Mutually intelligible

Penang, where the old meets the new

Upon arriving in Penang, Malaysia, after an overnight train and minivan border crossing, I kicked back and soaked it all in at Mugshot Cafe, a local hipster joint.

My ears perked up. “… and the room was so cheap… gibberish, gibberish… my friends told me… gibberish, gibberish” …

What the hell? Why do I understand bits of what they’re saying? It’s not Mandarin Chinese. It’s more like Taiwanese! Obviously I didn’t do enough homework about Malaysia beforehand.

Wikipedia tells me that they were speaking Penang Hokkien, a dialect that belongs within the same umbrella as Taiwanese Hokkien. Supposedly they’re “mutually intelligible.” The Chinese labor force brought this language along with them during British colonial rule.

Taiwanese Hokkien was a peripheral language of my youth, one that I had an ear for, but sadly no tongue for. It’s expressive, local, and legit. A proper hipster language, if you will, and a unique way to connect with the elder generation.

Picking my dad’s brains (a history buff like so many other dads), he explained some of Malaysia’s linguistic origins and then shared that he actually went on frequent business trips to Penang in his days as an engineer. Did you go to Penang Hill? he asked. How about the good food?

Wow! I didn’t know.

Hainanese duck over rice deliciousness

The food there, yummy! I could eat it every meal. I even joked with the playful restaurant owner in Chinese, “Yeah yeah I’ll come here everyday, I promise!”

In Penang, I was hit by so many unexpected revalations at once – a more global domain for the rudimentary Hokkien that I know, and a partial explanation for my father’s childhood frequent absence.

Familiarity oftentimes comforts. On the rare occasions it unsettles. The latter was in effect here.

An aspect of travel for me was to experience the unknown. Although Malaysia has so much more to offer and for me to appreciate, it was time to move on.

Strong girl. Street art Penang.

Oh, and I also got a bad case of bedbugs at Old Penang Guesthouse. Bed 11. Beware.