Speaking Vietnamese- or Not

Speaking Vietnamese- or Not

  Almost every day someone says to me, "I'm sorry, my English is very bad."  As if they should apologize to me that we are having trouble communicating in Vietnam.  For 

Christmas I received a book and tape to learn Vietnamese.  I had great intentions and managed pho (noodle soup), xin chao (hello), and cam on (thank you) before I left the States.  And that's where it stopped, unfortunately.  I found myself thinking Vietnamese was too hard to master- or even attempt.  After all, it was a tonal language, which means that the tone for a sound can mean a different word with a different meaning.  Also, I fell into the American thought that I could get by because everyone speaks English.  In fact, not everyone in the world speaks English! (What a concept, right? It's not all about us!)  So, I had the book, I had the tape, and I had some motivation, but what I didn't have was tenacity or discipline.  

     The Vietnamese alphabet on its own is not all that intimidating.  There are 12 vowels and 17 consonants.  What starts to get muddy- at least in my brain- is the fact that there are three different as,two es, three os, and two us.  Now, when I think this through, it is no different than in English we have the long and short vowel sounds.  So each of these vowels have a different tone noted by pronunciation symbols.  It is interesting to note that in the consonants there are two ds, and no f, j, or w. 

     And how did this language, which uses a version of the Roman alphabet, begin in Vietnam? Before we look at the present language, we need to go back to 111 A.D. when China annexed the Tonkin Delta.  For 1000 years China ruled Vietnam and during that time Han (classical Chinese) was the official written language while the spoken language split between a "city" dialect and a highlands dialect.  The ruling class continued to reflect Chinese culture and wrote in the Han language for the next 10 centuries. It is not surprising, then, that 60% of Vietnamese words come from the Chinese.

     According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, today's Quoc-ngu (national language) was "devised in the 17th century by Portuguese missionaries who modified the Roman alphabet with accents and signs to suit particular consonants, vowels, and tones of Vietnamese.  It was further modified by a French missionary Alexander de Rhodes.  At first only used in Vietnamese Christian communities, it was made compulsory by the French administration in 1910.  Quoc-ngu is now universally used in Vietnam and is the official writing system."

     Many Vietnamese have found it useful, over time, to learn a second language.  During the French occupation from 1887- 1954, many Vietnamese learned French.  Looking toward the future and recognizing close ties with Russia following the war with America, many studied Russian.  With the fall of the USSR in the late 1980s, the focus shifted to Europe and North America and thus the learning of English became important.  Today students begin studying English in kindergarten in most Vietnamese schools, although Russian, Mandarin, and French are also accepted for university acceptance. 

     Which brings me full circle.  Learning a foreign language is important.  My one regret after my time in Vietnam is I couldn't communicate with the people around me.  And whose fault is that?  And who misses out?  So,  students if you are reading this,  do what I say- not what I've done.  Learn another language.  Americans are behind the times on this.  In a global community, we are the ones at the disadvantage if we are not bilingual.