Hello,
I just joined this forum. I am originally from the USA, and now live in Singapore. I speak a weeee-little bit of Mandarin and that's all.
I am wanting to learn Hokkien, and yet have no clue where to start...Can anyone provide any suggestions? Also, what is minnan?
many sincere thanks.
Where to start?
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Aurelio
Hi Northwind,
1st of all: Welcome to the "I want to learn Hokkien"-Club
Minnan 閩南 is a family of languages of the South, containing Hokkien. For more information, see here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Min_Nan
Hokkien is also called Fukienese, Holo-oe, Taiwanese - all essentially the same language. Hokkien has several major dialects, the Amoy variant of which used to be recognized as sort of a standard. I'd claim that if you know one variant of Hokkien, you can learn another one fairly quickly.
Now, where to start? Depends on how serious you are about it. Hokkien is a good deal harder to learn than Mandarin or Cantonese because
(1) Books and tapes are not easy to find
(2) Both spoken and written language are hardly standardized
(3) Tones change upon context
If that doesn't scare you then there are several textbooks in English available. Knowing some Mandarin definitely helps, just like knowing English would help with German: Not the same thing but many familiar words. There are also a few webpages from Taiwan, but unless your Mandarin is very solid, these might not be the best place to start. In-depth information on Hokkien in English is very scarce on the web. If you're interested in the language course let me know - I'll be glad to dig out the ordering information.
Best regards,
Aurelio
1st of all: Welcome to the "I want to learn Hokkien"-Club
Minnan 閩南 is a family of languages of the South, containing Hokkien. For more information, see here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Min_Nan
Hokkien is also called Fukienese, Holo-oe, Taiwanese - all essentially the same language. Hokkien has several major dialects, the Amoy variant of which used to be recognized as sort of a standard. I'd claim that if you know one variant of Hokkien, you can learn another one fairly quickly.
Now, where to start? Depends on how serious you are about it. Hokkien is a good deal harder to learn than Mandarin or Cantonese because
(1) Books and tapes are not easy to find
(2) Both spoken and written language are hardly standardized
(3) Tones change upon context
If that doesn't scare you then there are several textbooks in English available. Knowing some Mandarin definitely helps, just like knowing English would help with German: Not the same thing but many familiar words. There are also a few webpages from Taiwan, but unless your Mandarin is very solid, these might not be the best place to start. In-depth information on Hokkien in English is very scarce on the web. If you're interested in the language course let me know - I'll be glad to dig out the ordering information.
Best regards,
Aurelio
Hi Aurelio,Aurelio wrote:Hi Northwind,
1st of all: Welcome to the "I want to learn Hokkien"-Club
Minnan 閩南 is a family of languages of the South, containing Hokkien. For more information, see here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Min_Nan
Hokkien is also called Fukienese, Holo-oe, Taiwanese - all essentially the same language. Hokkien has several major dialects, the Amoy variant of which used to be recognized as sort of a standard. I'd claim that if you know one variant of Hokkien, you can learn another one fairly quickly.
Many thanks for such a warm (and prompt) welcome!
That definitely clears some confusion there
I am serious about it and have faced these obstacles - plus... usually when asking around here in singapore I get the same response about 95% of the time..."go talk more with ah beng leh"....and that doesn't really help...I've got enough curse words and mahjong-talk, but would rather be able to communicate effectively with people around me. Having spent some time here, it would be nice to be able to make friends, be involved with organizations & activities...Aurelio wrote: Now, where to start? Depends on how serious you are about it. Hokkien is a good deal harder to learn than Mandarin or Cantonese because
(1) Books and tapes are not easy to find
(2) Both spoken and written language are hardly standardized
(3) Tones change upon context
The odd part is that my girlfriend is hokkien...but I cant get her to take up teaching me (or anything else for that matter) in a serious manner.
I am definitely interested in the textbooks. Would also be interested in audio. My mandarin is weak, and my reading is worse, so the websites in hanzi would be of no use. I'll probably have to wait on the actual products for a while tho, cuz I am currently also unemployedAurelio wrote: If that doesn't scare you then there are several textbooks in English available. Knowing some Mandarin definitely helps, just like knowing English would help with German: Not the same thing but many familiar words. There are also a few webpages from Taiwan, but unless your Mandarin is very solid, these might not be the best place to start. In-depth information on Hokkien in English is very scarce on the web. If you're interested in the language course let me know - I'll be glad to dig out the ordering information.
Best regards,
Aurelio
It's difficult, as my personal interests, aside from socializing and business, are involved with traditional chinese things, like medicine, religion, martial arts, lion/dragon dance etc. - and the language skills are a big barrier...
-
Aurelio
Hi Northwind,
A lot of Hokkien speakers will find it hard to believe that you seriously want to learn the language. "Why don't you learn Mandarin?" A second problem you will run into is that most native speakers have never learned the language formally and will find it very difficult to give you even basic information like "how many tones are there" etc - this site is clearly the exception! There is, however, a solution (see below).
Now for the courses in English - there are two options:
Bodman's "Spoken Amoy Hokkien". This is a monumental 2-volume course, with in-depth explanations on grammar, pronunciation, extensive vocabulary, in short everything you could expect from a language course minus Chinese characters. It's sitting right in front of me right now and I am going to go back to it after this post. You can find it for US$45 at Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/087950 ... e&n=283155
The US$ 45 might be fine, even on a budget, but the $170 US for the tapes are pretty hefty (they're worth it, but, well $$$). Maybe you can convince your girlfriend to read some of the words to you or check on your pronunciation - then the US$45 course might work really well for you.
The second option are the books by the Maryknoll fathers (Taiwan). You can find them at:
http://mkflanigan.homestead.com/publications.html
I do not have the beginners' Taiwanese book myself, but some of the more advanced ones (which I hope to take on after Bodman) and they make a good impression. From what I remember, some of the books have tapes with them. The real smashing thing for me was that I paid US$100 for a box full of books & tapes (two dictionaries, three textbooks and a couple of tapes and shipping) - that's like Xmass Just write Rev. Flanigan an e-mail for advice, he'll certainly respond. You'll find his e-mail address on his website:
http://mkflanigan.homestead.com/publications.html
While you're waiting on whichever book you choose, you might want to check out Campbell's website - this could have become a great language course, but it has not been added to for at least two years
Still nice to pick up some information as a beginner:
http://www.glossika.com/en/dict/taiwane ... /index.htm
And finally, you can always ask qustions here In such a small community, you're bound to help each other!
Best regards,
Aurelio
That's not uncommonThe odd part is that my girlfriend is hokkien...but I cant get her to take up teaching me (or anything else for that matter) in a serious manner.
A lot of Hokkien speakers will find it hard to believe that you seriously want to learn the language. "Why don't you learn Mandarin?" A second problem you will run into is that most native speakers have never learned the language formally and will find it very difficult to give you even basic information like "how many tones are there" etc - this site is clearly the exception! There is, however, a solution (see below).Now for the courses in English - there are two options:
Bodman's "Spoken Amoy Hokkien". This is a monumental 2-volume course, with in-depth explanations on grammar, pronunciation, extensive vocabulary, in short everything you could expect from a language course minus Chinese characters. It's sitting right in front of me right now
and I am going to go back to it after this post. You can find it for US$45 at Amazon:http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/087950 ... e&n=283155
The US$ 45 might be fine, even on a budget, but the $170 US for the tapes are pretty hefty (they're worth it, but, well $$$). Maybe you can convince your girlfriend to read some of the words to you or check on your pronunciation - then the US$45 course might work really well for you.
The second option are the books by the Maryknoll fathers (Taiwan). You can find them at:
http://mkflanigan.homestead.com/publications.html
I do not have the beginners' Taiwanese book myself, but some of the more advanced ones (which I hope to take on after Bodman) and they make a good impression. From what I remember, some of the books have tapes with them. The real smashing thing for me was that I paid US$100 for a box full of books & tapes (two dictionaries, three textbooks and a couple of tapes and shipping) - that's like Xmass
Just write Rev. Flanigan an e-mail for advice, he'll certainly respond. You'll find his e-mail address on his website:http://mkflanigan.homestead.com/publications.html
While you're waiting on whichever book you choose, you might want to check out Campbell's website - this could have become a great language course, but it has not been added to for at least two years
Still nice to pick up some information as a beginner:http://www.glossika.com/en/dict/taiwane ... /index.htm
And finally, you can always ask qustions here
In such a small community, you're bound to help each other!Best regards,
Aurelio