我是朝州人

你们都知道潮州人是谁吗？

I know on the last post I said I would talk more about eChineseLearning, but something else came to mind tonight. I thought about the "kind of Chinese" that I am. Specifically I am Teo Chiu. Teo Chiu is referred to in a few different ways in English:

1. Chiu Chow (广东话)
   
2. Teo Chiu (潮州话)
   
3. Chaozhou (普通话)

It's all the same, but some people are used to hearing it a certain way. I grew up speaking the dialect at home with my parents and continue to do so. Growing up, I only cared to learn enough of the language so that I could communicate with my parents. Sometimes I would mix in English if I didn't know the word, hoping my mom would understand what I was trying to say contextually.

When I had returned from Shanghai, my curiousity of the history of Teo Chiu people grew. This is because while I was in Shanghai, the local residents there had a sense of identity. They spoke Shanghainese, and only spoke Mandarin to an "outsider." At the time I didn't think too much about it, but it didn't end there. Later in the study abroad program I also went to Suzhou and Huangshan. Again...local residents of the area spoke their own dialect. They spoke it when they didn't want us to understand them. Again, we were considered "outsiders."

When I came back to the states, I thought to myself...I've been an outsider everywhere in the cities I visited. So where in China am I not an "outsider"? Meaning...where do Teo Chiu people living in China? But I didn't have that sense of being Teo Chiu. It still was nothing more than a language I spoke at home. So on Google, I found Gaginang.org. Visit the site, and you'll get idea what it's all about. From this site, I learned more about the lives of other Teo Chiu people my age. As I learned more and more, I found myself back to China in 2006, but this time around in the ChaoShan area, home to the Teo Chiu people in China.

So what does this have to do with Mandarin?

Teo Chiu people are known to be very properous wherever they go. Teo Chiu people exist all over Southeast Asia and also in many western Countries such as Australia and the United States. One particular trait of Teo Chiu people, at least with my parent's generation, is that they can speak multiple languages. It's not unusual to meet a Teo Chiu person that can speak Teo Chiu, Mandarin, Cantonese, Khmer, Vietnamese, and English. Knowing several languages helps to do business. And I know Teo Chiu people are proud of this. They'll pick up another language without formal schooling and speak it as if it were their own native language. It's a perfect way to blend into a new Asian society.

So am I learning Mandarin because Teo Chiu people like me should know it? Because my parents did it, I should as well? Not really. As a kid, this was the reason, but at the time it was more of a burden. This time it's no longer the same. I'm making time and going out of my way to learn it when I could be doing so many other things. This time, it feels right. This time, the real Teo Chiu side of me woke up. Teo Chiu ws no longer just a language. It finally became an identity for me. I now have this sense of proudness and happiness knowing I am Teo Chiu. From the moment I found Gaginang, this side of me was slowly waking up.