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Wondering

Last activity 05 September 2012 by dinhHien2006

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dinhHien2006

I am wondering is it really difficult for expats to pronunce vietnamese? Some of my friends who are expats here said that but i am not sure. They know many vietnamese words but  pointless.

Phi Long

I'm Vietnamese and its difficult for me to pronounce Vietnamese

lnigalis

I'm not sure why you say "pointless"? Learning a language takes quite a long time, especially when the language is so different from your first language. For English speakers, Vietnamese tones are very difficult to understand, for example, because in English "table" will only have a different meaning depending on the other words in the sentence, not whether you say it in a low/high/rising tone. It is hard for us to even understand completely. Also, there are sounds in Vietnamese which we do not have in English. Those are REALLY hard to produce and for us to make sense of when we hear them.
I think, as well, many English speakers come from countries where there are many people who speak English with different accents. We have gotten used to finding ways of understanding. I think that maybe there are not a lot of people who come to Vietnam and start speaking Vietnamese with strange accents. It is a lot of work to understand someone who speaks with a strange accent. So maybe that's why you say its hopeless.
It is most important to have patience with expats who are trying to speak Vietnamese and to encourage us. It is hard to try to speak and have people not try equally hard to understand you. I have met lots of wonderful Vietnamese people who are very supportive and who encourage me to try to learn a new word or saying every day. They laugh when I make pronunciation mistakes, but it's ok. They are not doing it to be mean and they tell me to try again. But it will take me a while to get the new sounds and tones down, I know.
But have patience and help us. Many of us DO want to learn Vietnamese but need your help.

dinhHien2006

Hi lnigalis,
The word " pointless" i used means that i do not understand words that they spoke.
i have studied english for some years but it is the first time i heard about something like your example of the word "table". So english is so difficult too :(. Just today i tried to listen to some audio books, they are even for kids such as poems/ stories like winkle winkle litle star, babie, let dogs bark and bite, arrow and song,... But they are still difficult for me :( and some words seem no meanings. .

lnigalis

I completely understand. English is also tricky because there are so many different accents. If you learn English from an American/Canadian and then try to talk with an Australian, it will be very difficult to understand. Hell, even we have trouble understanding them sometimes. :D
Nursery rhymes, like Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, can be difficult because it is not normal, spoken English. It is in a poem form, and will use words that make it sound nice, like a song, rather than being easy to understand. Watching children's tv is easier to understand. Or find a book/cd kit that lets you read and listen at the same time.
And English is difficult because we have so many words. I think it has the most words of any language in the world. We like to borrow them and make them part of English.
Good luck in learning a new language. It is a challenge to be sure.

dinhHien2006

Thanks for the suggestion.
Hi Mr. Phi Long, you should try to learn your mother language ;)

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