Learn the bricks. Build your sentences.
Instead of memorising lists of phrases, you learn reusable words and the rules that put them together. You build, transform and listen to sentences you have never seen before.
Six families of bricks
Every word comes in traditional characters, with its Pe̍h-ūe-jī transcription (tone shown by an accent), its audio and a meaning in context.
伊 means both “he” and “she”. Two words for “we”: 阮 (we, not including the person you are talking to) and 俺 (we, including them).
Verbs never change: 我啉, 伊啉, 阮啉 – no -s, no past tense ending. 啉 is for drinks, 食 for food; in conversation people also say 食茶 for “drinking tea”.
No articles, no gender, no compulsory plural. The place comes straight after the verb: 去潮州 (go to Chaozhou).
唔 negates, right before the verb; 無 replaces 有 in the negative. 唔愛 contracts to 嫑 (“not want”). A yes/no question adds 無 at the end: 汝啉茶無？
The assembly rules. Nothing is glued together word for word.
Eight tones, shown in Pe̍h-ūe-jī by an accent on the vowel; tones 1 and 4 have none. The tone is part of the word, like a letter: without it, tê (茶, tea) would become another syllable.
The same bricks, everywhere
At a restaurant, on the move or meeting someone new, a few bricks are enough to make yourself understood.
Where is Teochew spoken?
Teochew was born in the Chaoshan region (Chaozhou, Shantou, Jieyang), in eastern Guangdong province. Since the 19th century, emigration has carried it to Southeast Asia, where it is still the language of large Chinese communities, and on to Europe, the Americas and Oceania.
- Chaoshan, China — Chaozhou, Shantou, Jieyang: the homeland of the language
- Hong Kong
- Thailand — Bangkok: the country’s largest Chinese community is Teochew
- Cambodia — most Chinese Cambodians are Teochew
- Vietnam — Ho Chi Minh City and the Mekong Delta
- Laos
- Malaysia — especially Johor and Kedah
- Singapore — one of the main Chinese language groups
- Indonesia — Pontianak, West Kalimantan
- France — Paris (13th arrondissement), a community from Southeast Asia
- United States
- Canada
- Australia
Homeland or official language Community · Approximate positions. Natural Earth.
The sentence builder
Every combination is checked against the grammar. Bricks marked ≠ don’t go with your choice: pick them to find out why.
Fifteen minutes a day
Adjustable from 5 to 30 minutes. Missing a day costs you nothing: your progress waits for you.
Eight weeks of discovery
A path, not a promise of a level. Each week targets a skill you can see for yourself.
Eight tones, marked on every syllable.
Teochew is written in traditional Chinese characters, with characters of its own for the spoken language (汝, 伊, 啉, 唔). Pe̍h-ūe-jī transcribes each syllable in Latin letters and marks its tone with an accent: á, à, â, ǎ, ā, a̍h.
Learn the tones and the writingLearning Teochew with KilaTalk
What is KilaTalk, and what does learning “by construction” mean?
KilaTalk is a language-learning app. Instead of memorising lists of phrases, you learn reusable words — people, actions, things, places — and the rules that put them together, then you build, transform and listen to your own sentences.
Do I need an account? Is it free?
The sentence builder and the method, pronunciation and reading pages are open to everyone, with no account. The eight-week course, reviews and your word list require an account, which is free to create.
How much time does it take each day, and what is in the eight-week course?
A session lasts fifteen minutes, adjustable from 5 to 30: the day’s reviews, new bricks, sentences to build and a listening task. The eight weeks go from the first sounds to real-life dialogues, through negation, questions, numbers and polite requests; it is a discovery path, not a promise of a level.
How is pronunciation taught?
Every word and sentence has audio you can play at normal speed or slowly (0.5×, without distorting the voice). Words come with a transcription suited to the language: pinyin for Mandarin, Yale romanisation for Cantonese, rōmaji for Japanese, Revised Romanization for Korean, the International Phonetic Alphabet for Vietnamese and most European languages, and a transliteration for Russian.
Which languages can I learn from?
The interface is available in six languages: English, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Chinese and French. Explanations and translations are written for each of them, with comparisons drawn from the learner’s own language.
Who is behind KilaTalk, and can I trust the sentences?
KilaTalk is designed and published by SDiTech, a software publisher based in France. Every sentence in the builder is checked by a grammar engine: a combination that doesn’t work is refused, with the rule explained and correct alternatives offered.
Lay your first brick.
Choose your goal and your pace, and the first lesson starts straight away.