Welcome to my wonderful blog for Toisanese (aka Taishanese
or Toishanese) descendents. I created this blog so we can find our roots and to
never forget where we came from. It disheartens me that there are currently no
formal classes, textbooks, or any educational material for learning Toisanese.
For this reason, I am more adamant on learning more about Toisanese.
Allow me to introduce myself and tell you more about my
background. My name is Karen and both sides of my family, my mother and
father’s side, have Toisanese roots. I mostly learned everything I know from my
grandmother on my father’s side. Honestly, if I sit down and actually listen to
my elders speak Toisanese, I sometimes have trouble understanding what they
were immediately saying. Though, growing up, I didn’t have too much of a
problem understanding my grandma. She usually uses a lot of Cantonese with
Toisanese mixed in here and there. To me, Toisanese is easily understood, but
hard for me to naturally speak. Since I didn’t grow up speaking it, I am
accustomed to hearing it and replying in Cantonese. I have lots of family
members who speak Toisanese, yet I never really paid a lot of attention to it.
I intend to consciously learn more.
I married a Korean man and I want our future kids to
understand Toisanese as much as I do. Hopefully, they will be able to read my
blog and understand all I have to tell them and keep Toisanese alive.
In this blog, I will use the terms “Toisan” and “Toisanese”
to refer to the language and its people. I know the terms, “Taishan” or
“Toishan” are very popular, but I didn’t use these terms while growing up. I
prefer the Cantonese pronunciation since this is the sound I am used to while
growing up. Hence, my blog is called Toisanese Descendant. In any case, when I
refer to Toisan, I am also referring to its interchangeable terms, Taishan or Toishan.
I don’t know everything about Toisan or the Toisanese
language, but I will do my best to put up as much information as possible. I’m
sure that while writing this rare topic, I will have to do a lot of research
for this blog.
Please feel free to introduce yourself or enlighten me with
any information you know about Toisan or the Toisanese language or people. I
can always use some help with this topic.
