Struggling between Vietnamese and English.
I am neither good at Vietnamese nor English. I mean I can speak Vietnamese fluently but when it comes to writing, I am really bad at it. Oh my Engish is even worse. So ths is the chance for you to help me by correct any mistake I made here. I also want to see if I can easily type up an article with some Vietnamese font using Blogger interface. Lâu lắm rồi không viết tiếng Việt. Giờ viết lại sao thấy buồn cười qúa. Đừng có cười khi VietCali viết sai chính tả ok. It's the content, and as long as you understand what I say is more important. Có công mài sắt có ngày nên kim, mà lị. With perserverance an iron bar can be turned into a needle. Hope you like the translation. So that is the motto that I try to live by. I want to master my English. Especially the cumbersome grammar, irregular verbs, and tenses. The hardest part about English for me is the proper use of tense. In Vietnamese, we can easily tell when something take place by the content of the sentence itself. With English you have to decide when to use something like "I have", "I had", "I have had", "I had had", "I am having". In Vietnamese we can easily say Tôi có, tôi có rồi, tôi đang có, tôi mới có, tôi sẽ có... Anyone know any article in the Web on the proper use of English tense please post here. Preferably one with English and Vietnamse translation. VietCali
Labels: Vietnamese
posted by VietCali at
5/19/2004 10:15:00 PM
8 Comments:
I understand your feelings, as I am an american who married a vietnameese woman who speaks limited english, we are struggling, to understand each other and I love her so very much but I don't know how to tell her.
Will you help me?
bryanlairdvn@aol.com
With perserverance an iron bar can be turned into a needle
In america we say "Keep on keeping on."
By
Anonymous, at 5/30/2004
Bryan,
I guess you can start by learn some basic Vietnamese phrases yourself. In my opion, Vietnamese is not that hard to learn. All of Vietnamsese words are single sylabe and they pronounce pretty much the way they appear. I guess the hardest part is adapt the right Vietnamese accent. Just like me, I can't speak Enghlish with the right American accent. Just try, I am sure your wife will happy to correct you. You can search the Web on how to speak Vietnamese or use my Quick English and Vietnamese Phrases for some basic phrases. I will update this page to include some romantic phrases plus sound files for English words. This way your wife can learn some basic English phrases too.
For starter, if you want to say "I love you" to your wife, then try "Anh yêu em". What you want to hear in return maybe something "Em yêu anh". "Yêu" mean love. In Vietnamese, we have different words for "You" and "I" and they are depended on the age, and sex. See the link above for proper usage.
You can send me parituclar sentence to translate if you want. I am not Vietnamese linguistic expert, but will try my best.
By
VietCali, at 6/01/2004
VietCali,
Check out this link I found on the Internet. It has a table that lists all the verb tenses with sample sentences and clear explanation. The link is:http://depts.gallaudet.edu/englishworks/grammar/verbtenses.html
By
VietCali, at 6/03/2004
Can anyone tell me what EM NHO* ANH means?
By
Anonymous, at 1/12/2005
"Em Nho Anh" means "I miss you" in English but if you dissect the phrase it would apply to different context or situation. Example, "EM" means "I", "Nho" means "Remember". In this case I think your love remember you but she or he misses you.
Lynna
By
Anonymous, at 5/04/2005
Hey! VietCali, welcome to the club! There're must be many thousands folks in the same situation. Those Vietnamese speakers fluent in Vietnamese esp. in writing can be very intimidating but I found a website that offer a new style of writing Vietnamese (esp. in the Web) that can help you level the playfield a little bit. If you are not really deep in the language, you can have an edge over those really ingrained (I'd tempt to call it 'stuck') in the old Vietnamese language. Check this out:
http://www.vny2k.net/
By
hyperlinguist, at 5/29/2005
Hey VietCali! I need help... I have some new neighbors that are Vietnamese and I am trying to learn to speak with them. I can hold a simple conversation with them, but (-: their son's music late at night is driving me nuts!
Please, how can I politely ask them to turn down the music in Vietnamese?
By
Josh, at 7/25/2005
Despite the fact that Vietnamese has little connection to Latin-based languages, I really like it. It has a nice sound. From what I read, it's great for wordplay, and it uses a lot of alliteration. It's such a fun language.
I suppose I sound like a bit of a child being amused by the phrase "Chiec may bay dang bay," but when learning a new language, a child what you have to become. After all, that's when you learn your first language.
And xin loi if I inadvertently say something wrong. Like I said, I'm just learning, and I also don't have a keyboard that can easily produce the accent marks over just about every other letter.
Oh, and you're too modest about your writing skills in English. Most people who speak English as their first language don't write half as well as you.
And sorry to break it to you, but Vietnamese words are NOT pronounced the way they look to English speakers. The "ng" confuses SO many people, and with the last name 'Nguyen' seeming like the 'Smith' of Vietnam, that lingual problem is readily apparent. And a lot of people wouldn't look at nga~ (sorry, I don't know how to put the tilde over the a) and think to say "na-a." They'd probably try something along the lines of "nuh-gah."
But I'm rambling, and nobody's comented here for over two years, so I digress.
By
Anonymous, at 2/07/2008
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