Why don't Vietnamese understand Vietnamese spoken by a foreigner?

MarkinNam wrote:

as 70 yr old said it can also be the surprise-inattention Vn people get in us using their lingo just start small "xin loi" is good, it breaks the ice

Only sometimes


















s

Old Saigon Hand wrote:

I have been digging into this topic for a couple of months now and am speaking as a foreigner who used to speak "intelligible" Vietnamese thirty years ago. Time has dimmed most of my memories of those times, but recent visits back to Saigon are rekindling some words, as I walk down the street for instance and see a shop with Hot toc on the sign I go "aha a barber shop" and so on. I am also using Google translate a lot and that helps but (and this is in my opinion only) it seems to me the Southern Vietnamese which used to be spoken has become closer to the Hanoi dialect and has become more formal.

Forgive my spelling and lack of diacriticals but I used to get by with a simple cam on or cam on Nhu lam but now it seems I should be saying cảm ơn rất nhiều instead, and if that is the case my old fluency may end up being more of a hindrance than a help.

I would love to hear comments on this if possible.

Even more than I have, my wife has noticed the changes in the Vietnamese language over the years. These changes have given her some problems and she is a native speaker of Vietnamese. But, she has spent more than half of her life in America and did work for the American Navy in Viet Nam.

cảm ơn rất nhiều  is 'thanks very much in English and is not necessary; cảm ơn - is fine. my question is; who is telling you this?

My wife and I were discussing the spoken Vietnamese of a Japanese Physical Therapist that we know. Her Vietnamese is excellent.  But, the rhythm of her speech is completely Japanese. The rhythm of speech is also very important and is something that I am bad at.

Note, I was stationed in Japan for a bit over 2 years 40 odd years ago  and have mostly forgotten my Japanese. But . . .

Hi, read your problem you post here, it makes me lol. Thanks
And i teach Vietnamese for foreigner, i could tell you that is very true. I see my students always ask me: Ohh mannn, why do the people there, they dont understand me, i speak Vietnamese man. Whyyyy?
Then i ask them show me some sentenses:
-hong ga zi=>>>>> what ???
-hong ga zi...=>>> what???
-"you´re welcome"=>>> ohh i see 😁. Its" không có gì"
Another:
-i buy shoes, go around and dont see any big size there, then call seller: " thôi muôn kai lon" then her eyes open maximum. I repeat: " thôi muôn kai lon"...=>>> what?????
Mannn, i told my student that i cant undertand too, and at last, he made others think: Ahh this man want a pussy. Because, "big-lớn" and "pussy-lon" have the similar sound.
After that, my student knows thats very dangerous if they sound incorrect.
Now, they are better with correct sound.hehe

I do believe wrote:

Yes, sometimes I feel guilty for speaking sharply to a waitress for what is obvious to me a simple lack of listening. It's pretty obvious I'm a foreigner and if I'm speaking to you in your language................anyway my Vietnamese friend puts her hand on my shoulder and says sternly, "calm down!"  Then I realize the person waiting on me probably has little education working for peanuts and maybe a little afraid they won't be able to communicate with the "Ugly American".
But really how hard is it to understand "cà phê sữa dá, ít sữa"???

Perhaps if you had said "nhieu sua", they probably would have understood?

Another issue is the various Vietnamese dialects, though this is less of an issue than it was during the 1970s. Back in the 1970s Vietnamese living in what is now called Đồng Tháp, had trouble understanding the Northern Vietnamese dialect.

Even in Saigon 1974-1975, my Vietnamese language instructor made a serious effort to make sure that, I learned Southern Vietnamese. As I'd spent 1970-1972 either in Đồng Tháp or Saigon, this was fairly easy to do.

@ I Do Believe:  I agree with Ngattt. The reason the staff at the dentist office couldn't understand your sentence "Răng có đau với lạnh" because it didn't make sense. Had you said "Răng bị đau khi ăn thức ăn lạnh" then it's more than likely they wouldn't have any problem understanding your complaint.

"Răng có đau với lạnh", literally translated as "Teeth have pain with cold" and not "Teeth are painful when eating cold food." The two sentences in English might be interchangeable for an ESL speaker but not in Vietnamese language.

"Đau" should always be preceded by "bị" (to suffer). When "có đau" are together, they're usually posed as a question: "Có đau không?" "Have (you) any pain?"

When used in a statement, it's only to stress a positive "Tôi có bị đau" "Yes, I do have pain."

why do all Vietnamese understand this guy????? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cigPFst … ubs_digest

@Mark -- The man's accent is excellent, and most of what he says in Vietnamese is in perfect tone and pitch. His mid and high rising are very clearly differentiated, which is a very difficult thing for Westerners to achieve. He evidently learned the language from a Hanoiese and he had learned it well. The dialect spoken in Hanoi and Haiphong is the purest Vietnamese. Many people in the South can't distinguished between dipping-rising and breaking-rising, and here he does that with ease. Kudos to the man and his tutor.

Vietnamese is a tonal language, and unless it is spoken exact they often cannot understand it. for instance "da" can mean ice or kick. as an english speaker if I said kick to you you would not even think of the word ice. Voi can mean elephant or with. If you say da without the right tone it will mean nothing. Gota understand the eyebrows above the letter! And then some vietnamese just like to take the mickey out of foriegners. I usually revert to english.

Sappergeorge wrote:

Vietnamese is a tonal language, and unless it is spoken exact they often cannot understand it. for instance "da" can mean ice or kick. as an english speaker if I said kick to you you would not even think of the word ice. Voi can mean elephant or with. If you say da without the right tone it will mean nothing. Gota understand the eyebrows above the letter! And then some vietnamese just like to take the mickey out of foriegners. I usually revert to english.

Yeah me too.

Are you a Sapper?

Eodmatt,
yes and an old one at that. the language is a challenge, hand gestures and actions can be used , should have seen me asking for an egg!  Trung is the word pronounced chung .Are you in the Vung Tau area.

>>eyebrows above the letter<<

Have never heard that term before.   

Sappergeorge wrote:

Eodmatt,
yes and an old one at that. the language is a challenge, hand gestures and actions can be used , should have seen me asking for an egg!  Trung is the word pronounced chung .Are you in the Vung Tau area.

HI George,
Me too. A Sapper from the era 2413. Was 2 A E S Hohne and Iserlohn, then went 33 EOD for most of the rest of my 22. Finished as RE1 at NATO DEODS. I lived in Vung Tau in 2000 for about a year then left Vn until 2005 when I came back for a short stint and then came back again in 2008 and 2009 doing EOD support of seismic surveys in the Mekong Delta. I now live in Ho Chi Minh.

Yes the language can be a challenge since half of the people here pronounce words differently from the other half.

Cheers

Matt

UBIQUE!

Ciambella wrote:

@Mark -- The man's accent is excellent, and most of what he says in Vietnamese is in perfect tone and pitch. His mid and high rising are very clearly differentiated, which is a very difficult thing for Westerners to achieve. He evidently learned the language from a Hanoiese and he had learned it well. The dialect spoken in Hanoi and Haiphong is the purest Vietnamese. Many people in the South can't distinguished between dipping-rising and breaking-rising, and here he does that with ease. Kudos to the man and his tutor.

All I can say is that his tonsils are wired up wrong. 

Had a good chuckle when I began reading this thread.  My daughter and I have asked the exact same question to one another here in Costa Rica.  "Our Español is great, why can't the Ticos understand us?"  I would think espanol would be MUCH easier than Vietnamese, but ????

My conclusion over time has been simple - annunciation.  Or, in some cases, have two words that sound the same to us but to a Costa Rican are pronounced slightly different to create a different meaning.   Perfect example, pero and perro.  One means "but" and the other "dog."  If you roll your tongue for the double r, it gives it a totally different meaning. 

I'm sure it's the same there as it is here, many if not most expats have an incredibly heavy accent.  Many don't even seem to try to annunciate and even to my ears, and with my poor Español, they sound garbled, like they have a heavy tongue.

Conclusion, no matter where we go in the world, expats simply have lazy tongues.   

My spouse speaks Latin American Spanish well enough, but as soon as he knew that the person with whom he conversed spoke English, he switched back to his mother tongue.  While he can roll double r with the best of them, his flat intonation makes it rather difficult for him to learn Vietnamese.  In the last 20+ years marrying to me, he has managed to count to 99 (the word 100 is not in the same pattern with the others so he often forgets), utter a few colloquial expressions, and know a few food names.  I'm not holding out for more.

OTOH, Vietnamese language has never held any important place in our family life, to the point that my (adult) children neither speak nor understand Vietnamese AT ALL, so the blame should be placed squarely on me.

ExpatDave wrote:

Had a good chuckle when I began reading this thread.  My daughter and I have asked the exact same question to one another here in Costa Rica.  "Our Español is great, why can't the Ticos understand us?"  I would think espanol would be MUCH easier than Vietnamese, but ????

My conclusion over time has been simple - annunciation.  Or, in some cases, have two words that sound the same to us but to a Costa Rican are pronounced slightly different to create a different meaning.   Perfect example, pero and perro.  One means "but" and the other "dog."  If you roll your tongue for the double r, it gives it a totally different meaning. 

I'm sure it's the same there as it is here, many if not most expats have an incredibly heavy accent.  Many don't even seem to try to annunciate and even to my ears, and with my poor Español, they sound garbled, like they have a heavy tongue.

Conclusion, no matter where we go in the world, expats simply have lazy tongues.   

In some cases, perhaps. Many years ago I was in Central America in a small town and in those days I used to smoke cigars. I had smoked my last dog turd the night before whilst drinking Belikan beer with some Mayan chaps, so I went into a shop (the small town shops there generally sell anything and everything) and asked for "un burro". The look of disbelief on the shop owners face when, in answer to his question "why do you want a burro", I replied "I want to smoke it of course" , was priceless.

It was explained to me that, prolly due to my hangover I had mistakenly asked the shop keeper for a burro (donkey) instead of what I really wanted which was puro (cigar - but thats only one meaning of the word in Spanish).

Here in Vietnam, my (Vietnamese) wife pulls her hair out in frustration when we go out and I ask for something in Vietnamese and the shop assistant or whatever replies, waggling a hand at shoulder height: "không hiểu"

And when my wife asks the person why they didn't understand my perfectly pronounced Vietnamese (for she has coached me and corrected me incessantly), they invariably respond "because he is a foreigner"

However I have noticed that  when people are occasionally rude to me and I respond with the ultimate rude phrase in Vietnamese which starts with the letters DMM, they ALL instantly understand EXACTLY what I said. Odd that. It seems that being unexpectedly able to respond to rudeness with rudeness in their own language concentrates the mind.

So I think in many cases, as a Dutch friend (who is also married to a Vietnamese lady and who works as an engineer in Vn),  told me: "They often just don't listen".

Now, since I also speak German I have no problem pronouncing the throat clearing catarrhal Vietnamese Kh as in Khong! Nor do I have any problem pronouncing the Vietnamese Ng, as in ....ngày mai. But it seems that some of the people in shops and bars simply don't expect foreigners to be able to speak the Vietnamese language.

i've been learning for about a year and they understand me fine for what I can say.  You just have to get them in the frame of mind that you are speaking to them in Vietnamese. Also you need to pronounce the words correctly, with the right tones and the right grammar

eodmatt wrote:

Now, since I also speak German I have no problem pronouncing the throat clearing catarrhal Vietnamese Kh as in Khong! Nor do I have any problem pronouncing the Vietnamese Ng, as in ....ngày mai.

Do you have any problem pronouncing Nguyễn (*not* in Southern dialect)?

By itself, the tilde (dấu ngã) is a simple high breaking-rising tone, not difficult after a few tries, but when it precedes N for the ending of a word, then it becomes a bit tricky.

BTW, this pronunciation of Nguyễn, supposedly from a Northern Vietnamese, is incorrect (as many things on Wiki.)  It has the rising but lacks the breaking tone:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ … ect%29.ogg

Another BTW, do you know that DMM has the same initials and the same meaning in all dialects, but the words are not the same?

Once, on a train from Munich to Nuremberg, I suddenly heard that expression loudly exclaimed at the other end of the car.  It shocked me greatly; I immediately left spouse with the luggage and went to investigate.  It was a well-dressed woman in her mid 50s talking to someone on the phone.  She had no idea that her voice carried, and that some strangers could understand her very well (whether she ever learned that ladies/women didn't say that in public was moot.)  I didn't make eye contact, just walked back to spouse and pretended that nothing happened.

I have lived in Vietnam for 10 years and I admit to a limited vocabulary in Vietnamese as well as poor pronunciation of many words. But all the various explanations of why Vietnamese don't recognize their own language are only partially correct and some just plain wrong. Especially those who think perfect tonal pronunciation is a must.  As a senior who has lived and worked in several countries as well as visiting many more, I have a pretty broad perspective. So what generalizations can we make? None. I have had any number of Vietnamese who are astounded that I speak their language so well, so clear. I also have had many Vietnamese tell me that I speak very poorly and some who cannot understand a single word. Most of the time I associate with Vietnamese who can't speak a word of English and we manage to communicate. Except for Pierre all my friends are Vietnamese and I do business, go to the hospital, go shopping and many other daily chores all in Vietnamese. Today I was in the eye hospital to get checked and I noticed I was the only foreigner. Why was I the only foreigner in a large busy hospital? The staff looked after me realizing I had language shortcomings. Perhaps the question is why don't foreigners learn basic Vietnamese? Perhaps they are too busy guzzling beer. It can be difficult and sometimes my impatience shows and am sorry for that.  Yes we foreigners may have a lazy tongue but some Vietnamese have lazy ears.

Ciambella wrote:

eodmatt wrote:

Now, since I also speak German I have no problem pronouncing the throat clearing catarrhal Vietnamese Kh as in Khong! Nor do I have any problem pronouncing the Vietnamese Ng, as in ....ngày mai.

Do you have any problem pronouncing Nguyễn (*not* in Southern dialect)?

By itself, the tilde (dấu ngã) is a simple high breaking-rising tone, not difficult after a few tries, but when it precedes N for the ending of a word, then it becomes a bit tricky.

BTW, this pronunciation of Nguyễn, supposedly from a Northern Vietnamese, is incorrect (as many things on Wiki.)  It has the rising but lacks the breaking tone:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ … ect%29.ogg

Another BTW, do you know that DMM has the same initials and the same meaning in all dialects, but the words are not the same?

Once, on a train from Munich to Nuremberg, I suddenly heard that expression loudly exclaimed at the other end of the car.  It shocked me greatly; I immediately left spouse with the luggage and went to investigate.  It was a well-dressed woman in her mid 50s talking to someone on the phone.  She had no idea that her voice carried, and that some strangers could understand her very well (whether she ever learned that ladies/women didn't say that in public was moot.)  I didn't make eye contact, just walked back to spouse and pretended that nothing happened.

I have no probs pronouncing Nguyen  (I can pronounce it any way you like), having been taught to do so by my own personal LHD, who is from a Hanoiese family, born in Dalat, and educated in Saigon to masters level, having lived in Saigon for 20 years (she also speaks Korean and some Chinese as well as English).

But, er, just out of interest, it's a bit unusual to say the least, to hear a female using that kind of language anywhere outside of Vietnam. It's also a bit unusual for an older (Vietnamese?) woman to be talking so loudly on her phone that she could be heard at the other end of the train car.

My experience of Vietnamese people of the phone is that the women generally speak softly in normal tones, whilst the men employ the US Hillbilly method of yelling between counties.

I did once know a lady in Vung Tau who often used the DMM phrase, but she was an "hourly paid worker" and not someone you would take home to meet mum without a bit of preparation.

I do believe wrote:

I have lived in Vietnam for 10 years and I admit to a limited vocabulary in Vietnamese as well as poor pronunciation of many words. But all the various explanations of why Vietnamese don't recognize their own language are only partially correct and some just plain wrong. Especially those who think perfect tonal pronunciation is a must.  As a senior who has lived and worked in several countries as well as visiting many more, I have a pretty broad perspective. So what generalizations can we make? None. I have had any number of Vietnamese who are astounded that I speak their language so well, so clear. I also have had many Vietnamese tell me that I speak very poorly and some who cannot understand a single word. Most of the time I associate with Vietnamese who can't speak a word of English and we manage to communicate. Except for Pierre all my friends are Vietnamese and I do business, go to the hospital, go shopping and many other daily chores all in Vietnamese. Today I was in the eye hospital to get checked and I noticed I was the only foreigner. Why was I the only foreigner in a large busy hospital? The staff looked after me realizing I had language shortcomings. Perhaps the question is why don't foreigners learn basic Vietnamese? Perhaps they are too busy guzzling beer. It can be difficult and sometimes my impatience shows and am sorry for that.  Yes we foreigners may have a lazy tongue but some Vietnamese have lazy ears.

Just so, just so. I rest my case, ladies and gentlemen of the jury.

I do believe wrote:

MarkinNam wrote:

as 70 yr old said it can also be the surprise-inattention Vn people get in us using their lingo just start small "xin loi" is good, it breaks the ice

Only sometimes

Frankly I love the way I can call everyone Em OI! (well nearly everyone) since almost everyone is younger than me. the word OI being a little bit rude in the UK. I also find it amusing when touching glasses and saying "cheers", when I make sure my glass is higher than theirs. I only do it for amusement though. Some of the younger men assume that I don't know and deliberately try to get their glass above mine. The expression on their faces is fun to see.

Its like in Thailand. Men (in particular,) if a little contemptuous of foreigners, will put their hands together at stomach height when greeting you instead of respectfully at chin level or higher. So I do the same - only a little lower. Only for fun though.

I had an interesting one last night in meeting a professor (genuine one) who is my age. Whilst he made sure his glass was above everyone else, he very firmly made sure that his glass was exactly level with mine. He is a very courteous bloke though.


















s

eodmatt wrote:

But, er, just out of interest, it's a bit unusual to say the least, to hear a female using that kind of language anywhere outside of Vietnam. It's also a bit unusual for an older (Vietnamese?) woman to be talking so loudly on her phone that she could be heard at the other end of the train car.

That's why I was so shocked.  She's well-dressed, although had a coarse look about her. 

It's not just outside of Vietnam, it's in Germany!  To this day, I'm still baffled every time I remember that incident.

Ciambella wrote:

eodmatt wrote:

But, er, just out of interest, it's a bit unusual to say the least, to hear a female using that kind of language anywhere outside of Vietnam. It's also a bit unusual for an older (Vietnamese?) woman to be talking so loudly on her phone that she could be heard at the other end of the train car.

That's why I was so shocked.  She's well-dressed, although had a coarse look about her. 

It's not just outside of Vietnam, it's in Germany!  To this day, I'm still baffled every time I remember that incident.

Well, remember that during the Cold War, East Germany had some affiliations with Vietnam and many Vietnamese attended university in E. Germany during that period and there was a lot of travel between the two countries, with numerous Vietnamese staying there.

What I meant about Germany is that even though I'm a well-behaved person, I was even more circumspect whenever I was there, so I thought other people would have felt the same way about the country.  Guess not.

The glass leveling up is a very old game (way before my father's time) that will never die.

Ciambella wrote:

What I meant about Germany is that even though I'm a well-behaved person, I was even more circumspect whenever I was there, so I thought other people would have felt the same way about the country.  Guess not.

The glass leveling up is a very old game (way before my father's time) that will never die.

Yes the glass levelling thing is a cultural throwback. Fun though because most Vietnamese blokes think that we don't know.

Well, you know.... Quite a few Vietnamese people left Vietnam thirty or more years ago and not all of them were well educated in the conventional  sense.

I do believe wrote:

cảm ơn rất nhiều  is 'thanks very much in English and is not necessary; cảm ơn - is fine. my question is; who is telling you this?

Actually that is a good point. On several occasions during the last couple of years, someone has corrected my (limited) Vietnamese and told me to say xyzzy etc ad later, my (Vietnamese) wife has told me that what they said was bull shine.

Vietnam is a rich tapestry ....

Vietnamese is quite interesting as once you learn a few words you will automatically know some other combo words which you might not have known about. For eg water is nước and sweet is ngọt. Fresh water is nước ngọt (literally water sweet). So you get 3 words for the price of 2

eodmatt wrote:

I do believe wrote:

cảm ơn rất nhiều  is 'thanks very much in English and is not necessary; cảm ơn - is fine. my question is; who is telling you this?

Actually that is a good point. On several occasions during the last couple of years, someone has corrected my (limited) Vietnamese and told me to say xyzzy etc ad later, my (Vietnamese) wife has told me that what they said was bull shine.

Vietnam is a rich tapestry ....

I've heard Vietnamese say cảm ơn nhiều with emphasis on nhiều (much / many) when very thankful...

It's not going to make any difference to foreigners, but in correct Vietnamese, "cảm ơn rất nhiều" is not a complete sentence.

"Cảm ơn ông/bà/anh/chị/em/cô/cháu rất nhiều" is the polite way to say thank YOU very much.  Otherwise, it would only mean "thanks very much", which is acceptable in English but not quite there in Vietnamese.  Vietnamese language is much more formal than English, even when spoken amongst family members, and personal pronouns/terms of address cannot be skipped under any circumstances.

The emphasis, BTW, is on "rất" ̣(very).

Ciambella wrote:

It's not going to make any difference to foreigners, but in correct Vietnamese, "cảm ơn rất nhiều" is not a complete sentence.

"Cảm ơn ông/bà/anh/chị/em/cô/cháu rất nhiều" is the polite way to say thank YOU very much.  Otherwise, it would only mean "thanks very much", which is acceptable in English but not quite there in Vietnamese.  Vietnamese language is much more formal than English, even when spoken amongst family members, and personal pronouns/terms of address cannot be skipped under any circumstances.

The emphasis, BTW, is on "rất" ̣(very).

It has been said that in the UK, a foreign student of English was on a bus passing the Old Vic Theatre in London, outside of which there was a large poster proclaiming: "SHAKESPEARE - A MID SUMMER NIGHTS DREAM - PRONOUNCED SUCCESS".

The student went home and hanged herself.

eodmatt wrote:

"SHAKESPEARE - A MID SUMMER NIGHTS DREAM - PRONOUNCED SUCCESS".

I saw this headline on a local newspaper: "Bazaar spells success."

I wonder how many ESL students had run straight to the dictionary or their teachers for the explanation.

And my favourite is when ordering  CA PHE DA KHONG DUONG (American keyboard on a Mac rendering) and I invariably receive CA PHE NAM. Drives the wife nuts and she often asked the waiter / waitress "do you know the Vietnamese  word for iced and do you know the difference between sugar and no sugar? And on some occasions even she has received the waggled hand and Khong Hieu treatment.

Interestingly, I am teaching our 10 year old nephew english from his school books. Now, I refuse to teach English to our neighbours kids (they have all, at one time or another asked me to) and the reasons for me not doing so are:
1. They present kids of ages from 5 to 14 and expect them to be taught in the same class.
2. The kids are all at differing levels of English comprehension.
3. If I decline to teach a kid because ... for whatever reason*..... the parents get all angry.
4. The parents expect the kids to speak English, but, the schools expect them to be able to pass exams based on the books and not on English comprehension.

So anyway, we come to a bit of the text in nephews English murdering book where nephew dear has to read that the Keangnam building is the tallest building in Vietnam and he can't pronounce the word Keangnam. Likewise, the word: Fansipan, is a mystery to him. Fansipan is the highest mountain in Vietnam, but he doesn't know it.

Sooooo, anyway, its not an unpleasant day today, (although we had a power cut from 09:30 until a little while ago) we've been shopping and the MM supermarket wasn't too full of nose picking, coughing and sneezing proletariat with zero spatial awareness and life is good.


*Occasionally a kid may be unruly or downright rude, have a cold or flu etc.

Edited to add, I forgot to include a smiley: 

Ciambella wrote:

It's not going to make any difference to foreigners, but in correct Vietnamese, "cảm ơn rất nhiều" is not a complete sentence.

"Cảm ơn ông/bà/anh/chị/em/cô/cháu rất nhiều" is the polite way to say thank YOU very much.  Otherwise, it would only mean "thanks very much", which is acceptable in English but not quite there in Vietnamese.  Vietnamese language is much more formal than English, even when spoken amongst family members, and personal pronouns/terms of address cannot be skipped under any circumstances.

The emphasis, BTW, is on "rất" ̣(very).

But isnt this acceptable as informal or street talk. I asked my wife and she said it was fine.

The female teachers at my gym constantly say 'mai gặp lại', which is basically street talk, is that correct?

colinoscapee wrote:

Ciambella wrote:

It's not going to make any difference to foreigners, but in correct Vietnamese, "cảm ơn rất nhiều" is not a complete sentence.

"Cảm ơn ông/bà/anh/chị/em/cô/cháu rất nhiều" is the polite way to say thank YOU very much.  Otherwise, it would only mean "thanks very much", which is acceptable in English but not quite there in Vietnamese.  Vietnamese language is much more formal than English, even when spoken amongst family members, and personal pronouns/terms of address cannot be skipped under any circumstances.

The emphasis, BTW, is on "rất" ̣(very).

But isnt this acceptable as informal or street talk. I asked my wife and she said it was fine.

The female teachers at my gym constantly say 'mai gặp lại', which is basically street talk, is that correct?

'mai gặp lại' means see you tomorrow or literally tomorrow, meet again

Yes I know what it means, the point was that it's informal in relation to the other poster asking about"cảm ơn nhiều.'

Yes, Colin, it's Western-style street talk, directly translated from English while removing the required personal pronouns.  It's fine (even considered hip) between close friends and among a younger crowd, but it's too brusque to be used with strangers or one's parents (especially parents-in-law, for the Westerners who married into Vietnamese families.)

Edit to add: 

Since Vietnamese language emphasizes respect, skipping the needed "I" and "you" is to remove the core of the language.  Instead of "mai gặp lại" (see [presumably you] tomorrow) a better and correct way would have been "gặp lại anh/em ngày mai" (see you again tomorrow) or "mai mình [sẽ] gặp lại" (we'll see [each other] again tomorrow.) 

The removing or adding of one word makes a lot of difference to a sentence.