I’m gonna start Hakka classes at Maryknoll on Thursdays from 7pm to 9pm. Anyone want to join? We’re starting from scratch and I got the books. We’re learning the Miaoli dialect.
Fine, suckas!
I’ll see y’all in Hakka HELL!
你啊哋係子膣
Well, folks, Tiddlywinks here is now on Chapter 4 of the Hakka One book. And guess what? There’s only one book in the series. As soon as I finish it, my teacher told me he’d introduce me to Hsinchu dialect.
But anyway, I have to say that Hakka’s easier than Taiwanese or even Mandarin, even though the Miaoli dialect has 6 tones. Well, actually, maybe you could say only 4 tones. Here’s the low down:
Tone 1: Rising tone
Tone 2: Low tone
Tone 3: Mid-falling tone (almost sounds like a low tone if you don’t pay attention to the little drop)
Tone 4: High level tone
Tone 5: A short 3rd tone that ends in p,t, or k
Tone 6: A short 4th tone that ends in p,t, or k
So, 中 is “dzong-1” rising tone
and 國 is “guet-5” (“gwet”) short mid-falling tone
and 人 is “gnin-2” low tone. And “gn” is like the Spanish ñ, or the “ni” in “onion”
More later…
Tiddlywinks
Good Morning.
And it’s time for more Hakka with Tiddlywinks.
Lesson 2: “Thank you”
Following the tones as mentioned in the previous post, a popular way to say thank you is:
“很仔細”
“an-3 dz-3 se-4”
And it literally means “very careful”, or “very painstaking” or maybe “so painstaking of you” or more appropriately “how conscientious of you”
Depending on how you translate “仔細”
Cool! I for one would like to see you continue posting tidbits like this – we can all learn a little! 
Hello, boys and girls!
Here’s some more.
Hakka has an “oy” sound. Mandarin doesn’t.
Lots of things that are pronounced “ai” or “ei” in Mandarin are pronounced “oi” in Hakka.
So, Taiwan becomes “Toy-wan”.
“love” is “oi-4” (high-level tone, as mentioned in previous post)
It’s not always true (百 is “bak-5”, 買 is still “mai-1”), but the “ai” to “oi” thing happens in lots of other words: 來 (“loi-2” low tone), 愛, 台 (“toi-2” low tone).
and 會 is “voi-4” high level tone.