Language Lessons

The Vietnamese Language is a linguistic maze. Every syllable offers 6 opportunities to mistakenly use the wrong tone and turn a perfectly worded sentence into complete gibberish. In a modest time investment, I have spent about 6 hours reading through our Vietnamese quick phrase book, and in that time I have mastered 3 words. I wouldn't find this overly frustrating were it not for the fact that I have had such committed help from locals; all of whom have patiently repeated corrections to my misspoken phrases until they are blue in the face. The problem is this: The sentence "Toi Chua Laa." means "I am very tired.", but only if read with the appropriate inflections. If you take the wrong tone or use the wrong intonation, you could just as easily say "I not yet strange." or "I to be Pagoda.". The nonsensical possibilities are endless. Bear with me; this isn’t even a real statistic, but it will explain the roots of my struggle:

90% of the Vietnamese language is made up of 3 and 4 letter words. All of which are read in different tones and with different inflections, and when a language is predominantly built up of 3 and four letter words, each word is bound to mean multiple things. "Toi" if I am not mistake has 9 meanings, all with respectively different pronunciations. That's 9 opportunities to mess up everthing you have otherwise said correctly and force the deterioration of our words into indiscernible sounds.
Like I said, it's a linguistic maze, and in my opinion it's an almost impassible one-regardless of how many Vietnamese tutors are willing to help me navigate it.



Maybe its just that the Vietnamese enjoy getting help with English while coaching us though our feeble attempts at their simplest phrases, or maybe it's simply that we keep them laughing, but for whatever reason it is, I've found that we can walk into any shop or restaurant, and all it takes is one mispronunciation, and as a look of confusion transforms into a smile of acknowledgement, I know a language lesson is sure to begin. Through these lessons, Brittany and I have gotten to know our guest house managers, our bus drivers, the local store owners, and most of the wait staff at each meal. We have even made a good friend along the way. We met Hana when we dipped into Le Petite Bistro for a French desert, and while the crème brule was decadent, if the food hadn't kept us coming back, our friendship with Hana would have. Two dinners and a coffee-date/language-lesson later, Brittany and I weren't any closer to conversing with Hana in Vietnamese, but she was definitely a much closer friend. Na Trang, the town where we met her, is a beach front tourist trap. It's a beautiful and likable one, but a tourist trap none the less. Given that, I am baffled that Hana invested time and energy in us, another young tourist couple, but I am deeply grateful that she did. Even with the language tutorial book she copied for us, I learned very little about the Vietnamese language, but I learned a lot about the Vietnamese people. As a traveler, if you can forgive those jaded by tourists, and if you look past those desperate to sell you something, you will see in the Vietnamese people an outgoing disposition, and a deep nurturing capacity that I think is quite rare these days. We saw that in Hana. What she saw in us I still don’t know.