11/20/2006

"Grandma Can't Sleep!" (Find out why!)

To listen to a funny novelty song in Taiwanese, dreamed up by a
longtime expat in Taiwan, click here:

http://amahsong101.blogspot.com

3 comments:

DANIELBLOOM said...

Dear Bikok-888,

Please send me the music file for your Amah Koon Beiki song. I read some comments of people having listened to the song, and it "looks" funny. I appreciate your work to help promote our (Taiwanese) language.

Miss Kuo

------

Dear Sir,
This is Monica. I am 21 years old and I live
in Pingtung. I know your song from "What's up in
Taiwan? blog" As a Taiwanese, I think your song is guite
fit with Taiwanese culture. In this song, I hear the
familiar spoken sentences in Taiwan, especially in
countryside. That did touch me and made me happy.

So, would you mind to email me your the MP3 file and
then i could share with my friends.
Thanks A LOT.
Monica

DANIELBLOOM said...

A book publisher at book company, 45, in Taipei said: "Dear Bikok-888, I could not help smiling when I listened to your song, and your voice. I love it......But, I cannot figure out the meaning of a few Taiwanese sentences/phrases. I know they must be Taiwanese, but, mmm, the pronunciation...:)....Maybe you should ask friends in ChiaYi (Ka-gi) to pronounce them carefully for you to imitate again. "

A graphic artist in New York, from Taiwan, 29, said: "Hi Bikok888...I listened to your mp3 file and found it fun and vivid. Your Taiwanese is pretty good!. I only felt BUSASA about couple of lines in the song :) Anyway, we are surprised to discover just recently that many individuals and several organizations are working in different ways and using their own medium and channels to promote, support, and change Taiwan. In a happy way. Like your cute song. Happy to know that your song is childlike, which also represents our best memories about Taiwan."

Jeff H., 16, high school student in USA, born in Taiwan, says: "The song is great! But I can't understand it that well because I grew up speaking Mandarin. So, not knowing the words of the song, I think I can give you valuable feedback for those who can't understand the language. I think that the song definitely has a bright, happy connotation to it. "

Hello everyone, This is Taiwanese novelty song about a grandmother who cannot go to sleep on the night before Lunar New Year's Day, and the Taiwanese title is "Amah, Amah Koon Beiki" -- Grandma Can't Sleep. The other verses to the song talk about life in south Taiwan, killing two birds with one stone, and about 12 other colorful phrases used in everyday life in Taiwan, even today. The song's words can be viewed at this website:
http://amahsong101.blogspot.com

A secretary for import-export firm, 28, in Taipei said: "The song put a big smile on my face, I love it. Thanks a million for the smile! By the way, I shared the file with my colleague Joseph, also Taiwanese, and he loved it and said it made him laugh and smile. Thanks a lot. You sing it. It is terrific, unique, and different. It is FUN, yes!"

if you want to hear the song on your computer, email songsterhiragana@gmail.com and we will send you the mp3 file, free!

Taiwanese novelty song, sung in Taiwanese dialect by a Western expat in Taiwan. The title means "Grandma Can't Sleep". This is not Chinese but Taiwanese, a very different language than Mandarin. The song is a novelty song, which means it was written and produced just to make people around the world smile. The refrain CHOTTO MATTE, of course, is Japanese, which is also spoken daily in Taiwan by older folks. The words in Taiwanese were collected by an American expat in Taiwan, and they don't mean anything very significant, but they are folk sayings, such as "Kill two birds with one stone" and "Chiayi is a beautiful city" and "Just one hundred dollars!" and "Hurry! Hurry!"

The song might be a good way to introduce Taiwanese to foreigners overseas, who have never studied or even hear of Taiwnese before. It is a very colorful language, similar to the way Yiddish is a colorful language. The song is intended for a large market: 1. Taiwanese people who laugh and smile and chuckle and wonder why a foreigner wrote and sang this song (smile) and 2. kindergarten children in Taiwan who are learning Taiwanese in school now, after years ago being hit on the hand by teachers if they spoke that language! (true story)

DANIELBLOOM said...

A friend in Taipei writes, after listening to this song:

"Actually, I grew up with my grandma in Taiwan. I and my brother slept with her on a
Japanese tatami bed when we were little. Sometimes we woke up during the
night and found her sitting on tatami. If we asked her how come, the answer
was always 'AMAH KOON BEIKi'."

"I did enjoy listening to the song, ''Grandma couldn't sleep''. When I listened to it for the first time, I was laughing loudly. Today I surprisingly perceived that I was humming "Chotto Matte, Chotto Matte......" when playing with my two stupid (but lovely) dogs. You have indeed written a good song!"