By Lim Kai Le
To start off, I am really grateful to have this experience to formally learn about Hokkien more formally than just hearing how other’s speak and picking it up informally. Especially when it is at the University’s level, being the pioneer of this change.
Through the weekly lessons up till week 5 that we held physical sessions, I’ve learned many new words that made conversations with my mum and other Hokkien-speaking relatives much smoother and understandable. To start off, I recognised that certain words are said with the same sound stressing on different intonations, for instance;
dog, nine, thick, enough all these sound like “gao” with slight variation from on another.
Similarly, I also learn that the same phrases said in different context can have very different meaning for instance;
“gao lat” which said alone meant terrible but it can be used to express a good situation depending on different contexts.
The understanding of the culture and the differences between different spoken Hokkien also made me reflect a little more from my past trip to Taiwan where there was some variation between certain words that have led to some confusions for example when I was purchasing something and to ask for the price I said “gui lui” but money is “ngiee” in their local spoken context which have let to some confusions as the shop keeper and I stared blankly at one another.
The first assignment where I went to the KTV with Jay was also rather interesting to be singing in Hokkien and changing the lyrics of some lines to make it more relatable to the student lives we are having. It was really enjoyable and made me become more confident in speaking Hokkien.
Following that we’ve learn some key phrases that are unique to Singapore such as loti(pau), pasat, chincai(xi sua) etc. and be able to hold basic conversation on my favourite Hokkien dish, wa suka jiak bak kut teh.
I also learnt that Hokkien actually has many loan words from other languages such as Malay, English and Chinese as well due to the limited vowels it comprise of. For example patsat which is borrowed from Malay (pasar) which means market.
After which we transition to online-based learning through watching youtube videos and the different translation that has been provided by the Lecturer for us aided in the learning process. Conversational methods can be learnt from the different scenarios in the videos and picked up key jargons to be used for specific context which helped widen my vocabulary.
For the 2nd assignment, I decided to interview my mother and asked about her day to day routine, her favourite dish and her opinions on the recent Covid 19 Virus and held some simple conversations with her. It was really heartwarming to see her enjoy it, and made the whole module worthwhile, I hope I will be able to continue making meaningful and accurate conversations with my mother.
All in all, this module has really been enjoyable despite the hiccups for transiting into online-based learning which made it less desirable as the Lecturer was really engaging and humourous!
Kai Le's Reflection 