SINGAPORE, May 8 — How do you teach your six-year-old nephew Hokkien so he can converse with his grandparents? Social worker Koh Kuan Eng came up with an answer: He drew common objects on a piece of paper with the corresponding phrases and words to start his nephew off.

Then, the former advertising creative director decided to take it one step further: He created picture books with 50 everyday objects and the names in Hokkien, Teochew and Cantonese. It proved to be a winner.

Before he knew it, his series of Sibey Nostalgic books became popular gift items (you can find them at retailers such as Books Actually and Naiise) and led Koh to produce a quirky range of merchandise; for example, posters identifying body parts in different dialects. Since the books were launched, almost 10,000 copies of all six titles — which includes Hainanese, Hakka and a book on dialect idioms and slangs — have been sold.

Author Koh Guan Eng's series of Sibey Nostalgic books became popular gift items and led Koh to produce a quirky range of merchandise.
Author Koh Guan Eng's series of Sibey Nostalgic books became popular gift items and led Koh to produce a quirky range of merchandise.

“To be honest, when I first launched the books, I thought I was going to sell a few hundred books at most,” Koh revealed, adding that he noticed how Singaporeans who are in their 40s and 50s bought the books because they still speak dialect.

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“Another group of buyers are young Singaporeans in their 20s and early 30s, who find it novel and fun to own those books. Many bought the books as Christmas presents and birthday gifts for their friends. There is also a group of tourists who want to bring home a piece of our linguistic heritage,” he added.

Koh feels Singaporeans should keep speaking dialect whenever we can. “It is a way to stay in touch with our roots as well as a way to bond with our elderly,” he explained.

“Many elderly in home, hospital and senior activity centres have their social connection affected due to language barriers.

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Some family members, medical staff and caregivers, he said don’t speak dialect at all and lessens the chances of the elderly “communicating effectively and bonding with them in their day-to-day interactions”,

Author Koh Guan Eng came up with the Sibey series of book so that his nephew could converse with his grandmother in Hokkien.
Author Koh Guan Eng came up with the Sibey series of book so that his nephew could converse with his grandmother in Hokkien.

Not satisfied with putting out the books, Koh also came up with a programme to promote inter-generational bonding using the dialect books. The idea was that the elderly would go to schools with those books to teach the students dialect; in turn, the students would teach the elderly English, Mandarin and hanyu pinyin.

“The response was very positive. Both elderly and students enjoyed the fun and engaging programme,” he added.

Not surprisingly, Koh is heartened by the affection for his books, but perhaps Koh’s sweetest reward is hearing his nephew converse with Koh’s parents and grandmother.

“He pays attention to what my parents say in Hokkien daily and even picked up a few words and phrases from them.

One day, when he was having breakfast with his grandfather, he asked him ‘Ah Gong, hoh jiak boh (Grandfather, is the food nice?)?’” Koh said. “He may not speak it fluently now but I can tell that he is more aware of Hokkien.” — TODAY