Penang Hokkien - A Dying Dialect?

With Penang being listed as one of the UNESCO's Heritage City listing, there have been some discussion with issues pertaining to the uniqueness of Penang cultures, Penang Hokkien dialect being one of them. I have always gotten interesting feedback from friends, coursemates and colleagues that the dialect is very soothing and sweet to the ears from my conversations with fellow Penangites. These came from Singaporeans and Taiwaneses who speak Hokkien too albeit to a different tune! I found that I am able to understand their types of dialect while they struggle with our Penang Hokkien.

Having the opportunities to be in overseas, I realised that Penang Hokkien is definitely unique in its very own way. Some of the differences come from the mixing and melting of terms/objects/words with languages like Malay, English and Portugese. Perhaps the greatest influence is the Peranakan and Nyonya cultures, known as Straits Chinese.

Again, being overseas it is certainly tough finding opportunities to speak Hokkien. In fact, I have met some fellow Penangites while overseas not willing to converse the dialect. I for one prefer to converse Penang Hokkien in the presence of all Penangites and other Hokkien-speaking comrades. There are friends and relatives who are not keen in passing on this uniqueness to their children.

I have to admit that my knowledge of Penang Hokkien may not be as good as previous generations but I can say I'm much better compare to some of my peers as well as the younger generations.

One thing for sure is I can converse in Hokkien in the presence of other nationals with the confidence that they will not be able to understand "secrets", cursings and/or complains. Mandarin, English, Japanese, Spanish and Malay/Indonesian are some of the popular languages that mat sallehs could master but I can see those still looked cheery when we were cursing the shit out of them in Hokkien in their faces!

So, let us all keep Penang Hokkien dialect alive and kicking. I'm proud to be able to speak Penang Hokkien and understand its variants.

KNNMPKCCB......

LoL.....

On another note, here are some wedding pics taken in July............

Abductions by the Legal

I have just finished watching Rendition and the special documentary Outlawed by Witness on the DVD. It certainly is a worthwhile movie to sit through since it reveals some unlawful abductions of suspected individuals and subsequent interrogations in prisons of faraway land by the biggest crooks of all, CIA. These so-call suspects are transported from one prison to another and tortured without being formally charged nor their family members being informed.

This program is known as the CIA's Rendition program. It has existed prior to the 9/11 but has intensified and misused ever since 9/11. Can you imagine that a country that fight so hard for human rights is actually violating these rights itself? Should we believe in the words/speeches of those powerful that said they the government will not resort to torturing and unlawfully abducting for interrogations?

This movie and the documentary do indeed gave me a few points to ponder, especially now with the "disappearance" of the PI who released a Statutory Declaration (SD) implicating a well-known person and issued a subsequent SD reversing the first within 24 hours.

I guess once a person tasted power he/she will resort to anything and everything to not only hold on to the power but hunger for more, leading to more misuses.

Gloomy and Chilly

It's been a month since winter started. I never really like the chilly temperature and wind, esp those with single digit temperature. However, it has not been as cold as May and June last year. Having said that, I avoid heading out unless it's necessary just to prevent the incident from recurring. I had bronchial spasm in my first winter here in Melbourne.

Anyway, I again did a shoot with my friend last week and here are some of the pics taken.





On another note, Nikon has just announced another full frame (FX) DSLR and it's D700 of which it's with plenty of D3's features in a D300 body. Will I get it? I doubt so as I'm in need of 70-200 lens to complete my lens collection for event and wedding shoots. Perhaps, the existing 70-200 may get a minor update due to some complaints by the FX users. Time will tell.........