I sat through a Hokkien concert yesterday organised by the Singapore Hokkien Huay Kuan. Ha. I must admit, half the time, I am really clueless about the Hokkien songs that they sing. In the words of Drey's friend, i guess both Drey and I went there to bring down the mean age of the audience. We are the old ones among the older ones. There was even a sing-along session whereby all of us have to stand up and sing..."爱拼才会赢”... wah..seem more like a punishment in my opinion. It was enjoyable nevertheless.. at least I have a better understanding of some hokkien songs..the acapella was good and I think i like "家后”. In the words of the comperes, I am a "pure breed" hokkien who is there to find out more about my roots.
Sad to say, I am not well verse in my Hokkien till this date. I never speak Hokkien till I started work as a MSW in the polyclinics. I was fighting a lonely war in the clinic back then travelling to the various clinics by myself. Most of the ah mas and ah peks who were my patients regardless of their dialect will know how to speak hokkien. I started speaking my super broken hokkien to them when I have to wait so long for an assistant to help me to translate. At the end of this lonesome 1 plus year, I can complete a financial assistance interview in hokkien whereby my patient understand what i said. Hokkien is really a useful dialect - I remember speaking hokkien to a few of my Indian patients... it was either tamil or hokkien. and of course in teaching, it helps that u know all the vulgarities in hokkien.
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