|
 |
Vietnamese | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| kmart Senior Member Australia Joined 6125 days ago 194 posts - 400 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Italian | Message 1 of 30 07 March 2010 at 10:48am | IP Logged | |||||
|
I'd like to cram a bit of basic Vietnamese between now and November, when my son marries an Australian-Vietnamese girl. I thought it might be nice to be able to speak to her parents in their native language (we haven't yet met, they live clear on the other side of the country), and we will probably holiday there within the next few years (though the DIL will be our "native guide").
Is it do-able? How hard is this "tones" thing that people talk about? And can anyone advise on the best resources? I only want to speak it, not read or write. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| delectric Diglot Senior Member China Joined 7182 days ago 608 posts - 733 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: German | Message 2 of 30 07 March 2010 at 4:39pm | IP Logged | |||||
|
There's an FSI course that you can download for free. From www.fsi-language-
courses.org. I just went to Vietnam travelling from China. All the Chinese students I met there studying Vietnamese said it was really easy. Indeed if you know Chinese it seems there's a lot of similarities between the languages. But, of course for you coming from an English background it will not be easy at all. I had a brief introduction to the Vietnamese tones and four of them are kind of similar to the ones in Mandarin. There are six tones in Vietnamese while Mandarin Chinese has four. Are more tones harder? I would assume so, but who knows perhaps it defines the words more clearly (like having more syllables in a language). Now tones in general, I've heard many people say they're not such a big deal. But, the problem with this is, that, I nearly never come across anyone with good tones and I work in a good university in China where there are many 'top' foreign students studying Mandarin. You can often get by with bad tones assuming the context is clear and for your purposes you'll only be learning a few greetings and chitchat? Am I right? However, don't be surprised if your first words are met with a blank stare. If you study for long enough you might master the tones. However, you're not going to be immersed in the language, I've been in China coming up for six years now, and usually I can get myself mistaken for a Chinese guy on the phone (albeit a slightly 'slow' one) as long as the conversation doesn't go beyond a few minutes. Your task is slightly harder with 6 tones I imagine. I don't see why you don't learn the writing? The script is phonetic and so very easy. Edited by delectric on 07 March 2010 at 4:46pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Pyx Diglot Senior Member China Joined 5736 days ago 670 posts - 892 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: Mandarin | Message 3 of 30 07 March 2010 at 4:57pm | IP Logged | |||||
|
you won't be speaking to her parents by then, but I'm sure they'd appreciate you learning a couple phrases. Hello, Good bye, thank you, you're welcome, that kind of thing...
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| canada38 Tetraglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5496 days ago 304 posts - 417 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish, French Studies: Portuguese, Japanese | Message 4 of 30 07 March 2010 at 6:13pm | IP Logged | |||||
I don't know much about Vietnamese, but certainly it is possible to learn more than basic phrases in eight months. Tones aside, I'm sure you get can to between a basic and intermediate level between now and then with some hard work. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| lichtrausch Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5961 days ago 525 posts - 1072 votes Speaks: English*, German, Japanese Studies: Korean, Mandarin | Message 5 of 30 07 March 2010 at 10:53pm | IP Logged | |||||
While there are exceptions, most Westerners wouldn't be able to get beyond a very basic level in Vietnamese by November. You really can't emphasize enough how difficult the Vietnamese tones are for speakers of non-tonal languages. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| unityandoutside Diglot Groupie United States Joined 6015 days ago 94 posts - 149 votes Speaks: English*, Russian Studies: Latin, Mandarin | Message 6 of 30 07 March 2010 at 11:12pm | IP Logged | |||||
|
The Vietnamese tones do seem to be more difficult than the Mandarin ones, and indeed Vietnamese pronunciation in general seems more difficult than Mandarin. I've looked through a few lessons and listened to the recordings in a TY Vietnamese book that I purchased for kicks a while back, and it seemed that pronouncing Vietnamese is probably twice as difficult as pronouncing Mandarin, with the relatively complex initials and six tones (including really tricky stuff like creaky voice, etc.) The grammar, especially the lack of traditional personal pronouns, is also relatively disorienting.
So I think that Vietnamese would probably be a difficult language to orient yourself in initially. But I think that because of the relative grammatical simplicity of the language that once you had your feet on the ground with the basics you could probably make pretty quick progress. The great advantage of Vietnamese is that there are no characters, which are probably the most disorienting aspect of similar languages (read: Chinese languages). How much you'd be able to accomplish by November will depend on your ear and your effort. But I think that with this language and your specific goals your main obstacle will be that initial bump, and if you can get over it in good time without getting too discouraged, you will probably be able to communicate in at least very basic vietnamese by November. Edited by unityandoutside on 07 March 2010 at 11:15pm 6 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Pyx Diglot Senior Member China Joined 5736 days ago 670 posts - 892 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: Mandarin | Message 7 of 30 07 March 2010 at 11:41pm | IP Logged | |||||
Definitely, but it's a question of the returns you get. One thing I'm convinced of, is that he won't be speaking to [is there an English word for the parents of person your kid has married?]. If he learns basic phrases, he will make them happy. If he really hangs in there, he can create a good basis for laster, and will be able to hear a couple of words now and then when eavesdropping on conversations. Will that make her parents more happy, than the odd assortment of phrases? Unlikely. But it's A LOT more work. If the OP is in there for the long haul, and wants to be fluent in Vietnamese, it's a different thing entirely, but if he mostly just wants to be polite, and you look at it from an economics perspective, learning a number of basic phrases will be the best use of time. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| fissionesque Diglot Newbie United States Joined 6098 days ago 12 posts - 15 votes Speaks: English*, Russian Studies: Latin, Hungarian, Biblical Hebrew, Portuguese | Message 8 of 30 09 March 2010 at 12:55am | IP Logged | |||||
|
I think it's possible to get a basic understanding of Vietnamese in 11 months if you really, really buckle down and study hard. Tones in any language can come to you if you're exposed to it enough and repeat it a lot. Definitely talk to your son's wife and see it she can help. Without characters to worry about, it's probably significantly easier. Also, the pronunciation isn't too terrible, usual initials like ng (like the ng in song), nh (a palatal n, like n in Russian nyet), tr (pron. like tsh, similar to mandarin 'ch' but a bit different, more of a significant movement of the tongue), kh, and the aspirated consonants, which aren't as hard to distinguish as you would think. Oh the non-aspirated 'd' is a little weird too, the stop is held a bit longer so it kind of has a nasal quality to it. They really aren't as bad as you would think once you hear them a lot. Although hearing rapid-fire colloquial Vietnamese is much harder as in any language and will take significantly much more time to learn. Also, make sure to find out whether they are North of South Vietnamese, it does matter. You can get by with both dialects, but the sounds can be significantly different to a non-native ear. Letters such as 'r' will be pronounced a 'z' in the northern dialect, but like the mandarin 'r' in the Southern, other letters to a similar thing. The alphabet is easy and worth learning. It will help avoid much confusion with sounds if you are a visual learner. But the bottom line is that, if you apply yourself to it, you can most definitely learn enough to have them more than impressed. Good luck, I hope you found this helpful.
4 persons have voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
