Spoken Hokkien Intermediate

The Spoken Hokkien series consists of:

Spoken Hokkien Intermediate This Intermediate-level e-textbook is intended for English-speaking learners of the language known as Hokkien, Min Nan (Southern Min), Taiwanese, Hoklo, Holo, and Tai-gi. It is suitable for learners who have already learned Hokkien to an elementary level or have some knowledge of the language.

Hokkien is spoken in Taiwan, in parts of China including Fujian Province, and other places in south-east Asia including Malaysia and Singapore. This e-textbook focuses on Hokkien as used in Taiwan. There are several dialectal variants of Hokkien even within Taiwan; this textbook uses the variant spoken around the Tainan area, where Hokkien is most prevalent, and generally refers to the language as Tai-gi.

This e-book follows from Spoken Hokkien which was designed for starting learners.

Because Hokkien is a minority language, and lacks a range of available teaching materials, this e-book aims to support both teachers and self-learners, whether in classroom or individual situations, to develop their skills in speaking, listening, reading and writing. The text is designed to provide a controlled and learnable sequence of vocabulary, structure, and conversational functions, so that learners can get closer to everyday Taiwanese conversational language usage. I have freely included colloquial and informal language appropriate to conversation on the street, market, or amongst friends, as well as language and cultural information on topics such as religion, food, health, and gift-giving.

You can download the Table of Contents and Introduction.

Audio

Each lesson is accompanied by supporting audio recordings. Purchasers of the e-book are provided with the complete audio content as a set of 31 stand-alone MP3 files. E-books are supplied with a coupon with details for free download of the audio.

These stand-alone MP3s enable you to play the e-book’s audio content on any device that plays audio, using your favourite audio player app. For more information, see the Help page.

Purchase the e-book

You can buy the downloadable PDF of the e-book, which comes with the full set of audio files, from the shop page.

Further details

Of the limited teaching material available for Hokkien, most caters for learners who are (already) learners or speakers of Mandarin. However, this e-book is primarily intended for learners of Hokkien who come from a non-Chinese background. It is also written to support teachers and learners in a classroom situations where the emphasis is on developing free-flowing speaking and listening skills.

The Hokkien orthography in this e-book uses modified Roman characters, derived from a former missionary transcription system. Although this modern Romanisation is now widely used, it is not fully standardised, so other spellings are possible.

The text is designed to provide a controlled and learnable sequence of vocabulary, structure, conversational functions, and cultural knowledge, so that learners can get closer to everyday Taiwanese conversational language usage. If used in the classroom, each lesson would take three to four class sessions to be fully mastered before moving to the next one.

Publishing Information

First published January 2023, digital PDF, by Minority Language Press, Australia.

PDF 183 pages, MP3 audio (31 MP3 files)

ISBN 978-0-6457070-0-7

© 2023 Mei-Li Fang