Is there a Hakka Association in Ireland?
Created Thursday, 17th February 2011, 23:17 by Whykay
I know the early Chinese immigrants in the early 60s were of Hakka background. I'm in my 30s now, and when I grew up in my parent's restaurant down in Limerick (my early years), most of the young lads working there spoke Hakka. I only come to realise that my understanding of Hakka was because I was brought up with people speaking Hakka around me, although I spoke mainly Cantonese myself. My parents spoke Cantonese to each other, but spoke Hakka to everyone else including relatives. I always wondered why my parents didn't speak Hakka to each other, they explained to me that Hakka was spoken by the older generation. They were young back then and didn't find it "cool" to speak the same lingo as their parents/elders.
Why am I mentioned Hakka at all? It's because I came across a site called Hakka UK Association. They are on twitter, for all those interested. And I'm wondering if there's a Hakka Irish Association? I know I'm crazy that way. First I was wondering if there were other IBCs like myself out there, then the same question(s) applied to IBC sites. And nine years on (yikes, that long already!), irishbornchinese.com is still going strong. Well, as strong as it can be. So my original question, would it be crazy to find all those Hakka Irish out there? I could make it a sub-group. :-)
By the way, I don't speak Hakka, I make a hames of it, it always sounds better in my head and then it comes out all wrong when I try to speak it. I understand it quite well (thanks to those early days), and I surprise my mom and auntie every time when I mention that I understand what they are talking about. Good thing they don't talk about me that much in front of me.