Is Hokkien a language or a dialect? What happened to lead to its demise? And what’s being done to help slow the death of Penang Hokkien? Find out in this episode of Language Stories.

Why Hokkien?

Hokkien kept popping up when I was searching for languages to explore for the series in Malaysia, in particular in Penang. We visited for a few days towards the end of our trip and funnily enough, we didn’t actually meet anyone for this episode in Penang!

I wanted to cover Hokkien because it would be great to one day to a whole series of Language Stories about China but that would be a huuuuge project, and is definitely a long way off. So Hokkien gives a nice chance to explore that from a different perspective, especially given that Hokkien is often considered a dialect…

The Video

The Podcast

Featuring

Sim Tze Wei – One of the people behind Speak Hokkien Campaign.

John Ong – Founder of the Penang Hokkien Podcast.

Kee How – Co-host of the Penang Hokkien Podcast.

Further Reading + Resources

Learn to Read and Write – This page from Speak Hokkien Campaign is a helpful introduction to reading and writing the language.

The Chinese Repository – One edition of The Chinese Repository, as mentioned in Sim Tze Wei’s interview.

Basic Penang Hokkien – Memrise – There’s a basics course available on Memrise specifically for Penang Hokkien.

Taiwanese Hokkien – Simply Learn App – If you’re curious to learn about the differences between different dialects of Hokkien, this app for Taiwanese Hokkien is a good starting point.

Penang Hokkien Basics – Penang Travel Tips – A thorough PDF from Penang Travel Tips for Penang Hokkien.

Hokkien In Penang – Great introduction to the language in Penang.

Hokkien Card Game – Say What – Remember Lilian from the Singapore episode? She has an edition of her Say What card game for Hokkien!

Glossika – And if you’d like to learn more about Chinese languages, one of my favourite resources you might enjoy is Glossika, which at last count, has courses available for 7 different Chinese languages, including Taiwanese Hokkien.

Our Sponsor

A huge thank you to Lingora for sponsoring season 2 of Language Stories!

Lingora is a new online language community where you can share written and spoken practice in the language you’re learning and get real feedback from the community. What’s great about Lingora is that they help to eliminate the “umms” and “ahhs” by giving you prompts for your writing and speaking. And the really great bit? It’s 100% free. Yup. Totally free feedback on your language practice.

But there’s more to Lingora. You’ve also got the option for free lessons, live chat, and paid for lessons with tutors. Basically, all bases are covered.

You can support Language Stories by signing up for free to Lingora at elingora.com.

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