Hey, I'm a singaporean & i'm really into vietnam. i oso dunno y. can anyone of u vietnamese give me some info abt vietnam like wat it is like to live in vietnam and so on. thx a million...

I wouldn't mind knowing this myself. I was born in Vietnam myself and left when I was 2 years old. I'd like to visit there someday.

hmm.. which part of vietnam were u born?

I was born in Saigon just after the war but I can't remember anything. My parents tell me things here and there but most of the things they went through over there was negative with the poverty and the war. I'd like to know Vietnam for the positive things. I'm curious. How did you become interested in Vietnamese culture?

oh, saigon.. love that city.. so u plan to go back n visit huh? haf u told ur parents that u want to go to vietnam? it seems that no vietnamese has replied.. how i got interested in vietnamese culture? haha.. it's because of someone hu made me got interested..

Ahhh a little special someone hehe. Ya I told my parents that I wanted to go. Back when I was younger I didn't want to but that phase of my life is over. I've seen a lot of really nice pictures of Vietnam. I think they look gorgeous. Of course that was before the war. Who know's how much it's changed since then. Oh and I love Vietnamese food. It's definately one of my favorites. Welcome to AF by the way seasian.

Most people aren't online at the moment. You might get some replies later on but I don't think I've come across anyone who's actually living in Vietnam that comes on here...

hahahahaha .. yeah. thx! i've watched quite a number of shows about vietnam on discovery channel travel & adventure n i think it's was recorded after the war.. i mean like around da year 2000 or something. vietnam IS a wonderful country. i really hope i would be able to go there someday. i've got a vietnamese school mate but he refuses to tell me stuff about vietnam. ive never tried vietnamese cuisine before actually.. is it very nice? do u like viet rap?

I could tell you a lot about vietnam. What do you want to know first :P

supernovasp,

I assume you've been there recently. What's it like living over there? What are the people like? What were or are your impressions?


seasian,

You've got to try Vietnamese food. I think it is the shiznit! I love pho. I always have a craving for it and those vietnamese spring rolls with the rice paper and dipping sauce. I can't spell it out it's something like goy gong errr...something like that. I'm a die hard chinese food fan but Vietnamese food comes in an extremely close second in my opinion.

supernovasp, erm.. r u a vietnamese or r u just a tourist there? r the vietnamese there friendly?

i really do wanna try vietnamese food but there's a problem. i'm a muslim, u see. so i cannot eat non-halal food. there r a few vietnamese restaurants in singapore but they're all not halal. do u think indonesia has halal vietnamese restaurant? based on my research, there R a few halal restaurants (which serve vietnamese food, of course) in vietnam but right now, i don't haf da money to go to vietnam.

That would be a problem then with the food. There is some use of pork in Vietnamese cooking but there's also many other kinds. Your best option would be to find some recipes and make it yourself if you really want to try it. I don't know about the restaurants in Singapore so I really can't comment on that.

Yeah, i noe there's pork in some of them. I've got a vietnamese cookbook but the pictures shown in there r not very nice. I mean they don't look tempting or watsoeva. Hopefully when i go to vietnam, i would be able to eat halal vietnamese food. So do u noe how to speak vietnamese? i plan to learn vietnamese when i get older.

Actually I don't know how to speak it. My parents are obviously very fluent in it but I was never taught Vietnamese. I speak Cantonese, English, and French. I'm actually VBC. Born in Vietnam into a Chinese home. I've grown up with mostly a Chinese identity with a hint of Vietnamese. I've heard that if you know French then it's easier to learn Vietnamese. Vietnamese is a phonetic language and is probably one of the easier asian languages to study. I wouldn't mind learning it later on but I'd like to study more Chinese first. I don't know if there are any restaurants that cater to halal standards in Vietnam. I haven't heard of a heavy Muslim influence over there. I think the main religion is Buddhism. Correct me if I'm wrong but aren't halal meats supposed to be slaughtered and handled a certain way? I think that would be the biggest problem if that's the case.

Chinese? is it mandarin? Oh.. cool.. But when i go to those online vietnamese language website where they explain how it's pronounced, i get very confused. it's better to have a vietnamese teacher teaching vietnamese language huh? vietnamese language is pretty weird though, i mean the sound of it but it's nice. Ya, there r very lil muslims in vietnam.. mostly r cham people. i noe of a mosque in saigon which has a halal foodcourt. yeah, no doubt da slaughtering of animals r done in a certain way. i was thinking of going to da muslim travel agency in s'pore where they would offer tour packages which will definitely serve halal food. i would really wanna try da beef noodles. what kinda vietnamese dish would u recommend to me?

My dad taught me a few words in Vietnamese both writing and speaking. It's not all that hard. It really depends on what the individual sees as difficult. I think learning Chinese requires a lot more effort. Not only because of the multiple tones you have to incorporate but also because it's not phonetic. A chinese word is attached to a symbol without any recognizable relation to it. Whereas with Vietnamese the letters are pronounced the way it's written. It's just like other European languages. I'm sure your right and going with a tutor or teacher would make things much easier.

The beef soup and noodles is incredible. I recommend that first. Some of the BBQ rice or vermicelli noodles is great as well. I'm getting really hungry just thinking about it.

Wow that's pretty extreme of your consuming yourself in Vietnamese culture over this special someone seasian hehehe . Good luck with that by the way.

So was learning vietnamese difficult for u? Maybe if i really put effort in learning vietnamese, it would be easy for me. is chinese the same as mandarin? cos i noe the basics of mandarin. I joined chinese speech and drama when i was in primary school and that was how i got to improve my chinese. i learned chinese for the first time when i was in kindergarten. chinese is neither hard nor easy.. i can only read the hanyu pinyin.. not the chinese characters but like wo, ni... n so on.

great, cant wait to try vietnamese food! i'll try to look around for halal restaurants. i'll definitely try da beef noodles once i've found a halal restaurant. haha..

the special someone has indeed made me get very interested in vietnam culture. actually, he doesnt know that i'm interested in his country. anyway, have u heard of the sea games? it's coming this december.. can't wait for it!

I don't want to give you the impression that I know Vietnamese. That's not the case at all. I know a few words and phrases at most. I definately don't know enough to carry a conversation. Mandarin is Chinese. It's just a different dialect. There are quite a few different dialects out there. I not familiar with the exact number. Each one is unique in it's own way.

I'm not to familiar with the SEA games at all. We don't get coverage of that over here. Most of the time I'm only interested in basketball. What are the SEA games like? I take it that they are big over there.

About that special guy that you mentioned. Maybe you should take to him about that. It might help to get to know him a little bit better. Just a thought...

Oh by the way. Are you familiar with Arabic? Shukran al-hamdu li-lah

Yup.. sEagames are exciting.. I'm too busy to post anything, will be back later with more info

aznboi,
so is the chinese u're learning mandarin? sorry but i'm kinda confused. do u noe how to read words in vietnamese? yeah, i agree with u that there r many dialects like cantonese, hokkien n teochew. oh ya, i heard from my fren that cantonese is also spoken in vietnam. is it true?

yeah, it's sort of a big event for the southeast asians here.. it's very exciting! it's an event where people from southeast asia compete with one another in all sorts of games like football,chess,basketball,water polo n more.

about the special someone.. hahax, i'd rather not tell him cos he's more of the "mind-ur-own-business" kinda person. there was once when he taught me vietnamese.. but that was only for a while. a few months later, i asked him to translate something for me in vietnamese.. he refused n said that he didn't like me learning his language but that didn't stop me from being interested in vietnamese culture though.

arabic? i only noe a few words but i can read arabic. gosh.. i would really like to reply u by saying welcome in arabic but i dunno how to spell.. heex..

oh yeah, wat's ur religion?

supernovasp,
r u staying in vietnam? if u r, r u gonna watch any of da sports live in da stadium itself?

I speak Cantonese at home but it's not at 100%. I don't know a lot of Vietnamese just a few words and phrases. Cantonese is spoken in Vietnam. I think there's a quite a few Chinese living in Vietnam. My family was part of that group. They mainly came during WWII when Japan invaded China.

I'm glad to hear that the games will be starting soon. Sounds really big down there. Will you be going to the games?

I think that's great that your still interested in Vietnamese culture. I think there's a lot to be gained from it.

It's ok if you can't reply in Arabic. I don't know a lot. Just a few phrases here and there that I've picked up. I probably wouldn't understand anyways.

I was raised Christian but my family is Buddhist. I think at this stage in my life religiion isn't a big factor. I know it's sad to say but like a lot of things in my life at the moment I don't know where that stands. I wish I had answers though.

Oh, i see.. wat language do u normally speak to ur parents? actually da qualifying rounds for football have already started. the first match i watched was s'pore vs myanmar. oh gosh, s'pore is so lousy. myanmar is quite good.. arghh, i would go if i could but it's held in vietnam n unfortunately, i can't go cos i dun haf da money to go there. hmmm.. if u were to go anywhere in the world, where would u wanna go? arabic is kinda easy.. it's very easy to pronounce. aww.. that's so sad but i'm sure u would get the answers later in life. try to find out.. if possible. gd luck to u!

How is knowing French relevent in learning Vietnamese? They come from completely different language families. The only thing they have in common is that they both use Roman letters. But even then, the pronounciation is different. Contrary to popular belief, Quoc Ngu, the Vietnamese romanization system was created by the French but the Portuguese preists who were trying to spread Christianity to Vietnam.



The Quoc Ngu is a phonetic script but it's only been used officially for at most the past 50 years. For THOUSANDS of years, Hanzi (Chinese characters) were used. There was a brief period where Chu Nom was used. Chu Nom was Hanzi with many characters modified to reflect Vietnamese pronounciation by combining two characters, one tells the meaning and the other tells how it's supposed to be pronounced in Vietnamese. Here is a good link about Chu Nom if you're interested.

http://www.omniglot.com/writing/chunom.htm



Mandarin Chinese has 4 tones while Vietnamese has 5 (not including all the accent marks). Mandarin Chinese has two phonetic systems, Hanyu Pinyin and Zhuyin Fuhao. Hanyu Pinyin, used in mainland China, Singapore, and many universities around the world, uses Roman letters. Zhuyin Fuhao, used in Taiwan and many Chinese schools around the world, consists of simple Chinese symbols generally no more than 2 strokes. Both systems have the same sounds from Mandarin, just written differently.



A Chinese WORD does not equal a Chinese CHARACTER. A Chinese word, for example, could consists of a single, two, three or more characters.

One character: Ren (人) - Person
Two characters: Shouji (手机) - Cell phone
Three characters: Bangongshi (办公室) - Office
Four characters: Dixinyinli (地心引力) - Gravity

Also, Quoc Ngu isn't pronounced exactly like it's spelled. Accent marks play an important role because it decides how each vowel would be pronounced. For example, there are 5 different ways to pronounce A, 6 for E, 4 for I... etc. The exact numbers I'm not sure of but it's about right. Not only that, even native Vietnamese speakers can't tell apart from many sounds including the infamous S and X.



Mandarin is the official Chinese dialect not only in mainland China, but also Taiwan and Singapore. Hong Kong is the only place where Cantonese, a non-Mandarin Chinese dialect is the official language.

There are 7 major Chinese dialect groups with Mandarin being the majority which covers pretty much everywhere from Northeast China to Southwest China while the other 6 covers Southeast China. Here is a good map.



Green - Mandarin
Red - Wu (Shanghaihua)
Orange - Gan
Pink - Xiang
Yellow - Kejia (Hakka)
Blue - Yue (Cantonese)
Teal - Min (Taiwanese/Fujianese)
Blue - Non-Chinese languages spoken by ethnic minorities.

Although today, you can go just about anywhere and you'll find people who speak Mandarin, many still speak their native dialect with each other, especially in Southern China.

wow.... you really know a lot about viet nam... O.o... haha... sucks for me i dont know so much.... xD

WEll, back to the topic, please.
If you really wanted to know more, ask the elderly, they know more than the people these days.

How? If i remember my history right, the french turned vietnam, lao, and cambodia into one of their colonies for exploitation in the post WW2 era. they then changed the whole region and call it Indo China to make the people more hormogenize so they can control it easier. hence, the name Indo China. And i think it's still a disgrace to see many oriental places still use the name: Indo China Market, Indo China Restaurant, etc. As to how french is related to vietnamese language, over the span of domination, the french culture and language is deeply enrooted.

If you know vietnamese at all, you should know well for the fact that some of the vocabulary in Vietnam are borrowed from the French. and how is it possible for Portugese priest to spread christianity in vietnam? the french are radical catholic, so your claim that portugese priests who spread christianity to vietnam doesn't make a lot of sense. besides, it was their colony. and even then the Quoc Ngu not only use Roman Alphabet it also uses some of the writing system the french adopt i.e. accents and alphabet pronunciation (which is a critical party to learn how to write and read Quoc Ngu). if you look at the french alphabet and the vietnamese alphabet, you'll find their pronounciation are very similar. So for you to say there's no relationship, you are obviously just haven't gotten quiet there yet.


"officially used?" i don't understand these two words. If i remember right, around 1954 it's already well established.




Great, when are you going to start learning Vietnamese? of all the bull crap from the website, i still don't see how they can critique the language without knowing it. this is like a blind leading a blind. I'm completely and profusely confounded when you said Quoc Ngu isn't pronounced exactly how it spells. yes, there are many ways to pronounce an A, depending on the accents it has, but those different ways like,a, a(, and a^ are also a part of the alphabet. therefore, if Quoc Ngu is a writing system, which the alphabet is a part of it, how is it possible it is not pronounced how it is spelled? Besides, those native vietnamese you are talking about are the illiterate ones, and i think it's about time for you to change sources. Words start with an "S" is pronounced with heavier tone, like how you pronounce S in the word Suck. And words with X are pronounced with lighter tone, like how you would pronounce S in the word Saturation, and similarly words start with "tr" and "ch" apply the rule respectively.



i'm also lost as to what you are trying to say.

That's funny, when I learned Vietnamese, I don't noticed nearly as many (if any) French vocabulary in Vietnamese as Chinese vocabulary. Again, French and Vietnamese are two completely different languages. As much as you wish to think that somehow Vietnam is connected to France, the truth remains, knowing French will not help learning Vietnamese and vice versa. Vietnamese, Korean, and Japanese were deeply influenced by Chinese for thousands of years, yet knowing Chinese won't help you learn Vietnamese, Korean or Japanese and vice versa because they are all different languages.



That's almost laughable if your claim isn't so pathetically incorrect. There are much more differences than similiarities between French and Vietnamese pronounciation. The first thing that comes to mind is there is no "f" in Vietnamese, instead it's spelled with "ph" while French uses "f".



If you don't understand what "officially used" means then I'm not sure you qualified to present a serious discussion. I don't know the exact year that Quoc Ngu was officially used in Vietnam but if it's 1954 as you claim then I would be correct in saying it's been around for 50 years.



Hahaha the Vietnamese I was speaking of are illterate? I wonder what they will think about that considering most of them are scholars. Just face it, Quoc Ngu has its kinks and drop your Vietnamese superiority. Any form of superiority should be crushed like yours.

Getting kinda interesting here huh? Anyway, in 1954 the governments of both North and South Vietnam adopted Quoc Ngu as their national script.

well, if you are literally trying to look for french in a vietnamese class, then you are obviously trying to learn french and not vietnamese. vietnamese words with french origin don't nescessary present themselves with the origin spelling. they are fixed to fit into the writing system. example, ca` rot which mean carrot and buyet (not sure how it is spelled cause it was borrowed from french) which mean bus. if you look up the pronounciation for these words, they are in every way similar. As much as you wish to say that french does not influence vietnamese at all, as i've already explained How and with Facts, then you are doing nothing but wishful thinking.

why not knowing chinese won't help you learning vietnamese? Have you ever watch chinese movies with subtitle in english? if you do, you wouldn't make that statement, but you don't, so i will name some example where the words are exactly how it is prounced and have the exact meaning even though i don't know chinese: ma~ = horse, chua^n bi. = ready, and su phu.= master. Do you also know that korean, japanese, and vietnamese were branched off from their chinese origin? And yes, as you stated, they are different language: Chinese, korean, japnese, chinese, but do you also know that english, french, spanish, and latin are different languages, too? and the fact that if you know latin, in similar way, then those languages, which offshoot from latin, will be easier.




yeah? what about a, b, c, d, e, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, v. the pronounciations for these letters are very very similar between vietnamese and french, which i detaily explained in the previous post. if you know anything, i mean anything at all, you wouldn't be so smart with only one example.



man, if you think i don't understand what "officially used" means, i think you've got issues. if something is "officially used", it doesn't mean that it is new. say you are a queer who start having interest in the same sex at early ages, but you are too scared to tell anybody because people think it is morally wrong. however, when you grow up, you "officially" declare and register as a Queer. this doesn't mean that you are a queer over night. nor does it mean you are a queer from that point on. Similarly, it doesn't mean that if a language is "officially used", it doesn't mean in anyway that it is the starting point. Get it? therefore, "officially used" is officially rediculous. 50 years in used? i guess my dad was speaking Chinese when he was born.



well, if they are sholar, then scholar like yourself should be proud about knowing nothing. my Vietnamese superiority? how is stating the facts in anyway presenting myself as such? But yeah, if given a chance, i'll show you--my Vietnamese Superiority, literally.

Actually, French is entirely different than Vietnamese, even though they were colonized, but knowing cantonese is very helpful to learn vietnamese. About 70% words in Vietnamese are chinese borrow, although it decreases to about 40 to 50% when two people talking to each other. There are quite few words that are borrowed from French such as pho-mat- for chese, xichlo- for cyclo etc. And Kulong is right, the alphabet is invented by a Portugese priest, in fact his tombs is near the Nostre Dame Catherdral in Saigon. There were a lot of European tried to spread Christianity to Vietnam especially French, Portugese, and Dutch. They are not that succesful I have to say. Much of French influences on Vietnamese are food. Just food.

I'm Vietnamese and I have to say Quoc Ngu majory sucks. It misinteprets Vietnamese history and culture, deceiving that Vietnamese culture is greatly influenced by French while it's actually minute and it has too many flaws.
There are many people nowaday want to go back to use chu nom, and I'm one of them.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Oh yea, from the Tran to the Nguyen dynasties, most of official documents are written in chu nom. It is SAD that now only handful of people that are chunom literate

Hi my Vietnamese friends,

I'm new here. I find this topic very interesting.

I should add something to history of our Vietnamese languages.

Vietnam had been known as Van Lang, Lac Viet, Au Lac, then Nam Viet before it was annexed by Han Empire (Chinese). The question “did Vietnam have its own written language prior to Han Dynasty?” still remains unanswered.

During a thousand of years under Chinese rule, of course, Vietnamese used Chinese characters for their written language but spoke with Vietnamese dialect (?). In 939 AD, Vietnam gained independence from China then established its own kingdom but official written language was still Han (Chinese) throughout many Vietnamese Dynasties. In 14th century, some Vietnamese scholars, had developed “Chu Nom” to replace Han language.
Chu Nom is Han-like script but it was modified so that it is unreadable to Chinese people . The problem with Chu Nom is if you want to learn, you must know Han language.
Because of its complication, Chu Nom has almost never been official written language in Vietnamese kingdom throughout history.

The only Vietnamese dynasty used Chu Nom as its official language is King Quang Trung in 18th century. But the King was short lived. As a result, the last Vietnamese Dynasty Nguyen (1803-1945) reused Han language as its official language until the beginning of 20th century.

I will come back with this topic and provide some proofs to show that Chinese (not Chu Nom) is official language in the Nguyen dynasty.

Last Vietnamese Nguyen Dynasty Coins:

Gia Long (1802-1820)



Gia-Long-Thong-Bao

Bao Dai, last Vietnamese Emperor (1926-1945)



Bao-Dai-Thong-Bao

If any Chinese can read the characters in the coins, the language must be Chinese not Chu Nom.

Any Chinese here, please clarify. Seasian can tell, right? Thanks.

As I said, show me the money, I'll tell what culture you belong

Hi seasian! Thanks for your interest in Vietnam. though im not sure you are still here, i hope that you are. I've been trying hard to post more stuff in this section.


Yes. the french did not create Quoc Ngu. It was the work of many international peoples, even by a japanese man named yajiro. I too wish to see Chu Nom again. but i think it should return as a supplement to the current writing language.

Vietnamese, japanese, and korean are sino-xenic languages. They share a lot of vocab with chinese. If you learn one it will help you learn the vocabulary words of the others. that is if you figure out the tricks on some of the pronunciation. Well... in theory though. there are some words that dont work out too well. (Keep in mind though none of those four languages are related and have different grammer and syntax.)

those look like chinese coins. ill get back to you on what they say, etc.

The first coin from the top clock-wise says:

Jia (excellent; joyful; auspicious) Tong (pass through, common,communicate) Long (prosperous, plentiful, abundant) Bao (treasure, jewel; precious, rare)

The second coin from the top clock-wise says:

Bao (protect, safeguard, defend, care) Tong (pass through, common,communicate) Da (big, great, vast, large, high) Bao (treasure, jewel; precious, rare)

Ancient Chinese coins generally have "positive" characters written on them. They don't necessarily make much sense when read out loud because they are not supposed to. They are more of a symbol than a message.

They read from top to bottom then right to left.
Most Chinese coins have "Tong bao" on it. As kulong said Tong = pass, Bao = treasure. Tong bao basically means currency. a treasure that you can use throughout China.
From top to bottom is the name of reign. 年號

That makes more sense, haha.