Language barrier

Last year my Vietnamese girlfriend originally from Ca Mau but who has lived in Saigon for a few years traveled to Phu Yen for a wedding and she had a very difficult time understanding the people there.

I've also seen her watch tv shows where some of the humour is based upon their own misunderstandings from people from other regions.

Even myself when I've travelled just recently to India I had a hard time understanding some people there even tho I know they were speaking English.  I was also with a Vietnamese & Indian colleagues so we'd all communicate in English and between them they had a hard time understanding each other and would look to me for translation but I would just repeat what they said.

Also traveling through the USA I sometimes had a hard time understanding Latino people's English.

So I don't think there is an intellectual weakness just some people aren't used to listening to other peoples accents.

Maybe Cheeha is right, it's a simple as that.

cheeha wrote:

Last year my Vietnamese girlfriend originally from Ca Mau but who has lived in Saigon for a few years traveled to Phu Yen for a wedding and she had a very difficult time understanding the people there.

I've also seen her watch tv shows where some of the humour is based upon their own misunderstandings from people from other regions.

Even myself when I've travelled just recently to India I had a hard time understanding some people there even tho I know they were speaking English.  I was also with a Vietnamese & Indian colleagues so we'd all communicate in English and between them they had a hard time understanding each other and would look to me for translation but I would just repeat what they said.

Also traveling through the USA I sometimes had a hard time understanding Latino people's English.

So I don't think there is an intellectual weakness just some people aren't used to listening to other peoples accents.

Indians speaking English shift the accents of words to the wrong syllables.  Most Americans dislike Indian accents and banks and other agencies that outsourced support to Indian call centers lost billions in business.

I've never had much trouble understanding Latinos speaking English, nor they my Spanish, which is far more a reading than a speaking language for me.

Vietnamese from even nearby regions often can't understand each other.

I have found that people who want my business, understand my viet and appreciates my attempts at learning and speaking vietnamese. So maybe attitude and mindset has a lot to do with it...