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Recently I came across the question of translating the word “unlock” into another language. In Vietnamese the word would be translated “mo khoa” or “open lock”. This got me thinking why they didn’t just use the word “lock” with another word that means to undo, the same function as “un-” in English.
When I thought about […]
Today I ran across an academic paper of questionable standards on the possible relations or origins of Vietnamese pronouns from a number of languages including Chinese languages, other Southeast Asian languages, and even French, English, and Japanese.
The paper is titled “Đại Danh Từ Tiếng Việt” (Vietnamese pronouns) and the authors are Nguyễn Đức Hiệp and […]
I just heard of a good way to use your new Vietnamese language skills — use Vietnamese phrases as your passwords! Who is going to guess bu1nthi5tnu7o71ng (which comes out to bún thịt nướng using the VNI typing system) yet it’s still easy to remember. [My password on this blog isn’t using this system so […]
In Vietnamese one can decrease the effect of an adjective by doubling it. For example, to say something is “vui” means it’s fun but if you say “vui vui” it’s only a little fun. Vietnamese adjectives can be doubled in this way without any changes it the tone is ngang (no tone, as […]
My Nokia phone that runs Symbian OS S60 V3 happens to come with a dictionary installed. This free dictionary is the Kernerman Semi-Bilingual Dictionaries MOT GlobalDix 3.0. Within the dictionary software itself you can go to Nokia’s website and download and install other foreign languages. So imagine my delight when I saw […]
One of the many reasons that Vietnamese and other foreigners need a teacher that can speak the language is because it is difficult to read English words and pronounce them correctly without first having somebody read them to you. This is because English orthography, the spelling system, is very inconsistent and contains many words […]
Over six months ago Morgan Stanley warned of a currency crisis in Vietnam. But the valuation of the Vietnam dong would have been similar in magnitude of the severe devaluation of the Thai baht in 1997 which sparked the Asian financial crisis. In the months following Morgan Stanley’s warning we have seen a […]
Are you thinking about learning a new foreign language? if you gone to the bookstore you’ve probably seen Pimsleur’s products, CDs that you can listen to in your car or on the train ride to work and learn by the Pimsleur’s method. It’s probably more suited to those driving a car by themselves because it […]
The Vietnamese word for leather is the same as the Vietnamese word for skin, da. However, the tropical climate in Saigon means that there is little chance for people to actually wear clothes made out of “skin”. More likely they would be wearing bông, which means cotton but can also mean flower. Nhựa is the […]
A Japanese-speaker learning Vietnamese or a Vietnamese-speaker learning Japanese will both notice that a lot of words in the other language seem to correspond with words in their native language. And both the Japanese-speaker and Vietnamese-speaker ought to know that the corresponding words (cognates) are part of the Chinese-derived vocabulary that make up about […]
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