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Guest: Ah Hua
We talk to the very slim Ah Hua about what he likes to eat when he goes back to Penang.
This guy can really eat! And this show will definitely make you hungry!
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a simple way for bringing penang food on airplanes (short distance only la):
FREEZE the soup!!!
been bringing in like half a dozen packets of hokkien mee everytime i go to singapore…works everytime! remember to wrap it with layers and layers of newspapers before putting in your luggage.
shhhhh…told tell customs ya…. 😉
kshern: That’s a great tip! That really shows how passionate we are with our food. I think people call us food snob. But really, once you know what good food is, you just can’t settle with any other.
exactly….why should we settle for anything less when we’ve tasted the best?
oooppss, just realise there’s a typo in my earlier comment….it should be DON’T tell customs…. 😛
exactly…why should we settle for anything less when we’ve tasted the best?!?
oopppsss, just noticed the typo in my previous comment…should read DON’T tell customs….must be fatigue from the holiday cheer… 😛
Ah. I still have 2 more episodes to catch up with. Next time have to force myself to complete each on weekly basis – otherwise too many “follow-up”…… About food arh ? The tip is not working for me, Penang direct to Xiamen takes 4 hours…… T_T
I try to cook myself, but those like Chendol – my favourite will be impossible. You think I am chef meh. But I heard someone saying there’s a chef from Penang working in Xiamen, cooking Curry Mee wan – Shit-lah, must check it out…… So little Malaysians here, dunno he can survive or not ?
I always bring a lot of Nescafe (YES – even the kopi also ours tastes better), Chai Ak (Vegetarian Duck – during Kau-Ong-Ya)…… But 1 thing is, if the water here not the same taste hio, the food will not taste nice too. I dunno why, the Kopi-O I make here is just so different from what I made in Penang. Also, when you take shower, you dun get the same deal of bubbles with the same Shokobutsu. I think water here has been filtered too many layers, until no taste…… Y_Y
One more to go ! Just listened to 19. John, please dun call me Ah LORNG anymore. Alamak – I am the “dragon” – Ah Long – “naga” in Mandarin. Agreed that we dun need to always use the so called very “right” way of speaking Hokkien, like people in Xiamen. Penang version is a peranakan version, unique one. Somehow it’s good to apply our pronunciation correctly into those Chinese words.
I have an ambition, actually I always dream of having our own TV station – then we will have our own news in Penang Hokkien, some advertisements, some programmes, road show proudly in our Hokkien Dialect. Main reason is, I want my mother tongue to be more useful, more expressive, more fruitful so that it can reach a higher level of “elegance”. You see, like Cantonese, people dun feel ashamed to speak out in front of public. But for Hokkien, often you see people feel pai-seh to use it in public. Dun make our language sound like a second-class dialect. It’s indeed the most popular, meaningful, beautiful and most important language of the island. Viva Penang Hokkien ! Wa si Penang lang, wa kong Penang Hokkien ua !
Finally ! Finished all episodes…… Today’s very quiet here at work, most people went on leave for year-end…… ^__^
Alamak. Ah John, sometimes really feel like strangling you during the show. 4-wind-building you also spend whole day to recall…… Jelutong also…… Pengsan……
Talking about Pong Tua Hai. It’s good for clearing phlegm. I think in English it’s called . I dunno who told me before…… I want to eat See Koh Th’ng also…… Especially the one in Jelutong Bansan.
Talking about Laksa…… Do you guys know there’s 1 stall behind Jelutong Pos Malaysia, 2 aunties selling with Spring Roll wan ? Whatlau-eh, the Spring Roll you go and soak in the Laksa soup and eat hio, tasty until you can swallow your own tongue. Sampai lian chee pun eh toon loh kee.
Ah John, how can I post photo within the comment ? I got something about Ah Pong to show you……
My note disappears leh. Pong Tua Hai should be: Boat-Fruited Sterculia Seed…… Deep-leh. Who cares……
Wahh… Ah Long became so funny now… last time I tot he is very serious people..hahaha..now this is his real face…
Penang have so many good food… others places may have their nice food but for long run, we still prefer Penang food.. cause we are penanglang lah…
Ah Long ah, you can have your own TV channel now. Online one. Something like podcast. Go to check it out at, http://www.dtvmac.com. Currently only available for Mac computer but for Windows one is coming soon. Let me know once you created the show, sure I will support you.
Yeeeeeeeeeeew. I am so bored here…… If I want to go home earlier, I need to take a cab, it costs me CNY 26. Today morning I already sleep-cannot-wake (koon beh cheh) and did not get our company shuttle bus. I took cab and paid CNY 27 already, dun want to spend another round. If I wait for the shuttle bus, it will be 5:30pm although it’s free…… Right in front of my apartment building……
Yes, I have been dreaming of Penang TV shows since high school with a group of friends. We sometimes create advertisement lines for products, it’s not the “rojak” kind of thing, it can be very professional, like how Hong Kong people and Taiwan people do on TV. Dialect can be nice and effective on TV. Those uncles aunties sure like, sure syok, sure sorng…… ^_^
Then we have our own news in Penang Hokkien. It can be a serious language, so we now need to make sure we polish up the language, whatever we never know, we should learn now. Of course, I agreed with Ah Hua, let other people learn from us, we dun need those what what Tieng Cheng (actually should be Kiu Cheng) but come to think about it, our dialect is poor in expressing profound stuff. Need to do something about it.
1 thing to add, in Xiamen we do say ???? but people dun say the whole thing, they say the last two words Tai Sia only…… Not necessary to translate every single character, Hokkien is an independant language anyway……
Hey Ah Long: I’m so glad you’re so prolific here. I’d love to chat with you on the show, if you’re interested. Let me know.
Wa1 lau2 eh1, Ah3 Hua1 ka1 kshern lu4 lang2 jin1 si3 knia3 lang2, lak3sa4 pun4 eh3 gia2 ki4 puay3 kee1.
???????kshern???????laksa pun eh ?????
�wa4 bo3 tnia1 guay3 Pe3nang4 lang2 kong4�????” .
????penang??�????�.
Ta3pi4 wa4 zai1 .? si3 tak1 “sin1”, ? ko1 leng2 si4 tak1 “tan2”, ? si3 tak1 “tai3″ ? si3 tak1 sia3 (xiang3 ka1 ??”gam1sia3”).
tapi ??�.?�?? “sin1”, �?� ???? “tan2”????????, �?� ?? “tai3″ �?�?? �sia3� (?? ??”gam1sia3″).
According to Penang Hokkien Tone sandhi (????tone 1 in front of tone 1 or 2 will be changed into tone 3. Just pronouncing ?? you can notice that the first ? has a different tone than the second ?. So my best guess for the pronunciation of �????” would be “sin3tan2tai3sia3”, which sounds quitee funny due to the first two words “sin3tan2”. This might be the reason why in Amoy where the phrase is used ?? is obmitted.
This episode really makes me hungry!!
Hello…… Penangknia, you’re right. Sin Tan Tai Sia sounds very funny, hence people in Xiamen usually only say Tai Sia. Doctor sometimes asks if your Tai Sia is good or not…… I usually dun learn every word from Xiamenist, because I know our Hokkien is not originated from here. Most of the time, I refer to colleagues from Zhangzhou and some Quanzhou. Xiamen Hokkien sounds different to us……
I watch Hokkien TV programmes and listen to radio here. I can understand about 90%, because nowadays a lot of them have been translated directly from Mandarin, same situation for Cantonese in Guangzhou, different from Hong Kong.
Toilet is called ?? Chet Soh (refer to how we pronounce “potong” your sister-in-law “soh”……) or ??? Wui Seng Kieng (Wui as in tummy, Seng Kieng as in crazy). As for ?? Pen Soh is rarely used here……
I tried to read news in Penang Hokkien, I really think that we can make it. Imagine someone on TV reading news in our dialect. Well, I dun want to use the so called “oroginal” Hokkien, we need the way Penang people think and speak. Sampah is Sampah – Gau Koon is Gau Koon – Jamban is Jamban. Of course, try to decrease new English words by using more modern Chinese words would be ideal…… The criteria should be: Can my grandmother Ah Mah understand when we use it or not. If she can understand Rasa / Bangku / Sampah…… Then these should continue to stay in Penang Hokkien.
I try to control myself from using new English words, like Because (Yin Gui) / But then (Tappi) / Accident (Lorng Chia) / Bankcrupt (Pwa Chan or Lorng Poey)…… Because my lovely Ah Mah does not understand them. I know it’s already a rojak dialect, but we should stop polluting it. Whatever we’re used to, we can keep. Whatever we never used, we should apply Chinese words or limited Malay words…… What do you think ? …… ^__^
Hi Xiamen Ah Long,
I absolutely agree with what you said! A lot of people use English/Malay words for what our ah3mah4 would not simply because they don’t know how to say it in Hokkien. Also I think some people use some English terms to substitute some very very basic Hokkien terms deliberately, may be tryig to impress others that they can speak English. For example, I know someone who can speak excellent Hokkien since young as first language, at home, at school, and at work. When speaking with old people he would use very standard Penang Hokkien, but when speaking with his friends he would try to substitute “teacher” for sin3sneh1�??�, Monday – Sunday for pai1yit3 – pai1jit1 ?? – ??. Very often he will speak a whole phrase of English when speakiing Hokkien. It is not that he doesn’t know how to speak the equivalent phrase but he seems to think that speaking a whole sentence of Hokkien is obsolete.
Article to share: How Penangites “rape” Penang Hokkien
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???????????????????????????�Actually, I think huh�? ????????????????????�???�?�???�?�???�?�???�???????????
??????????????????????�???�???????�?WAITE???HUH??????CAR???�?�????CAR????
??�?�???????????????????????????????????????????????????????
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https://thefreemedia.com/index.php/unmasking/6596 (the link is dead, this is from what I saved)
I’m not against loan words, in fact I embrace them, but they must be Penang Hokkienized like kahwin etc. For the past 200 years of conctact with Malay, Siam and English language Penang Hokkien did not changed drastically but recently the influx of unnecessary English loan words and phrases, if left unchecked, will cause the doom of Penang Hokkien and the birth of a Singlish like English pidgin and eventually an English dialect. This might be what some Penangites are actually wishing for, more and more Hokkien families are speaking English / English pidgin as first language at home.
By the way, your choice of words for toilet sounds so ?? (su3?boon2). For example ??? in Penang is called jam1ban2, but if I insist on speaking in non-Malay words I would say ??? (pang1sai4keng1), since people here will have no rouble understand it as jamban. ??? on the other hand will be confusing as it sounds like hospital or clinic to me. Also I think in Penang ??? means crematorium or ??? where dead bodies will be placed waiting for burial. I’ve not head people say the word ??? but I think I’ve seen it on signboard or newspaper.
Is ?? used as an euphemism for pang1sai ?? in Amoy? I know ???? as a very specialized medical term for “The chemical processes occurring within a living cell or organism that are necessary for the maintenance of life”, in English “metabolism”, not something that doctor would ask his patients. True is that ?? is part of metabolism but why not say ?? instead? May be Penang Hokkien is very uneuphemistic and that’s why ?? is not used frequently. I’ve not heard any doctor asking his patients “how is your metabolism?”
By the way, do you guys know that the English word “Sunday” used by predominantly Christian English have pagan origin, while the phrase ??? shortened from ??? (worship day) which is commonly used by predominantly non-Christian Southern Chinese in their dialects (Hokkien, Cantonese, Hakka etc) have Christian origin? The same is true for ?? – ?? & ?? (worship hall but means only hall in Chinese). This is because (my guess) Chrsitian missionaries first introduced the concept of week into Southern China during 19th century while English who used to be pagans continue to use their pagan word “Sunday” which used to be the day Apollo was worshipped. Some Christians say that Dec 25th used to be the day pagans worship Apollo converted to celebrate JC instead. I shall stop digressing now.
Hello Penangknia:
You misunderstood. I never intend to introduce ??? into Penang Hokkien. That’s how local Xiamenists say. I will stick to Jamban or Bath Room – Chang Yik Keng. I am half Hokkien (father Fuzhou, mother Hainan) and in Penang Hainanese, we only say Bath Room – Siang Yak Kan. I think it’s good to actually study from other Chinese dialects in Penang, sometimes we will be amazed. Hainanese was widely used in my childhood, I lived in the Hainanese Village in Tanjung Bungah…… Where people use it very often. It’s still a very pure language, in the sense that it seldom loans words from Bahasa or others……
The Tai-Sia I mentioned, was not a question directly asked to the patient. The doctor will request patient to do a blood test ?? to determine if the ?? of the ?? is good. And the process of excretion is called Pai Tan Sa…… I dunno how to write it.
About the week days…… In Xiamen, most of them time, the dialect has been Mandarinised…… They say ?? directly. Just like on the plane, when I come back through Xiamen Airlines, the announcer will ask us to ?? (Knwai Kee). And also, we usually say Kam Tiam as in Kedai Sudah Tutup Pintu (after operating hours) but in Xiamen, they simply call it ??? (Knwai M’ng Liau)…… T__T
BTW – happy to share with you…… I bought something like it…… Damn expensive though but good for my Hokkien study.
https://www.ylib.com/activity/05language/tool4.htm
Therefore hio…… Ah John: You huh, try to cut down your English words. I dun want Penang Hokkien to die in our generation…… Heh-Heh-Heh……
It’s always so uplifting to see people who are passionate about our dialect discuss and share their passion.
I’m very glad you’re doing it here. Week after week, all the listeners seem to be having fun here after listening to the shows. Without you, the comment area is not going to be this lively.
I will do my half-bucket-of-poop (???) self’s best to use as little English as possible. But sometimes, I’m just clueless. But that’s why we have you guys here to enlighten us. Every single struggle I have on the show, I will have lots of help here in the comment area. And that’s a great thing.
Regarding the mixing in of English words, for me at least, it’s really a daily usage even when I was a child. Perhaps because my father is entirely English educated, and my mom is Chinese educated. But saying “actually” and “but” is very common in my family. Perhaps, that’s an example of “ang moh sai”. But hey, I’ll try my best. But I am obviously not a great role model when it comes to Hokkien. That’s why we need people with the knowledge to share it with us, somewhat lacking. Especially those of us away from home.
Thank you all very much for your support, and sharing for your talents. I really appreciate it.
Ah John: This week no podcast arh ? After listening to 4 episodes in 1 day, I am quite eager to continue…… Holiday off arh ? Damn boring in Xiamen…… And cold !
Ah John-ah, now I’ve recalled what is “Gu Kan Tan” called in English….it’s called “Chulia Street”. Now u rememer or not?….the street where a lot of low budget hotels r located which cater to a lot of Ang Mo backpackers one…: )
Don’t forget to pay a visit to this street (whenever u r back to Penang )at the mid section cause there r plenty of good food selling at that particular lane/lorong…… including “fabulicious” Nyonya Kuih!!!
I never imagined that Penangknia is really serious about our mother tongue.. Penang Hokkien it is. It’s good to have someone like him n Shua Hu to “enlighten” the Penang Hokkien Podcast’s listeners especially people like me…cause I always mixed it up w Bahasa Melayu n English when I speak Hokkien since I was a child, just like Ah John. Even though I’m Chinese educated but I still couldn’t speak in pure or appropriate Hokkien, guess this is the way how we brought up in the environment where everything is all “mixed up” like “Rojak”, ha!!!!
Ah Long: I usually post a new show on Sunday or Monday. Yes, there will be a new one this coming weekend.
Reynard: I remember Chulia Street now. 🙂
Ah…… I am getting old liao. I thought Episode 20 was downloaded last week. In fact I got it this week…… I thought I missed out 1 episode. Heh-Heh-Heh. Looking forward to 21…… ^__^
Ah Long ah..when you want to come to the show leh? It must fun with you and Penangknia.. go arrange it lah..man pai seh leh..
Reynard & Ah John,
Actually hoh, my hokkien also ??? one oh, mine has less English words but still got significant amount of Malay words. But like Ah John I am always trying my best not to use unhokkienized ‘foreign’ words. I have to say that my Hokkien improves a lot after listening to this podcast. Just cannot tahan those who purposely replace obvious Hokkien words with Angmo words. The word “actually” I try to substitute it with the original “ki3 sit1″( ??) but still I very much prefer to use “ta3 pi1” rather than “tan3 si3” (??) and “ma1 na4” which according to Limkianhui is “beh1 na4″(??) in Zhangzhou Hokkien hence probably also the original Penang Hokkien and since I doubt no one will understand “beh na” in Penang I stick to “ma na”, for practical reason.
I am not pushing for extreme purism but striking a balance between the integrity of Hokkien and local usage is important. Penang Hokkien, a language with decreasing role today, assaulted by English, Malay, Mandarin and even Cantonese, will be too hard and discouraging to learn and intimidating to the speakers if the standard is set too high. But the lack of standard and massive influx of English word will lead to its extinction.
A lot of Hokkien people might not care about Penang Hokkien future. But I do care greatly. I have already made the worst expectation and preparation: collecting Penang Hokkien “artifacts”, this podcast being the best one.
Kam1 sia3 A3moy2 sin3sneh1 gai1siao3 eh1 chek3.
???????????
im listening abt rojak now.. come to belacan part.. and i type my email password as belacan �_�. hahaha. and i learned new hokkien words 😛
good way for me to keep up my hokkien
Hello…… I think not only Penang Hokkien, a lot of dialects in China mainland are facing extinction. Even in Xiamen, a lot of young people dun speak Xiamen Hokkien anymore. More and more people tend to use Mandarin to communicate. Main reason is more and more immigration from other provinces. I dun want to see the same thing in Penang. Just Like KL – I hate to see KL Cantonese on TV, but indeed I admire it very much. I speak Cantonese proficiently, but I hate the fact that Cantonese is more important than Hokkien, even Mandarin in most cases. WHY !?
Although I am not a pure Hokkien (as in Minnan ?? – I am Mindong ??) but I love it because it’s my 1st language, it’s the language for most Penang Chinese…… Sometimes I also wonder why my grandmother (who looked after me since baby) never spoke to me in Fuzhounese…… Why arh ?
Ah John: We can teach people about road names…… Sometimes we dunno what street is what street, where is where. We only remember the landmark. The other day I wanted to see the Peranakan Mansion, a Nyonya told me it’s located at Church Street. Me and my aunt grabbed head cannot recall. Then later we realised it’s so popular, that’s the lane few blocks beside OCBC…… Famous Char Koay Teow there…… Yummy……
Penangknia: The word Amoy now only appears in Japanese. For local people in Xiamen, they dun use it frequently now. They call themselves Eh M’ng Lang…… It’s Eh M’ng Hang Kong (Xiamen Airlines) that takes off from Eh M’ng…… (>_^)v
I jusr read a 900 pages Chinese-English dictionary of Amoy, Zhangzhou & Quanzhou wirtten by Rev Carstairs Douglas in 1873 and realized that in about 150 years Penang Hokkien has lost so many words that it almost could be considered non-Chinese.
For example in that dictionary ‘begger’ in Hokkien is called ‘khit kai’, essentially the Hokkien pronunciation of ??, a word not unfamiliar in Mandarin but total stranger to me in Penang Hokkien. There are so many Chinese phrases and expressions that I once thought “unHokkien” or assumed only exist in Mandarin were in fact once the core vocabulary of Hokkien, at least untill 100 years ago! Perhaps this change is inevitable in Penang where the East and the West meet. People has a fiinite memory and having to learn English and Malay, important for survival gradually lead to the exclusion of more and more Hokkien (Chinese) words and expressions.
Hi Penagknia:
Can you share with me the book ? Where did you get it ? I am very interested in getting a copy of it. Well, in Xiamen University they just setup a Minnan Dialect Community for youngsters to learn their mother tongue, as nowadays more and more young people tend to communicate in Mandarin, hence some ??? created a good place for young people to continue conversing in Hokkien. I dunno if foreigner can join them, I want to take this opportunity to learn more……
Talking about begger…… We usually call it Khit Chia Ar – ???. Right ? That’s a Chinese word too. I think it’s a conversion from Zhangzhounese to Quanzhounese……
Hi John:
Have you heard of a song sung in Penang Hokkien before ? But it’s a vulgar song, with “smelly words”…… I found it very professional, just that…… the contents are so Black Society (Or Sia Huey)…… I have the MP3, if you think I can share please let me know…… ^_^
Ah Long, I want the MP3. can send to me ah??
Hi Ah Long, I also want that mp3. Heard about it a long time ago but never found it. Is your email address aokh1979@gmail.com ? If so I will send you an email.
About that book, it was last published in 1970 in Taiwan, I think. If not from library, you can only get it from antique bookshop, it is very expensive, more than 250USD in Amazon.
walao leh…I have downloaded the song from Ah Long’s web site. That is really good song… Ah Long, do you know who is the singer or not??
This song is in rap style leh… better than Jay Chou….hahahahaha
Hello…… Ya. You can actually download it from my website. It’s the 3rd MP3 with 2 vulgar words there…… Ladies and Gentlemen, enjoy it……
Just click on my name above to enter the simple main page. You can get it directly from there…… ^__^
Wah, ee leh mp3 jin jialat. Ah Long ah lu ko uu oh?
I remember there are few more about this kind of song. All in penanghokkien.. last time my friend have a CD but he dunno where is the CD now.
Shua Hu,
If you manage to find it can share with me? I would beg to collect any Penang Hokkien songs. Thanks!
A place to share big files (
https://transferbigfiles.com/Default.aspx
transferbigfiles.com
Hi Ah Long,
pnai seh?wa mm zai an choa yong hokkien ua kong “begger”. Tapi ah si ai kong wa diok kong “toh1 lui1 eh” . Ai zai jnia sit eh kong huat diok bue mui wa eh ma.
?????????????�??�. Tapi????????????????????????????.
Hey, wa long kio “begger” cho “kit chiak aa”
Shen Me Lanciao Shen Me Puki the real title and singer is……
Artist : D’Cuzzy
Title: Dickov