I think people who said this generally don't speak Viet.

Vietnamese is a ROMANIZED system, MOST people already know how to read the latin alphabet. I don't know why is it so hard for certain people who speak Vietnamese CAN'T read it. My American-born Vietnamese cousins can read Vietnamese WITHOUT any PROPER education, although he reads it very slowly.

I learn Hangul, and can sound it out in a day, but I don't know what I'm saying. However, for who ALREADY KNOW HOW TO SPEAK IT, then there's no way they can't read it. Unless, she/he is total dumbass.

^^ damn yo are you trying to flame Bryon

Dude there is such a thing as ILLITERACY in Vietnam you know. Are you telling me anyone in Vietnam you can't read Vietnamese, can't speak it as well???

Fact is I never TRIED to read Vietnamese before and I'm sure the French like symbols on the alphabet will change how the word sounds, so it isn't 100% like English.

I guess using your logic, any Vietnamese who is able to speak broken English should also be able to read English as well.

close this thread yo..this is flame bait

Because they don't know how to read ROMANIZED systems, however most of people who know how to READ english, can read Vietnamese. There are some small differences, but most of the people I know CAN read Vietnamese although very slowly.

Iam gonna get one of them self tought Vietnamese language programs.. I'll be able to read and speak perfectly...

Haha, thats how I learned to read Vietnamese. Besides, having spoken it for nearly two decades, you can somewhat guess what the next word will be. Its almost like common sense actually. However, writing is a totally different story.

I can speak and read, but i must admit i have to read slowly.. I can also write but again i have to sit and spell it properly first so it takes me alot of time just to write 1 letter to my grandmorther

i have to agree with byron on this. i speak vietnamese fluently. but can barely read vietnamese. but the thing is i never tried. maybe i could if i started reading some newspapers? i think i'll start today :genius:

I didn't say I don't have the ability to read Vietnamese but I haven't ATTEMPTED to read a Vietnamese newspaper or anything like that. So since I never attempted so I just say I don't know how to read it.

ahha i can speak viet, but i can't read well, i can read a little, its just common sense, u sound out the word that u think goes with what ur reading. I don't like reading viet because it looks like it has too much cramped up stuff, like there already words then a whole bunch of signs and then u have to sound it out if u dont know the signs, i don't like the damn signs haha gives me a headache. When i look at the words its like, damn a lot for one word. I don't read unless i want to. HAHA i learned how to read a little by VIETNAMESE KAROAKE lol. Thats a pretty good way to learn.

wow khong biet doc tieng viet? kho qua it's okay! you're in america. is okay not knowing how to read vietnamese in america. unless there's a huge vietnamese only company in america that manufactures super computers... then it might be worthwhile.

LOL

supernovasp got a point.

Even i can read Viet, but don't understand any of it

Had a good time at my mates house doing viet karaoke though

How can you read something and not be able to understand it??? Yeah you might be able to say it outloud in broken Vietnamese when you read it, but if you can't understand it, then all you are doing is just blabbing about it.

Yes im sounding the words out, If i understand Viet then i would be pretty easy to understand

How do you know you are sounding it out properly? It is not like English. There are accents like ^ . ' and crap.

haha sorry, but it only takes a little bit to figure out how to say it, or that's how most of my american born cousins did. Either they're incredibly smart, or someone is inredibly ...

LOL, this is too funny

I know i'm not sounding it out properly, thats what makes it so funny!!!

And It is like english, but with an accent signs.

Reading is Reading, you don't have to understand it

Not really. I mean when you see the word Pho, and without any accents, and you didn't know any Vietnamese, but you do know English.

You are likely to pronounce Pho as "Foe".

It's the accent on the word Pho, that makes it prounced as "Fawh".

But those who know only how to read English who never experienced accidents would read it as "Foe".

That's why accents change the prounciation a lot.

To Supernovasp: Ok I can't read Vietnamese because I NEVER attempted it. Sue me ok? Do I have to read Vietnaemse? Yes it's a necessity for me to read Vietnaemse when I live in Canada.

I'm sure your cousins can read MOST Vietnamese words, but there are a few with accents that I'm sure they will not be able to get. Can they read it perfectly?

Hahaha, well i can read Viets, but not that good.
I have never learn Vietnamese in my life. I only learnt to from chatting alot.

For those who say you have never tried to speak, read, or write Vietnamese, you suck.

I understand there's special circumstances like parents needing to learn English as fast as possible so they made their kids speak only English at home.

Regardless, losing your language is the biggest part of losing your culture. AT LEAST TRY TO LEARN.

My friend came to the US at 4 or so, and her mom sat down with her and taught her Vietnamese everyday; she's so good at it that I assumed she only recently came here a couple of years ago.

I also understand that many of you are in college, you can't find any real time to actually sit and learn for hours. But for those who already know how to speak it, you only need to put in some effort to pick up the basics, like learning how to pronounce the alphabet, sounding out regularly used combination of letters, learn how to spell conversational words, etc. Once you have the basics, getting the confidence to tackle more difficult readings will come easily.

My progress in Vietnamese has been stagnant a few years ago, but my mom started dictating emails to send to my aunts in VN and my spelling improved a lot. Then I started to listen to Viet songs and followed the lyrics, and started conversing with my Viet friends in Vietnamese at school, and chatted with my online Viet friends in Vietnamese on AIM. My Viet is far far from perfect, but at least I'm putting effort in learning it. And I'm far from satisfied with my progress, and I am pushing myself to be even more fluent in it; at least enough to be able to teach my own kids Vietnamese.

For those not even bothering to learn, again, you suck.

It's necessary for you to speak/write/read vietnamese well if you want to argue about Vietnam and her people if you're Vietnamese

Why would it be necessary? I talk to my parents in Vietnamese all the time, and they tell me about Vietnamese culture in Vietnamese all the time.

Ideas can be communicated equally by hearing or reading. So if I can hear what my parents tell me about my culture, how is it less than reading the same experiences on paper?

wooo *sigh* , i can speak ,read and write perfectly !!

Want a cookie.

biron is a dumb azz cham, wanna vietnamese.

ok now who are u ??

why?

Since you're a newbie, I'll explain it to you.. a Banned member by the name of FKR use to say that all the time...

Exactly, there's no way a person can't read without speaking the language. It's all alphabets! It's not some swiqly lines and curves that you don't recognize.

^ i think its just better memorizing and knowing a character for the word than s sou sou ounnd out the freaking word though.... just takes more time, but easier to read.

I guess I suck. Who gives a $hit about speaking viet, anyway. I fu-king live in USA! I ain't living in that commie $hithole.

I can guess which words are which in maybe a sentence or two. But sometimes the tone-marks confuse me. I know ENGLISH, not French or Portuguese. I have trouble with the tone-marks. Never got a real chance to get to learn how they work.

If i was given the oppurtunity to learn how to write and read i would, but it's embarassing at this age to go to saturday school and be the oldest one there. Start off at grade one at age 18 when everyone else is 6. It's not my fault my parents never dropped me off there because the distance was so great.

You're basically insulting us right here, what's the deal? You make it sound like we WANT to be illiterate by Viet standards or something, jeez.

I, representing the Vietnamese people all over the world hereby disown you as a Vietnamese.

Seriously, learning Vietnamese has got nothing to do with the Communist regime. How did you manage to correlate the two anyway?

I think Vietnamese who do not speak or write Vietnamese are hopeless and should be sent to a reeducation camp in Vietnam

You really need to grow up a little, just a little more and you'll understand. In the mean time, try to read more Vietnamese.

Meh... I have already "disowned" myself as a Vietnamese. My ethnicity is no longer relevent to me anymore. I will always be an american at heart.

You are a nut case. I couldn't care less whether your loyalty lies with the Americans or the Vietnamese. The sad this is that no matter how often or how loudly you claim yourself as being an American at heart, your physical features will betray you. The Americans will never accept you as true Americans. You will always be an outsider.

Then why are you here , and of all places in the Viet section???

Then congratulations. Don't let that big wooden "Kiss Me, I'm Vietnamese" sign hit you in your wannabe white @$$ on your way out.

Everyone here gets along fine with white people, but that doesn't mean white people sees us as truly one of them. So don't be surprised when you go out there, the Americans will also disown you as an American because you have yellow skin. As long as you carry that current attitude of yours, the Vietnamese will never see you as one of us; but the thing that separates us from the Americans is that when you abandon that self-loathing mindset and start to connect with who you really are, the Vietnamese will always welcome you back. Pick your path - one will lead you down a very disillusioned and lonely road.

You are wrong. Americans (at least where I live) don't judge you based on ethnicity or looks. America has provided a lot of things to my family. The living standards, education, pop culture, opportunities here is incomparable to that of Vietnam. I will always be loyal to the country that has changed my parents, and my life.

And Vietnam has fed and raised 100 generations of your family. Without Vietnam, you're nothing but a speck of dust.

Hmmm... I think we just lost one of our Viet "brother" in one of 80 million.

Thank you Vietnam for what you have done for my ancestors. But its time to move on.

OMG. Wow you can really apply such words in the context of self-identity? No matter what, your flesh and blood belongs to Vietnam and the Vietnamese people. If you want to move on, go and kill yourself and hopefully in your next life you'll become a "true" American

Alright, that's it. Everyone say "yee" to ban Derek from Viet forever. "Yee"

All oppose? Nay..

Then you are truly naive. Like I said, we all get along with Americans. But race has always been a fundamental prejudice in humans. In the end, if you strip that politically correct BS where we're all one big colorblind happy human race family idea that Americans try to promote for the sake of appearing open-minded, then most white people will always side with their fellow white people. If America, or anywhere else, is as perfect as you want to believe, then Asian men being portrayed as weak, sexually unattractive, Asian women being portrayed as nothing more than sex objects, Asians making less than whites of similar skills and backgrounds, and increasing hate crimes towards Asians would not exist.

You're going to be in one hell of a rude awakening when you start to realize just how imperfect America is.

One thing I want you to know is how old you are.





Normally, I would say each one of our Vietnamese brothers and sisters are precious, but I think we have an exception if this guy continues to reject his identity for the comfort of fitting in with the majority.

Nah... killing myself would stop my contributions to the American society. Dude, you're very hostile.

er....i ono..wouldn't careless. I got a few friends that is like this as well.

I'm not hostile. The last people that I would be hostile to are the Vietnamese people. All I'm trying to say is that if you don't truly appreciate your root and true homeland, you'll never grow up as a human being.

Some of you guys should be more open minded like Cuong.