Finding The Perfect Language

 

This is a documentary about the 'Perfect Language' for humans. I was there because I speak Teochew.

For the documentary, I was asked to bring an item that is symbolic of the language. It was hard to think of something, so I asked around. Unsurprisingly, all my Teochew friends came up with something to do with food. lol 

Eventually everyone agreed on the Teochew Glutinous Rice Cake mould.

Can you think of something else symbolically or uniquely Teochew?

Anyway, here is the documentary...

https://youtu.be/38RUMJSCZTY

So what is the Human Language?

For more posts about languages in this blog, including this one, click here.

Keeping Hokkien, Teochew and Cantonese - PART 2

This is a continuation of the earlier post Keeping Hokkien, Teochew and Cantonese.

The video that I voiced-over in Mandarin, Hokkien, Teochew and Cantonese for the Ministry of National Development Singapore is now on Youtube.

I dubbed the voice of this gentleman in the video:

Here is the original video in English:

... and this in Mandarin...

This one in Hokkien:

... in Teochew

... in Cantonese:

For those of you who understand all the 4 Chinese languages, does each language give you a different feel and vibe?

For other blog posts on Chinese Regional Languages, click here,

Keeping Hokkien, Teochew and Cantonese

 

I have just finished a voice-over gig in Mandarin (普通话), Cantonese (粤语 / 广东话), Teochew (潮语 /潮州话) and Hokkien (Minnan, 闽南语)  to dub over a government video that is in English. 

Note: Cantonese , Teochew  and Hokkien are Chinese regional languages, but are erroneously translated into and referred to by Westerners as 'dialects'. There are commonalities among the languages, but they are not variants of Mandarin, the national common language in China. The written characters however were standardised 2,000 years ago in China by the 1st Emperor of Han China Shih Huang Di (18 February 259 BC – 10 September 210 BC).

Southern Chinese languages are hardly spoken in Singapore nowadays following the Speak Mandarin Campaign in 1978. Instead, a confusing cocktail of Mandarin and English, spiced with Chinese regional languages and Malay is spoken in a single dialogue.

Therefore VO gigs in Chinese regional languages are messy, as we often have to sort out what is authentic and what is commonly spoken, but borrowed from Malay. 

Here are some examples: 

'Clever' in localised Cantonese is 'panlai', which is borrowed from the Malay word 'pandai'.

'To marry' in localised Hokkien is 'kowyin', which is borrowed from the Malay word 'kahwin'.

'Toilet' in localised Teochew is 'lianglang', which is borrowed from the Malay word 'jamban'. 

'Lianglang' is almost always used and understood by all local Teochew speakers, as opposed to 'cesou' (厕所), so we use that in recording, since it is a public service announcement video where colloquialism is tolerated, rather than an academic video where accuracy is prime.

However, for other instances, it is important to stick to the original as far as possible.

Unfortunately for regional language VO gigs, scripts are often translated by young people who have a superficial understanding of the languages and do not speak the language in their day-to-day life. As such, they rely on online translators, which can yield hilariously wrong results, as Aritifical Intelligence (AI) in its current state still cannot pick up context and nuances properly.

As a result, my previous Hokkien VO took 11 grueling hours and I needed two days after that to recuperate and rest my vocal chords.

Thankfully, we did this one in 1 hr 45 mins, wrapping 15 mins early. Bravo!!!

ONLINE RESOURCES:

The following may help you to improve your knowledge of the regional languages, but for professional media translations, do consult a human language specialist.

Among the Chinese regional languages, only Cantonese has an online translator, though without audio output.

CANTONESE TRANSLATION RESOURCES ONLINE:

https://www.stars21.com/translator/english/cantonese/

https://tradukka.com/translate/yue

"Dreaming" is translated into "發夢" which is correct as opposed to "做梦" in Mandarin.

Curiously, the Cantonese 'discover dreams' (發夢), while Mandarin speakers 'make dreams'  (做梦). Wonder why.

I also found a Cantonese online dictionary, but it is more complicated and less helpful when tested with the entry of "dreaming", as it gives a clutter of related texts. See http://www.cantonese.org

HOKKIEN TRANSLATION RESOURCES ONLINE:

There are also no online Hokkien translators online, but I found a useful dictionary instead, which yields satisfactory results. (http://niawdeleon.com/hokkien-dictionary/). The following is the result of translating the word 'dreaming':

There is also an online Penang Hokkien dictionary, but it could not translate the test input 'dreaming'.

TEOCHEW TRANSLATION RESOURCES ONLINE:

There are no online translators or dictionary online, but there is a mobile Teochew dictionary app WhatTCSay, that has audio outputs.

It could not translate my test input "dreaming".

But it does understand what is "dream".

I suspected that it did not understand verbs in continuous tense, but I was wrong, as it translated "eat" and "eating" correctly.

Now let's enjoy some songs:

Cantonese:

The older ones will love this song from Cantopop star Sam Hui. You know who you are. :) It is about life's journey and destinies.

Hokkien:

This song encourages unceasing hardwork. It is so popular that it is even sung in corporate team building activities in Singapore.

Teochew:

This one is about a Teochew emigrant reminiscing about his hometown.

Sadly as the older generations die, so will the languages and the cultures, as there will be less and less in the younger generation that will have the proficiency in these Chinese regional languages. 

See Can Singaporeans speak Cantonese?

Mandarin:

Lastly, this one is from Mandopop superstar JJ Lin, a proud Singapore son and one among the new Mandarin speaking generation.

I love working with Chinese regional languages as they remind me of my childhood and the multilingual environment in Singapore during the old days. I learned them before the age of six and therefore do not need preliminary translation from another language when spoken.

As a Teochew, it is easy for me to learn Hokkien, as they are from the same Min family of languages. I learned Cantonese (Yue language) from my neighbour which spoke the language though they are Hakkas.

I was gradually coming to grips with Hakka and Hainanese before, but lost them completely when I went to live overseas for many years. Now even my feeble abilities in French and German are probably better than my Hakka and Hainanese.

There are also the more obscure languages like Hockchiew and Heng Hua, which are Min languages, but are less intelligible to me. I suspect that some young Singaporeans today would not even know these languages exist, let alone understand or speak them.

I will post the dubbed videos later when they are released.

Also read: 

Hearing Voices.

Hokkien Voice-Over.

Sounds of Our City Episode 6 Podcast

Click here

Thank you Pitch Media Asia for having me as a guest in Episode 6 of Sounds of Our City Podcast to talk about "The Languages of Singapore".

The interview location was at Swiss Hotel Merchant Court at Clarke Quay, Singapore River. My father's shop was just across the road at New Market Street and the hotel location was where my father's godown (warehouse) used to be. Read Bridge connects the hotel side of the river bank to the other side where my father used to live. He lived in a tiny room in a shop house with my mum and six of my siblings. We lived there until we got a two-bedroom flat at Redhill Close. Then, it was such a big relief in terms of space by the standards of those days. However by today's standards, we were still cramped up like sardines.

The hotel area is where the Teochew quarters used to be. Teochews are seafarers and traders and we are used to live near rivers and ports. So once upon a time, you would find Teochews around the Singapore River and Hougang (the river behind). There are still more Teochews living in Hougang till  this day.

For more about how Singapore used to be in the 1960s, click here (warning: a very long, but worthy article to read.)

To get enough gigs as an actor in Singapore, one has to be multi-lingual. I act in English, Mandarin, Hokkien, Cantonese and Teochew. I have also acted in Malay, Japanese and Thai. The same act delivered in a different language evokes a different emotion. I don't know why it is so exactly and can only guess that subconsciously there must be a powerful association among the sounds, meaning and memories that results in the different emotions.

It is an advantage to be able to speak different languages. When I speak the language native to the place, the locals lean towards me and I often get away with a lot of things. :)


UPDATE:





To know about languages of Singapore and listen to the full interview, click here.

https://soundcloud.com/soundsofourcity/languages-of-singapore-part-2-mandarin-teochew

For other media interview posts, see:


For my interview by "A Hero's Journey", click here.


For my interview by Lush Magazine, click here.


For my interview by Internet Radio 988, click here.


For my interview by RSVP, click here

Hearing Voices

While cleaning up my phone memory, I found some interesting voice-over (VO) audition samples that I had recorded on my phone, over the years.  They are in English, Cantonese, Hokkien and Teochew.

Audition Track 1 (for a short film):

"A long time ago, we used to live in a simple house. Back then, it was just me and my papa. We did not have much money but at least we had each other.

When the 1985 recession hit, papa's hardware business was severely affected. However, I knew that he loved me very much.

But we all know that happiness is always temporary one..."

In English with Singapore Accent

A bit changed.

In English With Hokkien Accent


Audition Track 2 (for a documentary, I think):

为了推翻满清，华侨慷慨解囊相助，甚至义无反顾，投身革命事业。我绝对不会辜负你们的一番心意.我相信 这次起义，必能成功！

Roughly, it means: In order to overthrow the Manchus, the overseas Chinese have generously helped each other and are committed to the objective of the revolution. I will never disappoint you.  I believe that this uprising will succeed!

In Hokkien

In Teochew

In Cantonese  

This one for "Forget Us Not" - a support group for people with dementia and their caretakers



This one for the National Problem Gambling Council Ad in 2012





For other VO posts in this blog, click here.

Hokkien Voice-Over

Still recovering from the crazy 11-hour voice-over in Hokkien (a Southern Chinese dialect) last Monday. I was drained and subsequently caught a cough and cold.

The voice-over is for a hospital app that caters to older patients who are only conversant in Hokkien - probably about 200,000 of such people in Singapore. 

First, a quick question...

Which one is correct in Hokkien, to say "I tell you"?

A. Wa ka li gong.

B. Wa kai ler gong.

According to a language expert, it should be A. The second answer, B, is influenced by Teochew, but is commonly heard in Singapore. Oh, by the way, as I learned later on, strictly, neither is correct, as to be fully correct it should be "Gua ka li gong".

While it is important to stick close to standard Hokkien, we also need to make the voice-over instructions intelligible to the recipients. That means choosing to go colloquial when appropriate.

For instance, while the standard Hokkien word for soap is 'teh-kor' (literally tea leaf cakes), I have never heard it used in Singapore before. Instead, the universally understood Malay word 'sapboon' is commonly used. The Malay word 'sapboon' is in turned borrowed from Portuguese 'sabonete'.

Some Hokkien words are trickier. For instance, how do you say 'money' in Hokkien?

Is it 'looi' or 'jhee'?

While 'Jhee' is used in Xiamen, Fujian, and therefore is correct, but (to my surprise)  'looi' is also used in different regions near Xiamen. Surprise because I had always thought that 'looi' is borrowed from the Malay word 'duit'. Which could well mean that the Malay had borrowed the word from the Hokkiens, and then to have the Hokkiens borrow it back years later.

Note: The word 'looi' also has an influence in the Cantonese spoken in Malaysia and Singapore, as now the Cantonese call money 'luooy".

Hokkien is an ancient language, pre-dating the common use of Mandarin, but is now declining in usage. Some words in Hokkien use very ancient Chinese characters and phonetically sound more like old Chinese. eg.

物件/mi-kiaⁿ/

东西

Things

This voice-over assignment is the toughest I ever had, not only because it took 11 hours, but also we had to debate what the suitable spoken form should be vs the standard form. Besides, we also have to translate  technical terms of hospital equipment and personnel-on-duty  to terms easily understood by the old folks.

And that was why I was drained!!!

In all, it is very thoughtful of the hospital executive to implement the app with instructions that the older folks understand. This will definitely help the staff and nurses, many of them whom are from the Philippines and do not speak Hokkien.

I think these senior citizens have been denied their right to their true mother-tongue for far too long - a sacrifice in making Mandarin as the common Chinese language. Now we are experiencing the painful aftermath.

PS1: One fun (crazy) fact. While 'chiobu' is commonly used by young people in Singapore to honour a beautiful young lady, the original use of the term was used to describe a slut. Yes, the kind that sleeps around. :)

PS2: The Malays could have borrowed the word 'duit' from the Dutch, who used it as a unit of money during their colonial days in Indonesia.

For all blog posts that involves Hokkien, click here.

#voice #voiceover #voiceovers #hokkien #voiceacting #voiceactor#voiceactors