Why indeed. Because I wanted to collect all the links related to Penang Hokkien I could find in one place. If you think I’ve “eaten my fill and have nothing to do” (translate that to Chinese or Hokkien lah), well, I disagree.
A few months ago, I watched a TEDx Petaling Street video of Ooi Kee How’s talk entitled What will we lose if we give up Hokkien? He gave the talk in Cantonese though, go figure. But it rekindled in me an appreciation of Hokkien, specifically Penang Hokkien.
Penang Hokkien is my native tongue. I remember learning to read English with my mom, and learning to write Chinese with my grandma, but I came out of the womb speaking Hokkien. In school though, I only had 1 friend who was fluent enough in Hokkien to hold a decent conversation with. Even then, there were distinct differences in intonation and vocabulary because she spoke the Singaporean-variant.
My family moved out from Penang more than 20 years ago, and the only times I heard Penang Hokkien being spoken were in my house (with my family) or during the couple of days each year when we went back to Penang. You could hear Hokkien spoken on television or on the radio sometimes, but never Penang Hokkien.
After watching the talk, I went on a related-link-clickfest and found the Penang Hokkien Podcast by John Ong. It is simply a bunch of friends chatting about everyday topics in completely in Penang Hokkien but when I heard it playing through my headphones, it was a feeling I cannot describe.
It felt like coming home.
为什么呢？因为我想把所有跟槟城福建话有关的资料收集在这里。如果你觉得我是吃饱没事做，其实这是有理由的。
几个月前，我在面子书看了一个TEDx茨厂街 的视频，名称如果福建話失傳了，我們會失去什麼？演讲者是黄啟灝，而他尽然是用粤语来演讲。但是这个演讲让我更加赏识槟城福建话。
槟城福建话是我的母语。我记得小时候跟妈妈一起阅读英文书，记得阿嬷教我写中文字，但是我觉得自己一出生就已经会说福建话了。念书时，在学校能够用福建话沟通的同学少之又少，算起来也只有一位。即使我们倆说的都是福建话，但是腔调跟词汇都显然有差别，因为她说的是新加坡福建话。
我跟家人离开槟城已经有二十多年了，所以我只有在家中有机会听到槟城福建话，或则就是一年一度回乡的那几天而已。虽然偶尔会有闽南语的电视节目，但是我从来没听过槟城福建话的广播。
看了视频后，我搜了一些跟槟城福建话有关的链接，此时就找到了由John Ong主持的庇能福建这个博客。内容不特殊，就是一般朋友在一块儿谈天说笑，但是他们完完全全用槟城福建话对话。第一次穿着耳机听这个广播时，有一股难以形容的感触，是一种熟悉温馨的归属感。
