Andy’s Language Learning Update

More and more, I realize that my Vietnamese is so different from that spoken here. I hadn’t noticed it as much before, but the more I listened more carefully to my students’ Vietnamese in class, the more I saw that every other word I say does not sound the same as it would sound when they say it. No wonder people have been having a hard time understanding me even when I say just a very simple sentence.

For example, last week when I went to the market to get groceries, I walked up to the chicken lady and asked for some chicken breast. I decided to use my Vietnamese and said, “ức gà.” Now, I’ve used these two words many many times in the States at a Vietnamese restaurant that serves chicken noodle soup and have never had any problems. This time, the chicken lady gave me a blank stare. She had no clue what I was talking about. I repeated several times and even pointed at my chest, but to no avail. I started wondering whether north Vietnamese used a totally different word for chicken breast. So I gave up and just pointed at the piece of chicken breast sitting on her chopping board. Then she said, “Ah, ức gà!” I was thinking to myself, “is that what I said?” I must have gotten the wrong intonation or something. I am going to try it again with her tomorrow, and I am going to just give her the pure Vietnamese southern accent without any attempts to add any northern spin to it to see what will happen.(So I went to the market this morning, but the chicken lady was not there. Another lady at the stall next to her asked what I was looking for, and I said “ức gà,” and, guess what, she understood me! Yeah!

The other week, I had to make up some classes because I came back one week late from Thailand. We had to use different classrooms, and in one of the rooms, there was some ‘graffiti’ on the side of the chalk board. Some male students had used whiteout (or some type of white paint) to write on the board “Em ơi, anh nhớ em nhiều lắm em có biết không?” (translated “My darling, do you know I miss you a lot?”). Apparently, it couldn’t be erased or no one had tried to erase it. I was staring at it when I was trying to use the board, and some students asked me if I understood what it meant. I said yes, and they tested me by asking me to tell them what it meant. I just smiled and went on with the lesson. Later, while the students were busy working on their in-class assignments, I wrote some responses to that sentence on the board (in Vietnamese), and they had such a kick out of it. This make-up class was in the afternoon right after lunch, and the students were already wiped out after 5 hours straight of class from 6:30am to 11:30am. They couldn’t stay awake and I had to do something to wake them up. I decided to write a few lines of broken southern Vietnamese on the board to help jazz up the atmosphere.

Nhớ em anh viết thành thơ

Sao lại viết bảng làm dơ lớp mình

Thầy mà bắt gặp thình lình

Cho anh ăn gậy ai rinh anh về

Anh ơi chớ có mải mê

Nhớ em anh giử câu thề năm xưa

Ngại chi dãi nắng dầm mưa

Học xong có job anh đưa em tiền

Có tiền em shop như điên

Mua này sắm nọ anh khiêng về nhà

Mỗi năm anh tặng em quà

Lầu cao cửa rộng cả nhà chung vui

Anh ơi em nói đùa thui

Vì anh rớt tới rớt lui chục lần

Bao giờ anh học nên thân

Em đây hổng muốn độc thân suốt đời