, though obviously I’ll have to speed up my conversation a lot before I dare join you folks on line, but heres to ya all, great stuff, ronni pinsler, penang.
Oh wow! What an honor! It’d be great if we can have you on the show. Even for a short segment. Definitely until you’re comfortable. But you know us, we’re ot serious at all, you can talk about anything. Wow, just the idea of an ang moh speaking Hokkien would be wonderful! That will encourage more Chinese in Penang or even the northan Malaysia to pick up their own local dialect. Hope you’ll keep listening, and will be able to join us in the very near future!!!
Let me guess…it’s Northam Beach Cafe right?
biwx
Stop saying about the encouragement more Penang Chinese or those from Northern Malaysian States to pick up their own dialect. I am tired of listening to this over and over again. Even the show on Penang Street during the Chinese New Year. One person keep telling in English and have to be reminded many times. Excuse me, this is about Penang Hokkien special show. Speak more Hokkien as possible not to show off English. But, Salma is excuseable. Every families would encourage the children to mixed with English language while having conversation not only to these days. Back in the old days as well. I am not against anyone who speak English but only the one pretending to show off while on PGHK recording. ( Why I keep telling in English. S*#!^ on you) This people should sit out and reconsider if want to be part to the speaking Hokkien recording session. Or to show off English just get the sit out and give others a chance to be in the show who really want to speak Hokkien. People like you John, away from home many years. Know how to treasure the dialect you miss so much and people at home, not all, what a waste. Encouragement = BS
i seriously wouldn’t say anyone on the show is deliberately wanting to show off their English. I think all of the listeners are here because of Penang Hokkien. It’s very hard to break the habit of mixing it with other languages, especially those from Penang. It is my job to do my best to use as much Hokkien as possible, but the guests, I usually will jump in and say the Hokkien words if I know it. All the Englished used are very like coming from habit. It took me many months to break that habit, infortunately guests don’t get to do this every week.
I get your point Thamby, but I really doubt people are showing off. If they are, that’s too bad. It’s Penang Hokkien, not Penang Showoff. 🙂
My point is not towards those who mixed Hokkien and English to finish a sentence. Penang Hokkien is a mix and match dialect with some Malays too. This is not my show, only some feedback on my point of view.
Thamby, I appreciate the comment. That’s why there is a comment sexction for everyone to express their view points. BTW, what is “biwx”?
BIWX is the character on top this comment box…… hahahahaha 🙂
hahahahaha…thamby, salute you…. I agreed with John that they are not really want to show off but kinds like habit. But habit can be change as well, just like what John is doing to speak more Hokkien than english or malay.
It really depend on people who want to change their habit or not.
oh thamby my dear, what is wrong with mixing hokkien with a bit of ang mo?? Or having a bit of English in the show will not upset your bowel too much is it?? You know I suspect people who get agitated by others are normally have nothing to proof or “show off” themselves, or they have a anger management issue. But I think you are neither, probably just a bit patriotic about PGHK. I have some suggestions for you dear:-
– start issuing fines to people on the street who doesn’t use 100% pure and natural PGHK, maybe RM50 each until you hear no flaws.
– or polish up your english and be a guest on PGHK show and get them back that way
– retreat back to your comfy little couch and tune off for a while and have a good cry on the death of pure PGHK.
win win situation?
I guess many listeners of Penang Hokkien dot com are staying in overseas (also english dominated Asian cities like Singapore and KL, Penang comes very close to the list), using English most of the time, so it is rather unfortunate that the way they think and speak tend to have a lot of English elements. So the more reason to listen to Penanghokkien.com. I am actually appalled at first when Ah John’s teacher Johnnie Chee who wrote a book on Baba Hokkien rhymes was reluctant to and couldn’t speak fluent Penang Hokkien when prompted to do so. May be he was in the “English” mode at that time, like I often do. I think one can only code switch smoothly between languages that spoke well. Also, his selection of title for his book “A Tapestry of Baba Poetry” gave people the impression it is not Hokkien at all, since Baba language is often associated with Baba Malay, not Baba Hokkien (a new phrase I believe). And from the examples he recited in the recording the poetry are Penang Hokkien. I wondered is Johnnie Chee Miku John’s English teacher? This might explain why he tendency to speak English even in a Penang Hokkien gathering. Tan Choon Hoe on the other hand has really impressed me with his command of Penang Hokkien. Even managed to say out preservative or rather “chemicals” in Penang Hokkien or “hua-hak” (化学), rather impressive for a Penang Hokkien speaker, not to mentioned an English educated person. I would have just said “preservative” in English or “ta1han3hun4粉 in mixed Hokkien-Malay.
Sorry for the digression. My short response to thamby: Yes, I think people at Penang Hokkien dot com like to use a lot of English words, not because they want to “show off” but rather they have a hard time in really expressing in full Penang Hokkien sentence. It is better if they can express themselves clearly then shut up just because they can’t say everything in perfect Penang Hokkien. I like it very much when Miku John tried to suggest the participants with Penang Hokkien words when they tried to use English terms that have an Penang Hokkien equivalence.
I think that though Penang Hokkien has many words that are not Hokkien in origin I do not think deliberately adding unnecessary English words into a Penang Hokkien is healthy for the language. The core of Penang Hokkien is still Hokkien, or Minnan. Without the Hokkien part the language will just be on the path of becoming a creole of English (like Singlish) or Malay (like Baba Malay).
I make a distinction between a good Penang Hokkien speaker and a bad Penang Hokkien speaker.
A good Penang Hokkien speaker only sprinkles his or her sentence with a few non-Hokkien words, most of them have been “Hokkienized” in pronunciation and have used for a long time, mostly for expressing things or concepts that did not exist in the original Hokkien language (like sabun, tongkat, pasar, etc).
A bad Penang Hokkien speaker on the other hand deliberately pollute Penang Hokkien by replacing native Penang Hokkien words with foreign equivalence when speaking. My stereotype is that this group of people used to speak proper Penang Hokkien but take it for granted and decided to pollute it. It irritates me when this group of people (bad Penang Hokkien speaker) argues that just because Penang Hokkien has many origins they can mix whatever they want, often English, into the language. My rebuttal is simple, all languages, even English has multiple origins, but we don’t see angmos deliberately pollute their language with tons of non-anglicized foreign words. You see it sometimes but not as frequently as bad Penang Hokkien speakers would do.
I very much agree with Penangknia. Penangknia is very supportive of my effort. Like I have always mentioned. I am merely using my Hokkien as how I grew up with it. I am not by any means an expert. I want to talk to experts, or other enthusiasts to create interest for others, and also learn it myself on the way.
The mere fact that we are having this conversation, it is quite a success in my book. But we will go further into improving our Hokkien. I don’t believe in losing one language by gaining one. If you want, you can be good at all. Knowing more English doesn’t mean your Hokkien won’t be as good. And being good in Hokkien doesn’t mean that your English is bad. Why not learn them all!
I don’t want to Penang Hokkien Podcast to be the hardcore language podcast, but if someone wants to start a more serious language discussion, and record it and make it a show. I will be more than happy to make that as a second show on this podcast. My goal is to promote the usage for the language, and make Hokkien hip again. I will leave the more serious experts to do the language discussions.
I really appreciate the attitude that Penangknia has shown to PenangHokkien.com. I was contacted ore even almost scolded by many other Hokkien enthusiasts that I am not promoting the REAL or RIGHT Hokkien usage. So, thanks Penangknia.
Just to add that I am, like many other Penang Hokkien speakers, belong to neither to the good nor the bad groups. I can’t speak perfect Penang Hokkien but I wouldn’t pollute it with foreign words deliberately. We have no one to blame for our poor command of Penang Hokkien but its age and status in society. A language of less than 300 years old, it has never been standardized or taught formerly. Right now the best way to master it decently well is by listening to Penang Hokkien podcast and get a copy of Tan Choon Hoe’s book. You can’t really do much with Tan Choon Hoe’s book alone since the pronunciation key isn’t standard.
Last comment on “bad Penang Hokkien speakers”: It really makes me sad when people from this group used to speak good Penang Hokkien but decided to forsake it by polluting the language deliberately. They treat their native language Penang Hokkien like trash while others try to learn it so badly. I think some of them, if not most, even try to discourage their children from learning the language, given that it has a lowly status at all. You can’t even hear it everywhere in Penang nowadays, since in many places people actually expect you to speak English.
wa si ching cher.wa si chap sa hoi tua ui kelantan.
Edward, thanks for listening. Aren’t you a bit too young? 😀
Miku John
This episode cant be downloaded full. I’ve tested it in my office and home but still the same. Pls help to look into it. Thanks.
Tua Pui Kia