Listen to Podcast | Teochew: How Do You Say “What are you talking about?”

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New Words

Podcast Transcript | Teochew: How Do You Say “What are you talking about?”

Hi everyone and a warm welcome to all of our listeners! This is Eugene from LearnDialect.sg. Well, so far, you’ve picked up quite a few conversation starters as well as phrases for self-introduction. Now, imagine you had just turned up at a social gathering. What can you say to join an ongoing conversation? Let’s find it out on today’s Teochew – How Do You Say Podcast!

Personally, to join a conversation, I’ll like to ask for a quick download, so that I can contribute constructively. To do that, I would typically say 你侬在呾底个?

你侬 means “You all” so to ask the question of “What are you all talking about?”, you can phrase it as 你侬在呾底个? If you find 你侬 too difficult to pronounce, Teochew people also use 恁 to represent you all. As such, the phrase can also be said as 恁在呾底个?

Now, I’ll like to be prepared for the worst situation. What if it’s a conversation topic that you are totally not familiar with? You can say 我无听过, 你会得呾给我听无? This translates to “I have never heard of this before. Can you tell me more?”

Ok, here’s one more useful phrase for you.

At any point of the conversation that you feel lost again, try saying this 我𠀾明白, 你会得呾加一次无? This means “I don’t get it. Can you say it one more time?”

Summing up today’s podcast, here are the new phrases for this week:

What are you talking about? 你侬在呾底个?

I have never heard of this before. Can you tell me more? 我无听过, 你会得呾给我听无?

I don’t get it. Can you say it one more time? 我𠀾明白, 你会得呾加一次无?

Well, let me know how your next Teochew conversation go! Feel free to share with us by leaving us a comment on Facebook or Instagram. Remember, keep practising! Thank you for listening in to our Teochew – How Do You Say Podcast. I’m Eugene from LearnDialect.sg and see you the next week!

Love what you are reading? We’ve got lots more to share during our Hokkien, Teochew and Cantonese express workshops. Join us to pick up words and phrases for everyday use in Singapore. More importantly, you can help to keep these languages alive!

Our Philosophy for Learning Teochew in Singapore

While we include formal romanization for Teochew words, we are advocates of easy learning. Hence, we encourage you to form your own phonics so that you make an association with these Teochew words quickly. To illustrate, the formal romanization of “Teochew” is “diê ziu“. However, in our ”Can You Teach Me” podcast transcript, you’ll find that we use “teo chew”, which we think relates to us better. That said, you may use other romanization (e.g “dio chew”, “dio jiu“, etc), as long as it helps you to make sense of what you hear.