A video showing a Malaysian nonagenarian’s fluency in various Chinese dialects has impressed social media users, with many pointing out that even native speakers of these dialects do not speak as well as she does.
A one-minute TikTok video that has been viewed 1.9 million times shows a bubbly hijab-clad woman, whose native language is Malay, conducting a conversation with other Malaysian residents in Hokkien.
The video was uploaded by former TV producer Azril Baharudin, who said the elderly woman is known as Tok Mah or Makcik Mah among residents in Sungai Petani, a city in the northern Malaysian state of Kedah.
While the context of the conversation in the video is unknown, Tok Mah, 91, can be heard asking her much younger companion about the health of a mutual friend.
During the conversation, she asks if the person had “lao sai”, which is Hokkien for diarrhoea.
In another video which has been viewed about 96,300 times, Tok Mah is asked by Mr Azril what other languages she speaks.
She says she can speak Mandarin, Hainanese, Hakka, Teochew and “Macau” – presumably referring to Cantonese, which is spoken by residents of the East Asian gambling hub.
She is also proficient in Tamil, Thai and “a bit of English”, she said.
She then said “Where are you going” and “Have you eaten” in Mandarin and the Hakka, Teochew, Hainanese and Hokkien dialects.
She told Mr Azril that she learnt the dialects from her friends, and picked up Thai in school.
Tok Mah also said that while she can hold a basic conversation in Tamil, she has forgotten a lot of the words because she does not converse in the language often.
Netizens were blown away by her language prowess, and many wished her good health.
“She is really good, her pronunciation is so superb,” wrote a commenter with the handle priyamenon952 on TikTok.
A commenter with the handle Michazi lamented that the younger generation can hardly speak Hokkien now. “It will soon disappear with the elders,” he said.
Another commenter, Ivy Chee215, said she herself was only partly fluent in Mandarin and Hakka but was motivated by Tok Mah’s proficiency in them to improve.
