Free Taiwanese Hokkien Lessons in Singapore

yhjow SG

Do you want to learn how to speak, read and write in Taiwanese Hokkien? Do you want to speak Hokkien fluently (without mixing English, Malay or other words into it) ? I’m providing informal Hokkien lessons for free (once every two weeks) and practice session, in order to spread the language and promote Hokkien culture in Singapore.

To sign up for the lessons, all you have to do is join:

http://www.meetup.com/The-Singapore-Hokkien-Lan…

There is a hokkien lesson once every two weeks, so pop by to learn. It’s just catered for Beginners/intermediate.

Alternatively, we also have meetup groups in Facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/sghokkien/
https://www.facebook.com/sghokkienmeetup

My name is Michael 卓育興 . I’m a Taiwanese who was grown up and lived in Singapore for many years. I speak Taiwanese with my mum at home. A few years ago, I was interested in my mother tongue and began researching the language and culture. In the end, I’ve written an article on Singaporean Hokkien in Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singaporean_Hokkien

I’m not a linguist or a professional. I’m just an amateur who pursue Hokkien studies during my free time. Currently, I continue to do self-study on Hokkien generally at a more advanced level, esp. reading Hokkien literature from Taiwan and training myself to recite Tang poetry in Hokkien.

SJS6638 SG

Nice of you to give free taiwanese hokkien lessons. I have interest to learn more about Xiamen/Tong An hokkien.

yhjow SG

Amoy (Xiamen) Hokkien is generally similar to Taiwanese Hokkien, esp. in terms of tones and accent, with only around 10% difference in vocabulary. Both are regarded as "Standard Hokkien".

The cultural center for Hokkien changes throughout history. Historically, it was Quanzhou. However, after Opium war from 1842 till 1945, the cultural center shifted to Xiamen (Amoy). But after 1945, the culture center for Hokkien shifted to Taiwan. Taiwan has far more Hokkien speakers (around 18 million) than southern Fujian alone (14 million). Today, Taiwan's status for Hokkien is very much like that of Hong Kong for Cantonese. Majority of Hokkien songs, dramas came from Taiwan, as much as Taiwan is now the world's Hokkien culture center. Thus, learning Taiwanese Hokkien would benefit one.

I once visited Xiamen and thought people over there were like Taiwanese speaking Taiwanese, because the tones and accent is generally similar, esp. closer to Taipei accent. The tone system of Amoy is exactly the same as Taiwanese with 7 tones. Some minor difference in vocabulary. For instance, where (哪裡）- 佗落 tó-lo̍h (Amoy) 佗位 tó-uī (Taiwanese) are all (都是) 計是 kè-sī (Amoy) 攏是 lóng-sī (Taiwanese) As for Tong An, it is slightly different accent.

yhjow SG

This is the textbook I'm using for the free Taiwanese Hokkien lesson. It's called "Harvard Taiwanese 101" written by Taiwanese Professor Li khin-huann.

Prof. Li is a Taiwanese linguist and Professor of Taiwanese language and literature department at National Taiwan Normal University. He participated actively in the development of Taiwanese Romanization System (commonly known as "Tai-lo" 台灣閩南語羅馬拼音方案), which is now the standard romanization for Hokkien and pronunciation guide for Hokkien. Taiwanese Romanization System is now taught in the Hokkien lessons in Taiwanese school [yes, Taiwan is the only place where Hokkien is taught in school]. Prof. Li is also a Taiwanese Hokkien poet, and has written many Taiwanese (Hokkien) poem and prose, contributing actively to Taiwan's Hokkien Literary circle. He is also the chairman of World Taiwanese Mother Tongue Union, an active group promoting Taiwanese Hokkien, Hakka, Aborigine Languages in Taiwan.

There are some good resources for learning Taiwanese Hokkien online.

One of which is the "Official Online Dictionary of Taiwanese Hokkien 台灣閩南語常用詞典" by Ministry of Education Taiwan R.O.C.

http://twblg.dict.edu.tw/holodict_new/index.htm

It features Hokkien/Mandarin translation and comes with Audio file to listen to the pronunciation.That is, if you do not know the Hokkien word, you can input the Mandarin and find out its equivalent Hokkien word.

A similar useful resource in mobile phone is 萌典 for Taiwanese Hokkien. Simply search for 萌典 in Android Google Play or Apps Store in I-phone, download and install it. It features Hokkien/Mandarin/English/German/French translation with audio files

SJS6638 SG

Definitely there are similiarites but the accent is a vast different.

Certain words used are different. Please don't be offended, I don't appreciate taiwanese hokkien.

SJS6638 SG

Bangulzai will be able to have good discussion with you on hokkien. He is an expert.

yhjow SG

If you want to hear what Xiamen Hokkien sounds like, go to

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJ4ZxC71r5w

It sounds very similar to Taiwanese.

There is a difference between Tong'an tones/accent and Xiamen Hokkien. Actually, Singaporean's Hokkien sounds very close to Tong'an 同安, Anxi 安溪, Yongchun 詠春, Haifeng 海峰 accent. Although there is an inclination towards Quanzhou tones.

Some are of the Singapore's Hokkien accent are influenced by 漳南 accent, for instance, "ing " is changed to "eng" [e.g. 能 ling5 (Taiwanese) -> leng5 (Singaporean]

yhjow SG

Do check out Amoy Hokkien

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ek67eS6A2x8

海堤伯 speaks Xiamen (Amoy) Hokkien sounds very similar to Taiwanese in terms of accent. The only difference are the vocabulary

charlize SG

ELearning SG

great hokkien e learning lessons.

Cuddlelooker SG

nice

yhjow SG

Sorry to inform you guys that due to the popular response..there are over 12 people coming each time and it's not possible to teach at Hans Cafe.

Therefore, I've moved over to a rented classroom to conduct the Taiwanese lesson. As there is a rental fee involved, unfortunately I have to charge $10 per person for each lesson (around 3 hours), which is still affordable. The textbook costs $38. I'm conducting the class once every two weeks. I've also been interviewed by Straits time for Singapore Hokkien Meetup.

During the lessons, I also brought in additional materials not covered within the textbook.

Sofar, I've conducted 3 lessons. The next lesson should be covering the 7 tones system and revising the phonology, as well as learning Taiwanese romanization system.

In addition, I've also brought in some reference to variants of dialect difference such as between Quanzhou and Zhangzhou, as well as local Singaporean Hokkien. There is one American and one Japanese attending the lessons plus many Singaporeans.

I recently made a video about the difference between Taiwanese and Singaporean Hokkien

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKkuyypIthQ

Feel free to join our class. It's a continuous course and you can come whenever you like it and pay only when you come. Stop whenever you feel like it. My aim is to make you fluent in Hokkien.

I'm quite active in promoting Hokkien culture in Singapore (and also research Minnan linguistics) during my free time.

charlize SG

Say say .

spidey3 SG

anybody heard Penang hokkien spoken before? I like the way girls from Penang speak hokkien. Damn cute.

Abll SG

Got cantonese lesson?

charlize SG

Maybe

fuzzyhamz SG

How do you say weak or 软弱 in hokkien?

Ibrarhussainbest SG

Nice!!! lessons!!! but I wanna listen radio now! going :P

Yes 93.3 FM