Friend, Ho Seh Bo?

Literally translated as “Ho Seh” = Ok, “Bo” = No, expression of question yes or no? – Put together in Hokkien colloquial to mean “how are you?”. Hokkien is one of the dialects spoken in Singapore, along with Cantonese, Teochew and Hakka. Other languages are Malayu, Tamil, Hindi etc and of course English. This reflects the diversity of our forefathers settling in Singapore building this city from scratch.

Naturally, the government of the day made English as the unifying language, which became our official and “first” language. Subsequently, they also unified the Chinese by outlawing the use of dialects on mainstream media such as radio and TV and promote Mandarin as official Chinese “mother tongue”. Similarly for the Indians. So, if you ask around any Singaporean my age, chances are they are able to speak in 3 languages – English, “mother tongue” and a dialect. Some even more, because we were literally a linguistic melting pot.

For the case of Ethnic Chinese Singaporean, the older generations knew dialects and Mandarin. Midlife people like me knew dialects as we grew up with it and English as it used in Schools as the teaching medium. “Mother tongue” was another subject. Then the younger generation will only know English and their “mother tongue”. Dialects seemed to be dying away.

Not until now, the government whose policies were conducted in English wanted to reach out and engage the older folks. “Ho Seh Bo” is the collaboration between Mediacorp Channel 8 and the Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) and allowed dialects on national TV. The interesting thing is that the spoken language used is not only in Hokkien but also Teochew and a bit of Cantonese, while Mandarin is used by younger casts. Throw in English and Malay, making guest appearances. The stories were very heartwarming and incredibly “heart landed” mirroring the social day-to-day realities happening in our heartlands. Needless to say, there were snippets of explaining the Government’s policies (in its simplest form) to the people, generally, talking social and health schemes for the older folk’s awareness. So if you have time, you can catch it on youtube (search “ho seh bo”), fully subtitled. A total of 16 episodes, each with twists that make you want to watch the next one. Check this out for more details: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_Are_You%3F_(TV_series)

Catchy Theme Song

The main purpose of this post is actually the theme song (in Hokkien of course). It is so catchy that I am compelled to share here, along with its meaningful lyrics. Performed by Roy Li (黎沸挥), a renowned local singer who is also in the cast, I grew to like this song pretty much. So here it is.

Translation of lyrics with my limited language skills:

Written	Spoken (hokkien)	Meaning
一二三四五	jit, neng, sar, si, gor	1,2,3,4,5
朋友好势无	peng yu ho seh bo	friend, how are you?
日子是甜或苦	lit ji si tih ah kor	Days are sweet or bitter
你真的要照顾	li jin eh ai jiao gor	Must take care of yourself
一二三四五	jit, neng, sar, si, gor	1,2,3,4,5
走稳你的脚步	kia woon li eh ka por	Take your steady steps
免去参管 什么烦恼	mai qe cham kuan simi huan ho	Be carefree and not to worry
你的心内， 你的无奈 拢搬出来	li eh sim nai, li eh bo nai long pua chut lai	Let out all your inner feelings and frustrations
好势无，朋友好势无	ho seh bo, peng yu ho seh bo	How are you, my friend, how are you?
做人免惊辛苦	zo lang mai kia xing kor	Don’t be afraid of hardwork
好势无，朋友好势无	ho seh bo, peng yu ho seh bo	How are you, my friend, how are you?
少年着努力，才有前途	xiao lian tio gut lad, ka wu qian tor	Work hard while young, future will be good
好势无，朋友好势无	ho seh bo, peng yu ho seh bo	How are you, my friend, how are you?
好运你免惊无	ho woon li mai kia bo	Don’t be afraid of lack of good luck
天黑黑，免惊雨	tih orh orh, mai kia hor	when sky is dark, don’t be afraid of rain
朋友啊，走稳咱的路	peng yu arh, kia woon ang eh lor	My friend, steadily walk your own road

Simple yet meaningful.

Enjoy, gobassky.