Curious about Hokkien?

Ever came across on the situation where a person sits next to you in a train or bus or any public transport who is too engrossed chatting with their pals and your mind keep wondering “What the!! Why are they talking so loud?? What are they talking about? Say, what is that scandal all about? Who and who caught in the act?? etc etc…”
Now, one of the advantages of knowing a few languages is to expand our social circles. My knowledge in other languages is quite limited. Apart from English, Chinese Hokkien, some bidayuh, some Chinese Hakka (my original dialect.. "Khak Ngin") and Bahasa Melayu, I also juggles Bahasa Kedah as well, through my wife of course. Then, a little bit of French taste as well. I have picked up couple of simple words such as nouvelle = new, sortie = exit, taux = rate, time = temp, calibrage = calibration, bienvenue = welcome, automatic = automatique etc.. Yupp, all thanks to the internationalization or world-ready software I'm working on.
Anyway, back to my mother tongue. Although, I'm a 50% Hakka by default, I practised Hokkien dialect as my main language. So, it sticks with me until today. Hokkien dialect is a very simple Chinese language which is widely use in Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia and some part of China. Even my wife knows how to pronounce them perfectly in just a few months. Most of the words are pronounced in a low or mid tone voice. Here are some very basic words to start with,

Wa = I or me
Lu = you
Ee nang = them
Chow = run
Sien = tired or bored
Ciak = eat
Phen yui = friend
Lau ya = lousy or useless
Khee = go
Thak chek = schooling
Chek = books
Poi Kee = Aeroplane
Lim Chui = Drinking water

Sometimes, it can be a little bit confusing. The meaning of the word depends on the sentence itself. For example;

Tiam-tiam = quiet or always

1.) An chua lu tiam-tiam = Why you are so quiet?
2.) An chua lu tiam-tiam ki hia peng = Why do you always go there?

Bei = buy or horse

1.) Lu bei ha mik = What did you buy?
2.) He “chiak” bei, chow chin mei = That horse runs fast.
3.) Wa bei chai = I don’t know.
4.) Bei tang kai = cannot change or cannot modify.
5.) Bei tang cho = no can do.

Ciak = eat or animals.

Lu ciak ha mik? = What are you eating?
He ciak ngiaw chow ki to lok? = Where did that cat go?

Other commonly used sentence,

Sai Chia = drive a car
Lu ki to lok? = Where are you going?
Lu chiak pa boi? = Have you taken your meal yet?
Wa ki cho kang = I go to work.
Kwa Hee = watch movie.
Boh yong A tau keh = useless boss.
Wa A kang cho bei liau = I cannot finish my job.
Ha mik su = What happen?

Yupp, I can go ranting whole night about these Hokkien dialect but this cold winter makes me very sleepy… Now, come on! Give them a try. You might find this language rather fun to learn.

bi.