The Teochew Store Blog / language

Wa Si Teochew Kia – My First 120 Teochew Expressions: Kickstarter Campaign Update 2

Wa Si Teochew Kia – My First 120 Teochew Expressions has been awarded the “Projects We Love” badge by Kickstarter. What an encouragement!

《我是潮州囝——精选一百二十潮语词语》已经入选Kickstarter「我们喜爱的专案」。他们将在Kickstarter全站推荐我们的宣传活动。这是一个很大的鼓励!
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Wa Si Teochew Kia – My First 120 Teochew Expressions: Kickstarter Campaign Update 1

We’re off to a Great Start! 我们有了一个很好的开始!

We are heartened to share that we have crossed the 20% mark of our crowdfunding, even though we are less than 48 hours into the campaign. Many thanks to our backers, who come from Singapore, the USA, Australia and the UK.
《我是潮州囝——精选一百二十潮语词语》多媒体早教卡的筹款活动启动不到48小时的时间里,我们已经达到筹款目标的20%以上。在此跟大家分享这个好消息,并感谢来自新加坡、美国、澳洲和英国的捐款者,以及热心为本项目宣传的家己人们。
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Wa Si Teochew Kia Announcement

An exciting new project for our very young is coming soon! 一个专为宝宝设计的项目即将启动, 敬请期待!

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Old Book on the Shelf: Elementary Lessons in the Swatow Dialect with a Vocabulary referring to Dr Douglas' Dictionary of the Amoy Vernacular

This book is a rare find, and a very useful one too.

Elementary Lessons in the Swatow Dialect [i.e. Teochew] is an unpublished reprint of Herbert Allen Giles’ Handbook of the Swatow Dialect, done by “J.C.G.” for private use in Swatow in 1881.

The book mainly teaches English speakers how to speak essential Teochew simple phrases and sentences.

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Old Book on the Shelf: Primary Lessons in Swatow Grammar (Colloquial)

A PDF copy of Primary Lessons in Swatow Grammar (Colloquial) is now available for free download on our online store.

Primary Lessons in Swatow Grammar was published by American Baptist missionary Rev William Ashmore in Swatow in 1884, despite suffering partial loss of sight for a prolonged period because of ophthalmia. He accomplished this with the assistance of Rev. William Duffus of the English Presbyterian Mission, who had charge of a small press. 

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Learn Teochew - an Online Guide for Heritage Speakers

"... so I hope that young people today who have difficulty communicating with their elder relatives will recognise that they can actively do something about it..."

The Teochew Store caught up with Brandon Seah of Learn Teochew (learn-teochew.github.io), an extensive online guide for “heritage speakers”, who have “learned some of the language from their family but who have never studied it formally, and who want to improve their understanding of the language”.

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The Teochew community in Cambodia's rebirth

Watch how the Teochews living in Cambodia in the 1990s, after surviving the devastations of the brutal Pol Pot regime and years of war, devoted their  scarce resources towards the education of the next generation. 

看看在上世紀九十年代,經歷過多年紅色高棉暴政和戰亂的柬埔寨潮州人如何把有限的資源投入在下一代的教育上。
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Basic Teochew Vocabulary Flashcard Video Series (Part III)

Here’s the third and final group of our flashcard videos for English speakers. Teochew audio taken from 汕頭話音檔》 ("Archive of the Swatow vernacular").

We wish to hear from you if you find such a learning method (video flashcard with picture + English/Chinese text + English/Teochew audio) useful. Do give us your feedback in the YouTube video comments. 

The Teochew Store has newly opened a Telegram channel. Subscribe to get our latest updates: https://t.me/theteochewstore
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Basic Teochew Vocabulary Flashcard Video Series (Part II)

Here’s the second group of our flashcard videos for English speakers. Teochew audio taken from 汕頭話音檔》 ("Archive of the Swatow vernacular").


We wish to hear from you if you find such a learning method (video flashcard with picture + English/Chinese text + English/Teochew audio) useful. Do give us your feedback in the YouTube video comments. 

The Teochew Store has newly opened a Telegram channel. Subscribe to get our latest updates: https://t.me/theteochewstore
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Basic Teochew Vocabulary Flashcard Video Series

The Teochew Store has produced a series of flashcard videos for English speakers to pick up some basic Teochew vocabulary. The Teochew audio is taken from a late 1990s source 《汕頭話音檔》 ("Archive of the Swatow vernacular").

There is a total of 15 videos, 5 of which have been uploaded on our YouTube channel (shown below). The other videos will be uploaded progressively over the next two weeks.

We wish to hear from you if you find such a learning method (video flashcard with picture + English/Chinese text + English/Teochew audio) useful. Do give us your feedback in the YouTube video comments. 🙂

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Teochew Vernacular Expressions 潮州方言”土話“

Teochew is a language full of rich expressions. How many of the Teochew vernacular terms (土話) in this video do you know?

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Learn Diosua Ue with Juyee 和如意學潮汕話

A fellow Teochew in the UK is running a blog, Learn Diosua Ue with Juyee 和如意學潮汕話, since 2013 to help English speakers learn and appreciate our mother tongue. Her name, you guessed it, is Juyee 如意.

Juyee's blog is at learnteochewwithjuyee.blogspot.com

Juyee grew up speaking English and picked up Teochew, both speaking, reading, writing only as an adult. The Teochew Store recently spoke with her to find out more about her blog and her personal experiences in becoming fluent in our language, a formidable task for many of us!

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Let's Test Your Teochew (6) 來!來!考考你的潮州話 (六)

How did you fare in the previous rounds? This is the 6th and final challenge!



 

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Let's Test Your Teochew (5) 來!來!考考你的潮州話 (五)

Are you getting better at this?

 

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Let's Test Your Teochew 來!來!考考你的潮州話 - 2 More Videos

Here are our two latest videos for your Teochew language challenge! 

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Let's Test Your Teochew (1) 來!來!考考你的潮州話 (一)

How well can you speak Teochew? 你的潮州話說的怎麼樣?
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“The Forest of Miss Tang" - An Upcoming Teochew Animation Film Needs Your Help

An animation film telling the history of the Teochew people, directed by a Teochew and dubbed entirely in Teochew language by 3 generations of Teochews living in France. How can you not be EXCITED?!

“The Forest of Miss Tang" (陳小姐的森林) is in an advanced stage of production and it needs funding support to be complete. The project has so far raised over €20,000 through crowd funding, but more support is still needed for it to be better.

The Teochew Store is lending our voice to this fund raising campaign as we believe this is a much worthy cause.

Watch the introduction video of the film by director Denis Do below (in French with English subtitles). To back the production of "The Forest of Miss Tang", click here for the project fundraising page

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1987 Teochew Musical Movie - Sounds of Teochew 《潮人鄉音》

Have you ever watched a Teochew musical movie? Check out this rare classic that showcases a variety of Teochew art forms, including cross talk (相聲), bamboo clapper singing (竹板歌), Teochew classical music (潮州音樂), Teochew opera (潮劇),  Teochew narrative songbooks (潮州歌冊), ballads (歌謠), etc.

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Teochew for English Speakers – a Grandfather’s Effort to Pass on Our Language Heritage

Meet Mr Tan Peng Boon, a 78-year-old grandfather in Singapore. He is a Teochew and nine years ago he created a website with the goal of enabling English-speakers to pick up the Teochew language. Remarkably, the retiree took upon himself to learn how to build a website in order to realise this.

The Teochew Store recently spoke with Mr Tan to find out the story behind his passion to keep alive his Teochew heritage and his “Teochew for English Speakers” website.

“Teochew for English Speakers” can be accessed from http://gateways.sg/~TeochewEnglish/index.asp.

Video of Mr. Tan's grandsons doing a lively recitation of Teochew nursery rhyme “A Pear Tree on the Hilltop”):

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5 Teochew Songs to Start Your Day 五首開啟新一天的潮語歌

How about kicking off the first week of the New Year with 5 Teochew songs to start your day? 😃

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Conversational Teochew In A Month - Anki Flashcards in Simplified Chinese

This took us a while 😅, but we are pleased to share that our Conversational Teochew in a Month (潮州话一月通) Anki flashcards are now available in simplified Chinese.
"Conversational Teochew In A Month" is a text-cum-audio self-learning course that is available for free download in both mp3 sound file + .srt subtitle and Audiobook (.epub file) formats from The Teochew Store website, as well as on our YouTube channel.
Instructions to download our free Conversational Teochew in a Month Anki flashcards and how to use the Anki system can be found on our product page,
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Spoken Dioziu 潮州話口語 - full course on YouTube

We are systematically uploading the Spoken Diozu 《潮州話口語》 self-learning course onto YouTube for all who wish to learn or improve speaking, listening and reading 🧐 in Teochew.

The video to Level 1 Lesson 1 can be found below.




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Conversational Teochew In A Month - full course now on YouTube

Learning to speak Teochew? Our popular Conversational Teochew In A Month course, all 20 lessons (English-Teochew version), is now available on The Teochew Store YouTube channel 😏
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Teochew Home News - A Publication of Our Own

Goh Yee Siang (吳以湘) was born in 1912 in Nio-ior village, Sou-uang town, Thenghai County (澄海縣蘇灣都蓮陽鄉) (now Nio-zie town, Thenghai district, Swatow city [汕頭市澄海區蓮上鎮]). He was the editor-in-chief of a well-known publication Teochew Home News (潮州鄉訊) that was founded in Singapore in the late 1940s.
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吳以湘與《潮州鄉訊》

吳以湘,一九一二年出生於澄海縣蘇灣都蓮陽鄉(今屬汕頭市澄海區蓮上鎮),為上世紀四十年代末創刊於新加坡的一份著名刊物《潮州鄉訊》的主編。

生長在「五四運動」時期的吳以湘,在「新文化運動」的熏陶下,少年時期就已經喜愛閱讀書報,對文學有濃厚的興趣也奠下深厚的文史根基。他南來新加坡後,曾到中正中學總校當老師教導國文(即華文)和史地等科目。吳以湘秉着一種讓僑胞通過家鄉事物,維繫鄉情的熱忱,用課餘時間辦起《潮州鄉訊》雙週刊。一九四七年八月,由他領導的編委會在新加坡小坡美芝路一七三號成立了「馬來亞潮州鄉訊社」,並交由當年的南洋印刷社承印,以每冊叻幣四角錢的售價,在南洋各埠的書局以及報社出售。
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New Teochew self-learning course: Spoken Dioziu 潮州話口語 (audio with English and written Teochew subtitles)

Spoken Diozu 《潮州話口語》is a step up from our popular Conversational Teochew In A Month 《潮州話一月通》 self-learning course. The audio and subtitles (in English and Teochew) materials are adapted from the original publication of the same title (1989) edited by 林伦伦 and 黄章恺.

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Teochew Short Film: Uncle Goose Waits for A Phone Call 潮州話短片: 《斷捨離》

Uncle Goose has been waiting. He has lived long enough - 75 years - to understand that patience is always rewarded. Whatever it takes to be in time for his best friend’s phone call. A promise is a promise. Mahjong is mahjong. "Uncle Goose Waits For A Phone Call" stars veteran actor Chen Shucheng in this short film about cherishing and being positive.
A short film produced in Singapore with subtitles in English and Chinese.
鵝伯(陳澍城飾)為了等一通老朋友的電話竟然硬守在家不肯出門!

本片風趣幽默,天馬行空,是一部關於等待的故事。希望大家看了《斷捨離》,對待生活灑脫樂觀,活在當下,且行且珍惜。

注:本片所有對白均為潮州話。
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Brief Review – Primary Lessons in Swatow Grammar (Colloquial)

 
Read our brief review on Primary Lessons in Swatow Grammar (Colloquial), a Teochew grammar guide published in Swatow in 1884 by an American Baptist missionary. Rev. William Ashmore. Out of print for many decades, Primary Lessons in Swatow Grammar (Colloquial) is now selling on Lulu.com.
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The Teochew Store recommends: An Introduction to the History and Culture of the Teochews in Singapore

An Introduction to the History and Culture of the Teochews in Singapore - a rare English language book on Teochew culture. Available for purchase on Amazon.

"Penned in three sections covering a wide range of topics from history and architecture to customs and the performing arts, the 164-page book published by World Scientific is one of the few of its kind in English." - The Straits Times

A review of the book can be read here.

 
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Teochew Movie "Proud of Me" Theme Song: "Father Have You Eaten?" 潮州電影《爸,我一定行的》主题曲: 老父您食未

Performer 演唱:黃澤森
Lyrics 作詞:楊育挺
Music 作曲:李奕瀚
Click Read More for Full Lyrics (Teochew/Chinese and English)
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