The Teochew Store Blog / English
Learn Teochew - an Online Guide for Heritage Speakers
"... so I hope that young people today who have difficulty communicating with their elder relatives will recognise that they can actively do something about it..."
The Teochew Store caught up with Brandon Seah of Learn Teochew (learn-teochew.github.io), an extensive online guide for “heritage speakers”, who have “learned some of the language from their family but who have never studied it formally, and who want to improve their understanding of the language”.
Basic Teochew Vocabulary Flashcard Video Series (Part III)
Here’s the third and final group of our flashcard videos for English speakers. Teochew audio taken from 汕頭話音檔》 ("Archive of the Swatow vernacular").
We wish to hear from you if you find such a learning method (video flashcard with picture + English/Chinese text + English/Teochew audio) useful. Do give us your feedback in the YouTube video comments.
Basic Teochew Vocabulary Flashcard Video Series (Part II)
Here’s the second group of our flashcard videos for English speakers. Teochew audio taken from 汕頭話音檔》 ("Archive of the Swatow vernacular").
We wish to hear from you if you find such a learning method (video flashcard with picture + English/Chinese text + English/Teochew audio) useful. Do give us your feedback in the YouTube video comments.
The Teochew Store Telegram Channel
The Teochew Store has newly opened a Telegram channel.- YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/潮舗theteochewstore
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/theteochewstore
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/theteochewstore
- Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/theteochewstore
Basic Teochew Vocabulary Flashcard Video Series
The Teochew Store has produced a series of flashcard videos for English speakers to pick up some basic Teochew vocabulary. The Teochew audio is taken from a late 1990s source 《汕頭話音檔》 ("Archive of the Swatow vernacular").
There is a total of 15 videos, 5 of which have been uploaded on our YouTube channel (shown below). The other videos will be uploaded progressively over the next two weeks.
We wish to hear from you if you find such a learning method (video flashcard with picture + English/Chinese text + English/Teochew audio) useful. Do give us your feedback in the YouTube video comments. 🙂
Teochew Vernacular Expressions 潮州方言”土話“
Teochew is a language full of rich expressions. How many of the Teochew vernacular terms (土話) in this video do you know?
Learn Diosua Ue with Juyee 和如意學潮汕話
A fellow Teochew in the UK is running a blog, Learn Diosua Ue with Juyee 和如意學潮汕話, since 2013 to help English speakers learn and appreciate our mother tongue. Her name, you guessed it, is Juyee 如意.
Juyee's blog is at learnteochewwithjuyee.blogspot.com
Juyee grew up speaking English and picked up Teochew, both speaking, reading, writing only as an adult. The Teochew Store recently spoke with her to find out more about her blog and her personal experiences in becoming fluent in our language, a formidable task for many of us!
Let's Test Your Teochew (6) 來！來！考考你的潮州話 （六）
How did you fare in the previous rounds? This is the 6th and final challenge!
Let's Test Your Teochew 來！來！考考你的潮州話 - 2 More Videos
Teochew for English Speakers – a Grandfather’s Effort to Pass on Our Language Heritage
Meet Mr Tan Peng Boon, a 78-year-old grandfather in Singapore. He is a Teochew and nine years ago he created a website with the goal of enabling English-speakers to pick up the Teochew language. Remarkably, the retiree took upon himself to learn how to build a website in order to realise this.
The Teochew Store recently spoke with Mr Tan to find out the story behind his passion to keep alive his Teochew heritage and his “Teochew for English Speakers” website.
“Teochew for English Speakers” can be accessed from http://gateways.sg/~TeochewEnglish/index.asp.
Video of Mr. Tan's grandsons doing a lively recitation of Teochew nursery rhyme “A Pear Tree on the Hilltop”):
5 Teochew Songs to Start Your Day 五首開啟新一天的潮語歌
How about kicking off the first week of the New Year with 5 Teochew songs to start your day? 
Conversational Teochew In A Month - Anki Flashcards in Simplified Chinese
This took us a while 
, but we are pleased to share that our Conversational Teochew in a Month (潮州话一月通) Anki flashcards are now available in simplified Chinese.Spoken Dioziu 潮州話口語 - full course on YouTube
The video to Level 1 Lesson 1 can be found below.
New Teochew self-learning course: Spoken Dioziu 潮州話口語 (audio with English and written Teochew subtitles)
Spoken Diozu 《潮州話口語》is a step up from our popular Conversational Teochew In A Month 《潮州話一月通》 self-learning course. The audio and subtitles (in English and Teochew) materials are adapted from the original publication of the same title (1989) edited by 林伦伦 and 黄章恺.
Brief Review – Primary Lessons in Swatow Grammar (Colloquial)
Learn Teochew - A YouTube Channel Created for English and Vietnamese Speakers
The Teochew Store gets behind the scenes to find out about the production of Learn Teochew, a YouTube channel for English and Vietnamese speakers to pick up basic conversational Teochew.
40 Teochew Bedtime Stories
Stories, who doesn't enjoy hearing them? Especially bedtime stories when we were kids (or perhaps even till now)... How about some stories out of Teochew - the very same ones told to our great grandparents when they were little? Here's one:
THE MISTAKE OF THE APES
A thriftless man, who had a scolding wife, resorted to the woods to hang himself; but after he had tied the noose his courage failed, and he went home. His wife, on seeing him, said he had been gone so long that she had begun to hope he would never come back. This so wounded his feelings that he declared his intention of ending his life, and again betook himself to the forest. There he passed from tree to tree and deferred the act from hour to hour, till he entered a strange gorge, and sat down in the attitude of a musing Buddha under a branch on which he decided to fix his rope.
Being exhausted by fasting and fatigue, he fell into a deep sleep, and was presently discovered by a wandering ape, who reported to his tribe that he had found their ancestor. A council of the elders was then called around the sleeping man, and after due inspection they unanimously decided that he was indeed their ancestor, and should be their king. So they carried him to their stronghold in a wooded glen, enthroned him in an arbor, and surrounded him with offerings of fruits and nuts. When he awoke he found his wants so provided for and his servants so deferential that he thought he might greatly enjoy life among the apes. They continued to bring as tribute to him the best of their gleanings in the neighborhood and all the treasures they collected in their excursions to distant regions. He saw where they had stowed the valuable articles accumulated during past years, and at his leisure he examined and assorted them.
One day when the apes were away he took all their portable wealth and made his way out of the forest and back to his own door. His wife, seeing him more shabby than ever, poured reproaches upon him, but he silenced her by putting a piece of gold in her hand. Having enough to live comfortably upon for many years, the woman became companionable. She soon told her intimate friend that her husband went away to kill himself and came back rich, and this friend urged her own husband to do likewise. He in turn importuned his lucky neighbor to disclose to him the method by which he got his fortune. Having promised secrecy and a share of the plunder, he was intrusted with the story of election to headship among the apes, and was given direction how to reach their retreat. He then set off, followed the same route, sat in the same attitude under the same tree, and awaited the arrival of the scout who should call the tribe to carry their returned chief into their fastnesses.
The apes had meantime deliberated, and had concluded that a being who had deserted them, taking with him their goods, was neither their sire nor sovereign. So when a young ape foraging for provisions saw this second man under the tree he returned home and notified the tribe, whereupon the apes, moved to indignation and anger, surrounded him in force and tore him in pieces.
-oOo-
You love it? So did I. Well there's another 39 more Teochew folktales collected from Swatow by American missionary AM Fielde in the 1880s in Chinese Nights' Entertainment: Forty Stories told by Almond-Eyed Folk Actors in the Romance of The Strayed Arrow.
Happy reading. =)
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