On 21 Sept, during the Elderly Care Day, the elders and our Tzu Chi volunteers gathered at Jing Si Hall to celebrate the mid-autumn festival. Chatting with the elderly in different dialects, the volunteers and the elderly shared a cheerful communication with each other and encouraging them to lead a fulfilling life. At the same time, the Elderly Care Day was also employed as a graduation topic by the photography class of our Continuing Education Centre. Picture:Some elderly were seen dancing merrily to the Oldies performed.

The Elderly Care Day is the one event that is warmly received by all every three months, bringing much joy to the elderly.

The caring group do their best to make sure each of the elderly has a company by their side.

Uncle Tan says communicating in Hokkien with the volunteers gave him a sense of family closeness.

Grandma Choy is fluent in Cantonese, Hokkien, Teochew and Hakka. When Oldies in any dialect were sung, Grandma Choy and the accompanying volunteers would dance to the tune merrily.

The sign language performance was one of the elderly’s favourite programmes.

Photography class instructor Mr Khor Hee Cheng (left analyzing the shots taken by student Cheng Eng Teck (right).

One of the scenes captured by photography learner Cheng Eng Teck.

On 21 Sep, Tzu Chi volunteers gathered together inside Jing Si Hall. Hundreds of Tzu Chi volunteers, Tzu Ching students, fresh members and volunteers were busily preparing for the 41st Elderly Care Day and mid-autumn festival celebration. The volunteers divided themselves into various functional groups: the reception group was laying tablecloths; the caring group was making milo and coffee; the kitchen group was cutting vegetable and boiling soup; the transportation group was preparing to direct the arriving buses; the logistic group was positioning fans all over the place; the audio group was testing the equipment; the grooming group was arranging chairs at the waiting zone while the documentation group was discussing the topic and main theme of today’s report.

Using dialects to communicate heart to heart

After 9 am in the morning, buses started arriving, ferrying elders from all over the island to Jing Si Hall. All of a sudden, our ears started hearing sounds: Cantonese, Hokkien (Taiwanese), Teochew, mixed and matched into a beautiful symphony of languages. Host for the day Sister Li Mei Er explained that in the early days when Tzu Chi first started the Elderly Care Day, the elderly were from Chinatown who only speaks Cantonese. Therefore, to facilitate better understanding, the entire event was carried out using only Cantonese. This remain unchanged from our first attempt till today’s 41st. The only minor modification was the addition of Mandarin and Hokkien as secondary languages when the attending elderly gradually extended from Chinatown to nationwide.

Although dialect is the only language understood by our elderly, dialect has gradually become a foreign tongue for many young people. At the haircut zone, a group of Tzu Chi collegiate youth (or Tzu Ching) was entertaining the elderly with their singing and sign languages performance. Mandarin songs were never a challenge to our Tzu Chings. But when a Tzu Chi volunteer proposed a Hokkien song, the Tzu Chings started looking at each other in complete silent. Eventually, they managed to get the older Tzu Chi volunteers for support.

While waiting for his turn to cut his hair, Uncle Tan shared with us that this is his 8th time attending the Elderly Care Day with his wife. Uncle Tan truly enjoyed the Tzu Chings’ performance, eagerly moving his hands to follow the sign languages movement. He further shared with us that he has many friends in Tzu Chi and communicating in Hokkien gave him a sense of family closeness.  Sister Liu Jin Xing who accompanied Uncle Tan joyfully added that she is from Taiwan and is excited that her Taiwanese Hokkien is useful here. She felt that communicating in a language close to the heart of the elderly is as important as a cheerful smile.

On the other hand, Tzu Ching Ding Cai Hong who originated from China Jiangsu felt that she was unable to contribute much. Unable to understand any of the local dialects, Cai Hong tried communicating with the elderly by using her own makeshift sign language or requesting the help of a translator. However, most of the time, she was unable to get her message across. In order to avoid similar awkward situation from occurring in the future, Cai Hong had decided to learn Cantonese.

Language is not only a means of communication; language also carries along with it the experience and way of life. 91-year-old Grandma Ho watched our performance with great joy, merrily waving her hands in the air when we played oldies. When a performer started to sing Cantonese oldies "The mountains and waters always echo our love ", Grandma Ho excitedly shared with me that the original singer is Hong Kong veteran singer Lisa Wong and further listed several other Cantonese oldies. During my 10 minutes conversation with Grandma Ho, she spoke to me entirely in Cantonese, relating her life story, giving me no opportunity to interrupt. Thinking back, if Cantonese was forbidden and I only speak to Grandma Ho in Mandarin, no matter how colourful and exciting her life experiences were, she would be lost for words and I would have missed the opportunity of listening.

While most of the elderly only understand their respective dialect of origin, there are exceptions. Grandma Choy is one of them. A language genius, Grandma Choy herself is Cantonese but understand Hokkien, Teochew and Hakka at the same time. When Oldies in any dialect were sung, both Grandma Choy and accompanying Sister Chew Ah Hong would dance to the tune merrily.

Photography class graduating piece of work

In addition to the symphony of dialects, sounds from camera shutter were supplementing chorus. The Elderly Care Day was also the graduation topic of the photography class of the Tzu Chi Continuing Education Centre. As a result, there were at least 6 cameras everywhere around, with class members climbing high, squatting low or focusing their camera, developing into a unique scene.

The instructor of the photography class Mr Khor Hee Cheng recognized that it is not easy for beginners to capture the elderly natural expression and laughter, especially in determining the angle of the shot. Entrepreneur, Home Visit volunteer as well as member of the photography class Brother Cheng Eng Teck agreed heartily. Brother Cheng is glad for this occasion to let the elderly understand that they are not forgotten by society. However, at the same time, he is troubled by the task of selecting the best angle for a photography shoot. In order to capture the elderly unconscious laughter into print, Brother Cheng spent a long period of time observing and waiting.

Photography enthusiast and member of the photography class Brother Ho Yao Yong have been learning photography for less than 6 months. A new but eager learner, he shared with us his joy of securing a photograph of an elderly having her haircut. That photograph was taken without the elderly realising it but with her thankful and delighted expression written all over her face.

A fulfilling mid autumn festival

With the completion of the photography class, every member is now well experienced. When the occasion arises in the future, they will be ready to affix the elderly delighted expression on paper. However, a camera can only capture the appearance of the elderly. Language is still the key to their inner heart. Fortunately, the Tzu Chi volunteers are able to utilize a variety of dialects to communicate heart to heart with our elders and encouraging them along Tzu Chi’s Bodhisattva path.