LearnSingaporeTeochewwithTioBoh?
The dialect you grew up around but never quite learned. We'll help you actually speak it.
Available on Android & iOS
About Teochew
Teochew comes from the Chaoshan region of eastern Guangdong. It sits close to Hokkien in the Minnan family, but its tones and vocabulary are distinct enough that many Singaporeans describe it as sounding almost like singing.
Boat Quay roots
Early Teochew migrants clustered around the Singapore River, Boat Quay, and Ellenborough Market, trading in gambier, pepper, dried seafood, and textiles. For decades, the riverfront was effectively Teochew territory.
Comfort food culture
Teochew mui may look plain, but everything's in the side dishes: braised duck, steamed fish, salted vegetables, chai po omelette, cold crab, and punchy chilli. Soon kueh and lor ah also show how Chaoshan food adapted to Singapore ingredients.
Melodic and local
Teochew keeps old single-syllable words, Malay and English loanwords, nursery rhymes, and opera sounds. Nobody really studies it formally. It's still passed on by ear, if it's passed on at all.
Culture in the App
Hundreds of thousands of Singaporeans have Teochew roots. Almost no resources teach the local version. We're building one.
Teochew at the Table
The Teochew that lives in the kitchen and at the table.
Everyday Teochew
The Teochew people use with each other, not the textbook version.
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