The Roots of it...

I am a Hainanese by default. That is cos my dad is a Hainanese and mum is a Hakka but as we all know, we usually follow our paternal side, bloodline, surname and wat-nots. Unfortunately, I think the Hainanese dialect is dying. Most of my cousins either don’t speak or don’t know the dialect at all, like me. Snigger. It’s not that I am renouncing my roots but the dialect itself is not easy to learn. Heck, it’s not even comprehensible. Unlike Hokkien, which I can still decipher some parts or try to make a good guess.

There was once where my family had dinner with my grandaunt. She speaks limited Cantonese and usually conversed in hainanese with my dad. So as usual, me just sat there and ate like a glutton and tuned off since I don’t understand a word that they were saying. At one point, my dad nudged me and chided me for being rude as my grandaunt was talking to me and I just looked at my food and continued eating making her looked like a dungu! Hey, it’s not like I pretended not to hear her but I didn’t even know she was talking to me mah!

People often tell me that the “pure-bred” Hainanese guys are very good-looking. I don’t know how true this is since my brother and my cousins are all rojak already! However, i did come across some really good-looking guys before, whether they are Hainanese guys i don't know...Hehehe...Of course the other myth that 9 out of 10 hainanese are wacko, and the last one is crazy, I can’t confirm either since I am not a “pure-bred”….(probably in denial here too) since i can't admit to being urm, sane...hahahaha

I spent the first few years of my childhood with my aunt, who is my mum’s sister so I can understand Hakka, most of it anyway and used to be able to speak the dialect but since it’s been many moons since I last conversed in it, I doubt I can still claim to be able to speak the dialect now. It’s funny but I have always thought that the Hakka people are really gregarious by nature and they conversed very loudly as though they were having a shouting match!! Hahahaha...let’s not even talk about when they were playing mahjong!! When I speak to my aunt on the phone, I make sure I hold the phone at least 2 inches away from my face!