I have observed in some Atayal and Pangcah (Amis) communities, people above 60 and under 90 these days probably were more fluent in Japanese than their indigenous languages when they were young. Plenty of people my age have parents and people of similar age only converse in Japanese, and only switch to their indigenous language when speaking to people who are older than their are. Plenty of Pangcah people even gave their kids Japanese names, even though their kids would be around my age, which would mean that their parents technically weren’t old enough to go to school during the Japanese era, if they were even born then.
Indeed, it’s an interesting one. My wife’s grandfather is (was) heavily Japanese influenced like that, unlike his wife hehe. It was a time of cultural…confusion? Same goes for so many in that era.
I recently went on a book-buying-spree against my wife’s warning of lacking shelf-spaces. Most of them have not arrived, but the first one to arrive became one of my daughter’s favorite books. “Ài Tsia̍h Han-tsî ê Tshiūnn” is written in POJ, and the QR-code link takes you to a Tsiang-tsiu-accent-leaning audio recording. So instead of tshiūnn, it would read as chhiōⁿ both on the page and in the audio. However, the story is simple enough, and there really isn’t no need to go back to the audio clip
Me and my kid’s new favorite Taigi books:
These books are great for kids learning to understand their own emotions, so 2 to 5? The best thing is these 3 stories are connected and interwoven.
It started with 無公平 Bô Kong-pînn, where Lion at the end feels it isn’t fair that everyone gets the same portioned snacks, since he’s much bigger than the mouse.
In 好佳哉 Hó Ka-tsài, Mouse is glad that he is best friends with the Elephant and he is able to share his snack with Lion because he’s too tiny and could finish the whole thing anyway. All the other classmates then hoped that Mouse would share his snacks with them instead, and when Mouse was washing his hands, some of his classmates couldn’t wait and tries to eat his snack without his permission.
In 無恰意 Bô Kah-ì, Elephant feels like Lion is stealing his best friend, and tries to sabotage Mouse and Lion’s friendship.
These books look at the same event from different perspectives, and I feel like it’s a great teaching tool, not just for Taigi but understanding kids’ own feeling and emotions. The only thing that could make these books better is if it provided Romanization next to the Hanji texts.
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Nice finds! I wish I had these some years ago when my kiddo was more age appropriate for those.
I wonder if there is something similar for teens, in this realm of thinking and laguage?
看圖學講台灣話 Khuànn tôo o̍h kóng Tâi-uân-uē
I have bought other similar sets, like 台語嘛會通 and 笑咍咍, which saw more social media attention, and Khuànn tôo o̍h kóng Tâi-uân-uē is so far the best.
I already have a kidsread reading pen, and I was shocked that I didn’t know this book before it came out, since no one talked about it coming out in all the Taigi and kidsread social media groups.
It is the best Taigi encyclopedia for kids that I’ve seen so far. For the same amount of money, the range of topics covered in this very well made book is second to none. There’s Taiwan geography, world geography, astronomy, extended family members, and things that a kid would encounter everyday.
The only thing I could complain about this book is that it uses Sin-Tsuân-im (新泉音 the new Tsuan-tsiu accent), specifically from Tâi-pak, there are many words that sound different from the more common Tsiang-tsuân-lām (漳泉濫) that me and my wife are used to. So sometimes why daughter would protest that I say it differently from the book. However, it’s not really a problem, since all traditional accents are valid and should be familiarized with. Relatives in mine and my wife’s families have different accents as well, especially since some of them live very close to Lok-káng (鹿港).