I was born, bred and will probably die in Penang where Hokkien is the predominant spoken Chinese dialet. Penang Hokkien is quite different from the Hokkien spoken in the rest of Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and China in that it is sing-song in nature and contains quite a number of Malay words.
Being born a Hokkien would probably make you assume that I am very proficient in Hokkien. Believe it or not, English is my native language in that I think, dream and have nightmares in English ! I only realise that I hardly speak any Hokkien when in the early 1980's my "Jee Tneoh" i.e husband to my Mum's 2nd Sister asked why I reply in English when he asks me in Hokkien !
The crunch came somewhere in the mid-1980's where I was involved in assisting Bank Negara in raiding a major deposit-taking co-operative during the "deposit-taking crisis". After the investigations, the Accounting Firm where I was working was appointed the Receivers and one of my task was to go on a road-show to almost all the co-operative's branches in order to return part of the money deposited. That is when I discovered my handicap in Hokkien :-(
I clearly remember trying to tell a depositor that the quantum of the deposit to be returned has yet to be decided as follows :-
Depositor : Lu eh heng wah jua cheh
CCH: Ah boi choo teah (translated as It has not been fated !)
What I should have said is "Ah boi kuat teng !
That's when I decided to try to learn and speak better Hokkien !
This blog basically documents what and how I am teaching Hokkien to my 2 daughters living with me i.e Kimberley and Krysle who are both studying in a Chinese School after 3 years in an English Pre-school.
More at http://cch4hokkien.blogspot.com
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