Anyone teaching me Hokkien?

[generao]

Hi everyone, I am originally from China and speaks Cantonese and Mandarin. I am new in Singapore, and would be keen to learn some Hokkien from the local people.

[Lisafuller]

I might be able to connect you with someone, drop me a PM.

[malcontent]

Hi everyone, I am originally from China and speaks Cantonese and Mandarin. I am new in Singapore, and would be keen to learn some Hokkien from the local people.

Are you looking for everyday conversation or just a few choice Hokkien phrases?

Hokkien dialect is exceptionally well suited to the latter

[generao]

Hi everyone, I am originally from China and speaks Cantonese and Mandarin. I am new in Singapore, and would be keen to learn some Hokkien from the local people.

Are you looking for everyday conversation or just a few choice Hokkien phrases?

Hokkien dialect is exceptionally well suited to the latter

Honestly I am more keen on the daily conversation, provided that I have sufficient time. But due to my ad hoc busy work, the latter is more realistic.

[malcontent]

Hi everyone, I am originally from China and speaks Cantonese and Mandarin. I am new in Singapore, and would be keen to learn some Hokkien from the local people.

Are you looking for everyday conversation or just a few choice Hokkien phrases?

Hokkien dialect is exceptionally well suited to the latter

Honestly I am more keen on the daily conversation, provided that I have sufficient time. But due to my ad hoc busy work, the latter is more realistic.

I think it’s best to learn Hokkien from a genuine ah beng who can teach you the correct raspy voice and wide ranging tonality — this is important if you want to be taken seriously and accepted in Hokkien speaking circles.

It’s kind of like learning to speak ghetto among blacks in the US, you can’t just say the words, you’ve got to say it with the right attitude, the right accent and body language… or people will just laugh at you.

[generao]

Are you looking for everyday conversation or just a few choice Hokkien phrases?

Hokkien dialect is exceptionally well suited to the latter

Honestly I am more keen on the daily conversation, provided that I have sufficient time. But due to my ad hoc busy work, the latter is more realistic.

I think it’s best to learn Hokkien from a genuine ah beng who can teach you the correct raspy voice and wide ranging tonality — this is important if you want to be taken seriously and accepted in Hokkien speaking circles.

It’s kind of like learning to speak ghetto among blacks in the US, you can’t just say the words, you’ve got to say it with the right attitude, the right accent and body language… or people will just laugh at you.

In practice, I think it is always good to start with knowing some simple phrases and glue things together in a later stage. For me, I think I am learning a bit Hokkien by watching local drama. But I don't have much chance to speak it (or don't have enough gusts to do so) and some of phrases I don't know how to convert it to Mandarin or Cantonese, so I definitely need more practice with people.

To me, it is always fun to mix all these different languages, though Hokkien is a bit challenging to me so far.

[malcontent]

In practice, I think it is always good to start with knowing some simple phrases and glue things together in a later stage. For me, I think I am learning a bit Hokkien by watching local drama. But I don't have much chance to speak it (or don't have enough gusts to do so) and some of phrases I don't know how to convert it to Mandarin or Cantonese, so I definitely need more practice with people.

To me, it is always fun to mix all these different languages, though Hokkien is a bit challenging to me so far.

It was much easier to get exposed to Hokkien when I first moved here 27 years ago because more people were speaking it. I can still vividly recall in my first year living in an HDB and an older auntie belted out “kiam sia hor” to me after being courteous to her.

Once I started working, I also had a group of young friends who taught me many of the “choice phrases” which should not be repeated in this forum. They were impressed with my tonality, for some reason Hokkien tones (which are more extreme) seem to come easier for me than Mandarin or Cantonese. Among all of the Chinese dialects, Hokkien is definitely the most bad a$$… hurling vulgarities in any other dialect just doesn’t carry the same intensity, in fact, nothing comes close. Not even Cantonese.

[Lisafuller]

Hi everyone, I am originally from China and speaks Cantonese and Mandarin. I am new in Singapore, and would be keen to learn some Hokkien from the local people.

Are you looking for everyday conversation or just a few choice Hokkien phrases?

Hokkien dialect is exceptionally well suited to the latter

Hahaha you’re absolutely right, do you know any?

[Lisafuller]

Hi everyone, I am originally from China and speaks Cantonese and Mandarin. I am new in Singapore, and would be keen to learn some Hokkien from the local people.

Are you looking for everyday conversation or just a few choice Hokkien phrases?

Hokkien dialect is exceptionally well suited to the latter

Honestly I am more keen on the daily conversation, provided that I have sufficient time. But due to my ad hoc busy work, the latter is more realistic.

Who are you looking to communicate with? The older gen? Can’t think of any other group that wouldn’t speak English/at least another language at this point.

[Lisafuller]

Are you looking for everyday conversation or just a few choice Hokkien phrases?

Hokkien dialect is exceptionally well suited to the latter

Honestly I am more keen on the daily conversation, provided that I have sufficient time. But due to my ad hoc busy work, the latter is more realistic.

I think it’s best to learn Hokkien from a genuine ah beng who can teach you the correct raspy voice and wide ranging tonality — this is important if you want to be taken seriously and accepted in Hokkien speaking circles.

It’s kind of like learning to speak ghetto among blacks in the US, you can’t just say the words, you’ve got to say it with the right attitude, the right accent and body language… or people will just laugh at you.

Yup. I’ve got a number of friends who are Hokkien, can definitely say they speak with a level of conviction that you don’t get with non-native speakers.

[Lisafuller]

Honestly I am more keen on the daily conversation, provided that I have sufficient time. But due to my ad hoc busy work, the latter is more realistic.

I think it’s best to learn Hokkien from a genuine ah beng who can teach you the correct raspy voice and wide ranging tonality — this is important if you want to be taken seriously and accepted in Hokkien speaking circles.

It’s kind of like learning to speak ghetto among blacks in the US, you can’t just say the words, you’ve got to say it with the right attitude, the right accent and body language… or people will just laugh at you.

In practice, I think it is always good to start with knowing some simple phrases and glue things together in a later stage. For me, I think I am learning a bit Hokkien by watching local drama. But I don't have much chance to speak it (or don't have enough gusts to do so) and some of phrases I don't know how to convert it to Mandarin or Cantonese, so I definitely need more practice with people.

To me, it is always fun to mix all these different languages, though Hokkien is a bit challenging to me so far.

I feel as though the challenge of learning hokkien in particular is that it’s a dialect, so there’s no way to learn it phonetically as there is no alphabet, you can only learn by sound which is hard for most.

[Lisafuller]

In practice, I think it is always good to start with knowing some simple phrases and glue things together in a later stage. For me, I think I am learning a bit Hokkien by watching local drama. But I don't have much chance to speak it (or don't have enough gusts to do so) and some of phrases I don't know how to convert it to Mandarin or Cantonese, so I definitely need more practice with people.

To me, it is always fun to mix all these different languages, though Hokkien is a bit challenging to me so far.

It was much easier to get exposed to Hokkien when I first moved here 27 years ago because more people were speaking it. I can still vividly recall in my first year living in an HDB and an older auntie belted out “kiam sia hor” to me after being courteous to her.

Once I started working, I also had a group of young friends who taught me many of the “choice phrases” which should not be repeated in this forum. They were impressed with my tonality, for some reason Hokkien tones (which are more extreme) seem to come easier for me than Mandarin or Cantonese. Among all of the Chinese dialects, Hokkien is definitely the most bad a$$… hurling vulgarities in any other dialect just doesn’t carry the same intensity, in fact, nothing comes close. Not even Cantonese.

And the curses are incredibly graphic and specific, one of them even has a word for cavernous.

[generao]

Are you looking for everyday conversation or just a few choice Hokkien phrases?

Hokkien dialect is exceptionally well suited to the latter

Honestly I am more keen on the daily conversation, provided that I have sufficient time. But due to my ad hoc busy work, the latter is more realistic.

Who are you looking to communicate with? The older gen? Can’t think of any other group that wouldn’t speak English/at least another language at this point.

I think I am just generally interested in the culture and trying to preserve the tradition. In recent years, I can witness many dialects are dying including Cantonese. I am Hakka, but I don't speak the language because very few people spoke with me. Maybe these languages would eventually die out in the next few decades, which sounds quite sad to me as I feel this is always the beauty of the culture. This is also the part that I like Singapore since it mixes all different kinds of culture. Imagine one day that we only have one uniform culture, isn't it boring?

[malcontent]

Honestly I am more keen on the daily conversation, provided that I have sufficient time. But due to my ad hoc busy work, the latter is more realistic.

Who are you looking to communicate with? The older gen? Can’t think of any other group that wouldn’t speak English/at least another language at this point.

I think I am just generally interested in the culture and trying to preserve the tradition. In recent years, I can witness many dialects are dying including Cantonese. I am Hakka, but I don't speak the language because very few people spoke with me. Maybe these languages would eventually die out in the next few decades, which sounds quite sad to me as I feel this is always the beauty of the culture. This is also the part that I like Singapore since it mixes all different kinds of culture. Imagine one day that we only have one uniform culture, isn't it boring?

Yes, it’s like a tapestry of humanity, although like anything, there are positives and negatives to any culture.

But, this is why I think Singapore should learn to embrace more non-CMI races and cultures, especially from neighboring ASEAN. There are very few Thai and Vietnamese here — if nothing else, that reduces the quality and variety of food choices. Whenever I go to Malaysia I find much better Viet & Thai food.

[generao]

Who are you looking to communicate with? The older gen? Can’t think of any other group that wouldn’t speak English/at least another language at this point.

I think I am just generally interested in the culture and trying to preserve the tradition. In recent years, I can witness many dialects are dying including Cantonese. I am Hakka, but I don't speak the language because very few people spoke with me. Maybe these languages would eventually die out in the next few decades, which sounds quite sad to me as I feel this is always the beauty of the culture. This is also the part that I like Singapore since it mixes all different kinds of culture. Imagine one day that we only have one uniform culture, isn't it boring?

Yes, it’s like a tapestry of humanity, although like anything, there are positives and negatives to any culture.

But, this is why I think Singapore should learn to embrace more non-CMI races and cultures, especially from neighboring ASEAN. There are very few Thai and Vietnamese here — if nothing else, that reduces the quality and variety of food choices. Whenever I go to Malaysia I find much better Viet & Thai food.

Truth! I can still find some Thai food in Singapore, like Tom Yum is very common. But it is a bit surprising to see not much Vietnamese cuisines around. It seems I can find more Vietnamese food in Australia even (possibly due to their early refugees)!

As you said, every culture has its pros and cons, that is why I believe that every culture has its own value. More generally speaking, I think this not only applies to languages, but also to whenever we learn anything.