Gaginang

Welcome GGNers to GGN 4.0.   I hope you enjoy the new website.  We will continue to work on improving the website as the year continues.  We worked countless hours to make this site as bug free as possible.  If you find anything wrong with the website, please email IT@gaginang.org with steps on how to duplicate the bug/error that you observed.  Thank you in advance for helping to make this site usable for everyone.

 Du Tran

Web Developer

So I need some Diojiu help here.  A while back, my brother posted a quote my dad says all the time on www.mydadisafob.com and I'm wondering if the origin of what he is saying is Diojiu in nature.  Whenever you drive in the car with my dad, he loves to be a backseat driver.  So if someone were to cut you off he would totally yell "Fart the horn! Fart it!!!"   The funny thing is that I had alway thought this was normal and what every roadraged asian dad screamed when they were not driving.  My question is what the heck is the word for "honk" in Diojiu and is it related to farting in anyway?  Help my brother and I solve this mystery of where my dad got this saying from. 

 

Huy Ngaou

 

Just in case you haven't noticed, the entire language section of GGN 4.0 has been updated. You'll find revised essays about language, an updated dictionary, AND a new Peng'im Guide. For those of you wondering what Peng'im is, it's how we write (or type) Diojiu using a Roman alphabet (versus Chinese characters). To facilitate the popular usage of Peng'im, Gaginang has added tone marks so that people not only know how to say something, but how to say it in the right tone as well.  Here's an example of what Gaginang Peng'im looks in action:

First some common phrases:

• lèuhò [hello]
• jiātbẹung [to eat rice]
• muētgián [things, stuff]
• guèdiāo [noodles]
• kădiáng'uẹ [to make a phone call]

And now a few sentences:

• Dáigehò! Singnī'kuăilāk! Gagịnāng Peng'im  sí sià Diōjiu'uẹ gāi huang'huak  jeu jēk. Gāi sí ẹng Lōbhèyị lāi ping chuk Diōjiu'uẹ gāi sian'im. Uà himọ nạngnạng hò lāi ōt, lāi ẹng. Huanngēng ĭngiăng!
• [Hello everyone! Happy New Year! Gaginang Peng'im is a method for writing Diojiu. It uses Roman letter to spell out the sounds of Diojiu. I hope everyone will learn and use it. Comments are welcome!]

Ty Eng Lim

President

 

Love the new site! Personally, joining this organization has enriched my understanding of the language and culture and subsequently furthered my relationship with my parents. It has also shined a light on my own unconscious habits and beliefs that I have inherited.

I encourage everyone to share their diojiu moment.  We all had to explain the origins of our language, where we're from, without knowing much about it so maybe the next best thing is to share our experiences and what we feel is unique to being diojiu.

My Aha! I'm diojiu moment:

I feel diojiu when I pick up the potato chips after complaining about a soar throat  my mom says, "mai jiat!".  My normal response, "joni?" Her normal response; "yuat!". The exclamation mark is describing her volume and sincerity, not excitement.

Quick, post your Aha I'm diojiu moment to the new Forum!

-East Coast Events Team Member

 

Hello GGN-ers!

If you haven't done so already, please register. We're starting fresh with this new site and we'd like to get an updated list of users. You can find the registration link at the upper-right-hand corner of this page.

Have a look around, you'll notice loads of new and some familiar features. One of the new features include this GGN Blog. Here you will find updates and announcements with GGN projects internationally, nationally and regionally. We have lots of exciting events this year, so keep checking back to stay updated! Another nifty feature you might have already noticed, a collection of GGN YouTube videos consolidated for your convenience on GGN 4.0's front page. Diojiu Map? What's that? It's a map of Diojiu restaurants, businesses, organizatoins and more all powered YOU and Google. Know of a Diojiu restaurant you want other GGN-ers to be able to find? List it in the Diojiu Map. Does your family own a dry-cleaning business? List it on the Diojiu Map. Opening a tropical fish store? List it in the Diojiu Map. You get the idea. You can find this feature under the Interactive menu.

Stay, play and explore this new site!
On behalf of Gaginang Staff 2009, I'd like to welcome everyone to Gaginang 4.0!

Love,

Hong

Welcome to the new GGN website.  I think it has a better look and feel to it, don't you agree? It has been "Baracked" with some change... I mean it really gives me hope... alright, that's enough with the Obama references.  Hey!  I am extremely excited about being part of an amazing team comprised of board and staff members from across the US.  Before I joined the staff, I felt that I wanted to help the organization but I just didn't know how to do it.  I'm sure everyone has their own reason for becoming a GGN member.   For me, it was an opportunity to create new friendships and to learn more about the Diojiu part of my identity.

Ever since I came back from the staff retreat in mid-January, I have been working on ideas on how to push for more Diojiu visibility, especially in the Midwest!  After spending several hours brainstorming and struggling with self-doubt, stress, good, not so good and crazy ideas, I came to the conclusion that all these ideas would not work if it was only me involved.  I need everyone's help.   GGN as an organization would not be as great if it wasn't for its members.  In fact, it wouldn't even exist without its members.  I grew up in St. Louis, MO where there aren't a lot of Diojiu people.  I was overwhelmed, in a good way, when I attended the GGN Conference 2007.  There were over 100 Diojiu people from different areas of the world.   It truly was a "melting pot" of GGN members.

Whether it's due to school, a job, family, friends, volunteer work or hobbies, we all have a lot going on in our lives. I am thankful that I have an opportunity to help GGN grow. I only hope that the things we do here will make as much of an impact on you as it has made on me. Oh, by the way, if you live anywhere in the Midwest or Central region, feel free to email me at Louis.Tang@gaginang.org. I want to meet you. You can't hide forever!

-Louis Tang
Midwest Events Coordinator

It's about a week before our new web site will be released to the public.  It's quite exciting and rewarding when I reflect back to what it took to get this going.

 I know that as board and staff,  we've been challenged with keeping the community up to date with what's been going on in the past years with GGN.  Countless questions were asked about what we've been doing, is there going to be a new site, where does GGN stand financially...just to name a few.  We may have frustrated a few by taking so long...but I appreciate those that have waited to see this day finally come.  Our new web site is the manifestation of many things we've worked on.  This staff blog is only a small piece of it.

 When I first joined GGN, my goal was to bring more money to the organization.  We need money to make a new web site.  It's as simple as that.  Everyone on staff is busy and limited in time, so finding our own time to build this web site was virtually impossible.  We had to hire someone to give us a helping hand to work on it full time.  But when looking back...we always had been challenged to bring in money.  Our methods included holding events where we tried to make a decent profit margin...but to me, it was too slow.  It was becoming a hinderance.  So I set out to find grants that we would qualify for.  Luckily GGN was successful in obtaining these grants.  This allowed us to:

• Focus more on quality events and not be forced to cut corners to make a decent profit margin
• Invest the money into helping the organization grow

I know we still haven't been perfect...but I'm certain we are moving in the right direction.  As treasurer I will continue to find more money for the organization to keep us moving.  For now, I hope everyone enjoys the new web site.  After this first quarter is over, we'll have our first ever quarterly financial statement ready for the public to view.

 -Brian

GGN Treasurer

Yeeeaaaaah! I'm really happy that GGN has a new web site for our members. The web team and I have been working hard  to create this community intergration for GNN 4.0.

I hope that you all will enjoy the new web site.

 Duy