Great radio program on Taiwan's history in Tâigí

By Chou Wan-yao (周婉窈), Professor, Dept. of History

http://radio.rti.org.tw/program/detail/?recordId=1410

Or YouTube link here.

#taigi #taiwanese #learntaiwanese #learntaigi #taigu #formosa #formosan #taioan #poj

Word of the day - cement

lâm-á khóng
nickname for cement.
lâm-á is a brand name of a cement company (南亞)
khóng is probably the noun for "khōng" (?! Is it?)  -- wrong, please see comment below.
khōng is the action of applying cement onto a mode of some sort.
Another term often heard is "khōng-kû-lí" from "a-ta-ma khōng kû-lí" (originated from Japanese?)
a-ta-ma = あたま means head in Japanese.
"a-ta-ma khōng kû-lí" literally: the brand is full of concrete, meaning stupid, jelly head.

Hanji
khōng = 鞏  -- wrong, please see comment below.


Heard lâm-á khóng on radio. Lots of guesses in today's post. I'm not certain about any of this information. Correct ideas are welcome.

Word of the day - lia̍h-thán-hûainn

lia̍h thán-hûainn
Turn something to horizontal
or mean determined.
For example: guá sim lia̍h thán-hûainn a, it ting ài piànn kàu-té!!

Word of the day - watch out

tiônn-tî
/tiōnn-tî/
Watch out. Be careful.

Word of the day - tsāi pak

tsāi-pak
Solid, opposite of hollow.




#taigi #taiwanese #learntaiwanese #learntaigi #taigu #formosa #formosan #taioan #poj

The Tâigí accent - a new normal

I've been only using Tâigí and English for more than one year.
I've got lots of thoughts on this experience and it will take more than one post to talk about it. This time I want to talk about accent.

I don't know if it's because Tâigí and Manderin Chinese are both tone-based language, unlike English, when it comes to accent, people in Taiwan are especially not so tolerant about having an accent speaking Tâigí.
Or perhaps it's just that the environment - after all, it's an island - it has been relatively isolated therefore it hasn't been seen as often that language is spoken by non-native speakers.  (Compare to countries like the US, UK where immigrants are commonly seen in society.)

Or perhaps it's the ROC-Manderin-centric single-dynamic viewpoint influence. I don't really know. But if you speak Tâigí with an accent, which is easy to have if you are not a native speaker or growing up, you didn't have the chance to actually say it in daily life.  People here would jokingly laugh at you, pick on your accent and therefore as a language learner, you would be easily discouraged and want to give up early on.

This makes the already-difficult language promotion even harder. Because the only way to get rid of the accent is to speak the language!! Even if by practicing so hard, you'd still have the accent. And that's my point. What about the accent? What's wrong with it?
If we are going to save the language, we must accept that we will have to go through a phrase that when most people speak Tâigí (and other native language) with an accent. And that's FINE.
Because it is the fact that we are trying to get out of the colonial period. We are all learning the native language like we were foreigners - and we sort of are considering how unfamiliar we are with our own culture.
It's sad, it's ridiculous but it's TRUE. 

We should recognize it, make peace with it, get over it and start learning our native languages like we are foreigners with a humble attitude and funny accent. So what?

Let the funny accent be a new normal. We should all be speaking in our native languages in funny accents but we are PROUD. We will be proud to be ourselves.




#taigi #taiwanese #learntaiwanese #learntaigi #taigu #formosa #formosan #taioan #poj #accent #newnormal

Word of the day - articulate

Articulate

My guess: iōng ching-chún ê jī lâi piáu-ta̍t kah iù-lōo ê siūnn-hoat, iá-sī kài-liām.

I don't think there is one word or phrase in Tâigí that means "articulate". This is the best way I can think of to express the idea.
If you have better idea of how to say "articulate" in Tâigí, please do share your thoughts.