Tieng Viet lovers club

[jackbl]

Hanoi formally opens 6 more walking streets in Old Quarter
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After a six-month pilot project, authorities in Hanoi officially opened six more pedestrian zones in its famous Old Quarter on Friday to serve local people and foreign visitors in an effort to allow local artisans, households, and enterprises to better tap the old streets’ tourism.

The walking streets include Hang Buom, Ma May, Hang Giay, Luong Ngoc Quyen, Ta Hien and Dao Duy Tu located in Hoan Kiem District.

Pedestrian-only hours start from 7:00 pm to 12:00 pm in the summer and from 6:00 pm to 12:00 pm in the winter every Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

These six streets are among the pedestrian zones to be preserved for retaining much of their antiquity. The three other walking streets in the Old Quarter are Hang Dao, Hang Duong, and Dong Xuan.

Unlike the Hang Dao, Hang Duong and Dong Xuan, peddling on the roadbeds of the new six walking streets is strictly forbidden. Peddlers and shop owners along these six can do their business on the sidewalk only.

Among the six walking streets, Ta Hien, dubbed the city’s “international intersection,” is invariably packed with foreign tourists and expats, particularly in the evening.

Hoan Kiem District’s 2013 statistics show that the city’s Old Quarter had the population of some 10,000, most of whom depend on tourism service provision for their livelihood.

Roughly 240 households in the area run shops, including 100 restaurants and eateries.

Houses built in the 18th and 19th centuries as well as several cultural, historical relics including Bach Ma, Quan De, Huong Tuong, Kim Ngan and Dong Lac Temples now line these streets, which are generally frequented by foreigners.

A local company has installed decorative lights and high pressure lights along the six streets and improved the lighting system at the relics located alongside.

Local government has also licensed seven parking lots measuring some 648m² in total in the Old Quarter. Tourists can also park their bikes at 12 other official lots which have been in use for the Hang Dao, Hang Duong and Dong Xuan walking streets.

[jackbl]

Foreign delicacies become street food in Vietnam
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Popular foreign specialties such as German sausage, American and Thai barbecue, Spanish sweet egg custard, and Japanese baked cuttlefish cakes are now available as street food for Vietnamese people.

Notably, they are prepared and processed in the genuine style of their original countries and sold along streets in major cities like Ho Chi Minh City by ‘foreign natives,’ who are obviously Westerners in appearance, but native in their lifestyle.

Previously, these types of dishes were often displayed in expensive restaurants, but they can now be bought on the street for a reasonable price.

'We don’t make it look expensive'

First up is the barbecued pork chop at the Ut Ut ‘street restaurant,’ located at 168 Vo Van Kiet Avenue in District 1, which is open from 4:00 pm every day.

Guests sit in small wooden chairs at low tables on the open space of the sidewalk of the avenue, looking out over Ben Nghe Canal.

The address is a favorite haunt of both locals and expats living in the city, with prices ranging from VND30,000-300,000 (US$1.5-15) per dish. Though it serves foreign food, locals account for as many as 80 percent of the customers.

Barbecued pork chops are prepared in the small garden in front of the restaurant, making it look like an outdoor BBQ party. Beer is the only thing not made in the garden.

The only problem is the crowd: It is common to see up to 30 guests standing in line for a table.

Albin Deforges, a French cook and one of three owners of Ut Ut, said, “We target locals, not foreigners, as our main customers. So we build this restaurant to serve American style BBQ in the Vietnamese atmosphere.”

The more it looks like a common food shop, the better it is, Deforges said.

“We don’t make it look expensive,” added the Frenchman, who has lived in Vietnam for over ten years.

He said he knows baked meat is a favorite dish of Vietnamese.

A guest named Nguyen Cong Nhat, 40, said while waiting for a table at Ut Ut, “Actually, I am not used to standing in line to wait like this, for there are many options for food in this city.

“But queuing up here is like one of the specialties of this restaurant.”

German sausage

This street food specialty has become a breakfast staple for many people commuting on Hoang Dieu Street in District 4.

It is served by Dieter Engele, a 57-year-old German, whose ‘restaurant’ is entirely contained on a motorbike.

He is available from 6:00 am on a corner of the kilometer-long street.

The sausage is baked on an oven attached to the end of his motorbike. The prices and illustrated images of his food are all listed on a small sheet of A4 paper.

Bread is kept in a glass cabinet on the bike seat.

“A loaf of bread with German sausage inside is 25,000 dong [over US$1 dollar]. It is delicious,” said Lan Phuong, who often drives her child to Van Don, a nearby school.

“And he looks nice, and doesn’t speak a lot, so I like him and want to support him,” she added.

Standing at the street corner from 6:00 in the morning till 8:00 in the evening, Engele sells 70-100 loaves of bread a day.

As with other vendors in the city, he worries about his business, “It’s miserable if it rains. No clients. On rainy days, I have rice with sausage.”

Engele speaks German and Vietnamese, and is originally from Berlin, where he sold flowers.

“In 2003, I came here for the first time, and love this city.

“I came back in 2013 and now I have a girlfriend here so I just wanted to start a business here by selling sausage.”

He added that he wants to stay in Vietnam all his life and sell sausage – a famous German specialty all over the world.

Another German, Klaus Rutt, 44, has built a restaurant that serves the trademark Vua Xúc Xích (Sausage King). His eatery is called Leon King, in Binh Thanh District.

Rutt and his wife, Minh Nguyet, a Vietnamese woman, started building the Leon King brand name two years ago. All of the materials used to produce their sausage are imported from Germany.

Although his products have been wholesaled at restaurants and shops across Ho Chi Minh City, Rutt still prefers selling sausage from his truck on a corner of Phan Xich Long Street in Phu Nhuan District from 3:00 pm to 9:00 pm.

[jackbl]

Muslim tourists flock to Vietnam for delicious food, cheap prices
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More and more Muslim tourists have chosen to visit Vietnam on account of delectable food and cheap prices, with airlines from the Middle East offering direct services to the Southeast Asian country and Vietnamese restaurants improvising to serve their special diners.

The Muslim tourists mostly come from Indonesia, Malaysia, India, and the Middle East.

One day, a Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper reporter followed a group of Muslim visitors from Indonesia, a country where 90 percent of the population practices Islam.

Most of the tourists have visited Vietnam more than once.

Affordable goods, delicious food

The majority of the Indonesian tourists said that they love Vietnam because of its high quality, affordable products, and flavorful food.

An Indonesian man, who was waiting for a car in front of a hotel in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City with a group of people, decided to pay VND100,000 (US$4.72) for a wallet from a peddler.

The man immediately put his money and cards from his old wallet into the new one.

Sartina Kendari from Sulawesi Tenggara, a province of Indonesia, said that she bought some T-shirts at Ben Thanh Market in District 1 on her first day in Vietnam.

“A T-shirt here costs only VND400,000 ($18.83). In Indonesia we couldn’t buy such good-looking T-shirts at this price,” the woman said.

Yanti Makassar, another Indonesian who visited My Tho City, in the Mekong Delta, said that she loves Vietnam more than other countries she has traveled to because it is a good shopping venue, in addition to its beautiful landscapes and delicious food.

Makassar, who has visited Vietnam a few times, added that she even had to buy extra suitcases to fit all the clothes she has bought here.

Nguyen Xuan Thinh, a guide at a tourism firm in Ho Chi Minh City, said that the number of Muslim tourists from Indonesia and Malaysia has risen rapidly in recent years.

Five to six Indonesian tourist groups arrive in Vietnam each month, together with several others from Malaysia, Thinh said.

The Muslim visitors from Indonesia love buying items such as clothes, bags, and cloths at Ben Thanh Market and Saigon Square Center, a small shopping mall in District 1.

They also prefer “banh pia,” a Vietnamese cake filled with durian, shredded lard, salted egg yolk, mung bean paste, and coconut.

“They buy a lot of ‘banh pia’ during their time in Vietnam. They often buy around 10 pockets of ‘banh pia’ each time, but sometimes a person can buy 40 pockets,” Thinh shared.

Vietnamese hospitality

Lam Duy Phong, the owner of a candy factory in My Tho, was seen introducing, serving and selling his durian-flavored candies to tourists in Indonesian. Phong said he learned the language from tour guides to communicate better with his customers.

“Most of the Muslim visitors like candies, so being able to speak their language could facilitate my sales,” Phong said.

Vietnamese restaurants have also put forth great effort to serve Muslims.

Bach Tung Vien, a restaurant in My Tho, has put aside not only an eating area that uses separate drinking glasses, bowls, chopsticks, spoons, and utensils for Muslims but also a praying space in accordance with the minimum standards of their religion, although the food is not Halal, a certificate indicating that food meets Islamic dietary codes.

Pham Thi Bach Tuyet, a restaurant representative, said that they never serve pork in the designated area, and sometimes they help customers order food from eateries in Ho Chi Minh City – about 70km away – that have Halal certificates.

“The number of Muslim tourists has soared in the last three years. We are finding chefs who can cook meals following the Halal requirements, and are trying to get the certificate,” Tuyet said.

The restaurant also serves such fish plates as ca kho to (fish braised in a clay pot), ca tai tuong chien xu (deep fried gourami fish), and canh chua ca dieu hong (Vietnamese sour fish soup) to Muslim visitors.

Yanti Makassar told Tuoi Tre that Muslim people are not allowed to eat pork, so she and her friends really like fish dishes.

Vietnam – A shopping paradise

La Quoc Khanh, deputy director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Culture, Sports, and Tourism, said that the number of tourists from Muslim countries, especially Indonesia and Malaysia, has gone up considerably in recent years.

“When I talked to 17 Malaysian tourism firms in Kuala Lumpur the other day, they told me that Vietnam is a safe destination and also a shopping paradise, as the goods are cheap, catchy, and easy to buy,” Khanh said.

Most Indonesian and Malaysian tourism firms have said that tourists choose to visit Vietnam because the country offers affordable tours and commodity prices that fit their budget.

Many carriers from the Middle East – including Emirates, Etihad, Qatar Airways, and Turkish Airlines – have opened direct routes to Vietnam, helping to raise the number of Muslim tourist arrivals to the Southeast Asian nation.

A representative from Vietnamese tourism firm Saigontourist said Qatar Airways has even established a division specializing in serving Muslim tourists in Vietnam.

Dato’ Syed Mohd Razif Al Yahya, a representative of Malaysian tourism corporation Sutra, observed that Muslim tourists create a potential market for Vietnam and many other countries, as the Muslim population in the Asia-Pacific region is now more than 972 million people.

“Vietnam is currently considered one of Muslim tourists’ ideal tourism destinations. There will be more restaurants, hotels, and tours that mainly serve this type of customers in the near future,” the Malaysian said.

[jackbl]

Things are too cheap in Vietnam: American expat
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Editor’s Note: Scott Duke Harris is a former Los Angeles Times and San Jose Mercury News reporter. He now lives in Hanoi.

HANOI – Every few months I have reason to visit a small photocopy shop in the Tay Ho neighborhood, a haven for affluent expats. There are usually two people on the job, one of whom will help me print something out from my laptop, or simply make copies of documents like passports and visas.

Not exactly a computer wiz, I sometimes need a bit of help. The other day the young clerk with very limited English spent a few minutes helping me. When I asked for the price, he said what sounded like “Thirty.”

Thirty thousand dong? For two seconds I was stunned – then realized he didn’t mean what I had heard. I handed him a 5,000 dong note and he gave me 2,000 in change. So it cost me less than 15 cents. For a larger job, the cost per copy would have gone down.

Once again I left wondering how this shop stays in business. I rarely see other customers. Whatever revenue it earns has to cover salaries, equipment, maintenance, paper, electricity and probably rent as well. Just another of the many mysteries of Vietnam’s “emerging economy,” as the wonks put it.

That Vietnam has a low cost of living is not exactly news. It’s all relative, of course. Well-traveled foreigners find it quite affordable, but the Vietnamese don’t – except, presumably, for the wealthiest cadres who might ride around in Rolls Royces and Bentleys. While the denizens at Vincom’s new shopping malls reflect the rising prosperity of the middle-class, it’s been less than four years since the World Bank re-classified Vietnam from “low income” to “middle income” status – if just barely. Conspicuous consumption is the exception, not the rule. More conspicuous are the thousands of women who eke out a living shouldering their yoke-like ganhs carrying fruit or other goods for sale.

Strange, but the first Vietnamese phrase I learned was “Dat qua!” This means “too expensive!” Before my first visit to Vietnam in 1999, the woman who would become my wife instructed me to say this, with an emphatic expression and gestures, whenever a merchant quoted me a price. She figured I’d get fleeced at every turn. Haggling was essential, and I still use the phrase from time to time. I am usually rewarded with a smile, a laugh, and a modest discount.

I’m wary of rip-offs, and I know expats who complain about “the white guy price.” But more often I find myself puzzling over why so much of life in Vietnam is inexpensive. (Am I tempted to blurt out, “Khong dat qua!” and offer to pay more? Heck no.)

Lunch is a case in point. The other day I stopped at a typical storefront eatery specializing in bun bo Hue [beef noodles served the way cooks in the central city of Hue do], opting for the heftier 40,000 version. I’m guessing the extra 10,000 was for the extra helping of gelatinous blocks of boiled blood. Forty thousand VND is less than $2. At a Vietnamese greasy spoon in California that same bowl might cost $5 or $6 – or $8 in a more upscale restaurant. And while I’d be expected to leave a 15% tip back home, here the expectation is zero.

Zip. Nada. Khong.

There is no culture of tipping in Vietnam, but expats like to say there is also not much service. This strikes me as harsh. There can be crappy service anywhere, and when I call out “Em oi” here with a request I’m rarely disappointed. This is true of my favorite neighborhood bistro. It offers a wide menu but I usually opt for pho ga [noodle soup with chicken] or bun ca nam bo [vermicelli soup with fish prepared in the southern style]. Its prices are a notch up from street food, but for 30,000 to 45,000 dong I also get a pleasant open-air ambience under a thatched roof or a patio festooned with umbrellas. Electric fans may add to the comfort, as does the complimentary iced tea. Business at this place has been so brisk lately, with both expats and locals, that I fear they will increase their prices.

That’s what would happen in most overtly capitalist societies, where the pricing ethos is to “charge what the market will bear” – to find that sweet spot that maximizes profit. Vietnamese seem to have a different approach to determining a “fair” price. Another notion that seems foreign to the Vietnamese is one of Benjamin Franklin’s aphorisms: “Time is money.” When’s the last time you told a cabbie here to wait and keep the meter running?

Motorcycle repairs, in my experience, have also been cheaper-than-expected – though I might be fortunate. I’ve also had good luck with laptop repairs. What else? Bia hoi [fresh beer] is cheaper than bottled water. Tailors tend to be reasonable, and so do movers of things large and small. Picture framing, I’m told, is strikingly inexpensive.

Why is Vietnam’s economy the way it is? One theory is that the Vietnamese have been slow to shed their old spirit a full generation after authorities introduced Doi Moi [Renovation] reforms to gradually move to a market-oriented economy. But doesn’t this put the load below the motorbike? Vietnam’s embrace of its ideology emerged amid the clash between the exploitive values of Western colonials and the humbler values rooted in 4,000 years of village life, enhanced with the teachings of Buddha and Confucius.

Occasionally I visit temples and marvel and wonder why altars are often decorated with little pyramids formed from cans of Coca-Cola and Heineken. I also puzzle over Vietnamese who spend hard-earned money to buy a stack of fake $100 notes that bear the image of none other than Ben Franklin. These bogus “Benjamins,” to use American street slang, are burnt as offerings to ancestors.

So if “time is money,” my Western brain wonders what to make of the Benjamins going up in smoke.

Easy come, easy go?

[jackbl]

HCM City ranked the among world’s 18 best food cities
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VietNamNet Bridge – The travel website Thrillist has recently published an article ranking the 18 best food cities in the world, which includes HCM City.

According to the authors, Kevin Alexander and Liz Childers, a good choice for visitors to HCM City looking for a good breakfast banh mi with fried egg, bun thit nuong (noodle with roast meat) or the soft-shell crab at Cųc Gąch Quan in District 1.

The other cities honoured enough to be put on the best food cities list included Bordeaux, France; Bologna, Italy; Bombay, India; London, England; New York City, USA; Marrakesh, Morocco; Cartagena, Colombia; Istanbul, Turkey; Tokyo, Japan.

The list also gave honourable mentions to other cities, such as Barcelona, Hong Kong, Chin and Montreal.

In a recent article in Huffington Post, Squires praised HCM City as among top 10 fall trips for food lovers.

“Some say that sampling street food is a national sport in Vietnam. That's because of the vast quality and variety available in the market stalls, street carts, and river banks day and night. Saigon Street Eats takes travelers to Ho Chi Minh City's best-kept secrets, from pho palaces to coffee houses to streets lined with shellfish. Snackers at the end of this tour not only end up sated, but leave with a new vocabulary of Vietnam's victuals,” Squires gushed.

DTriNews/VNN

[jackbl]

Interesting shopping addresses in Saigon
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VietNamNet Bridge - In addition to historic architecture, unique street food, busy shopping areas have also attracted a large number of tourists in Saigon.


Ben Thanh Market

Located in the heart of District 1, Ben Thanh Market is one of the earliest surviving structures in Saigon and one of the symbols of HCM City, popular with tourists seeking local handicrafts, textiles, áo dài and souvenirs, as well as local cuisine.

Built in 1870 by the French, the market was initially called Les Halles Centrales before being renamed Ben Thanh in 1912.

From a wet market created by street vendors in the early 17th century, Ben Thanh has experienced many ups and downs throughout it’s history, and is now the oldest surviving market and one of the symbols of Ho Chi Minh city. That makes it a must for any visitors travelling to this 300-year-old city.

Today, because the market possesses one of the most crucial locations in District 1 (the intersection of Le Loi, Ham Nghi, Tran Hung Dao Avenues and Le Lai streets), transportation is extremely convenient and trade is bustling.

In the morning, you can find almost everything from dry food to clothes for a reasonable price. The market atmosphere can sometime be a real hustle and bustle, but it is an exciting experience after all. However, always remember that bargaining is a must in any Vietnamese market.

Ben Thanh is firstly well-known as the place for real Vietnamese food. There a number of vendors and food stalls that offer dishes freshly made to order. Here, one can taste various kinds of local dishes like banh xeo, banh cuon, banh beo, cha gio, and hu tiu.

In the evening, while all stalls inside the market are closed, sidewalk restaurants around the market are open, making it an extraordinary lively area.

One of the most recommended foods by tourists is deep fried whole fish, so remember to try it at least once when you dine here. Besides, one can also taste seafood and enjoy cool beer for only US$1-2.

Curious about what the locals eat, wear or use daily? Just come here and find out the answer. From clothing, shoes, bags, jewelry to kitchenware, grocery, sweets, and great Vietnamese coffee, everything that Saigonese need for their daily life can be found here.

Taking a look at things for sale here, seeing how people make transactions and the kind of goods locals purchase, one can learn much about the local life and get useful experience for shopping in Vietnam. For people keen on shopping, here is exactly the place you are looking for.

Besides goods for daily use, tourists can find a variety of eye-catching local handicrafts and souvenirs. Cute fridge magnets or delicate small pieces of lacquer are good gifts for friends and family at home or reminders of your trip in Ho Chi Minh City.

Though quality of goods is quite good, prices here are often inflated up to two or three times. Hence, one should go at least three or four stalls to compare prices, and see how cheap you can bargain the items down to.

Another tip is go shopping in the market before 8am for the “morning price” that is a little lower than the usual for the same good.

The “cool” price at the beginning of the day is for easier first transactions which are believed to bring good luck to the sellers for the rest of the day.



Binh Tay Market

Binh Tay Market is the central market of Cho Lon, the Chinese district in Saigon. A mix of French and Chinese architecture, this market, built in 1928, is the largest in Ho Chi Minh City, spanning four blocks.

The new market was built by a Chinese businessman after the old location burned to the ground. A memorial to the founder is still present today. Shop for everything from fermented duck eggs to flip-flops to seafood noodle soup at Binh Tay Market.

Located in HCMC's Chinatown area, Binh Tay Market is less visited and far less tourist-infested than iconic Ben Thanh Market in central Saigon.

Divided into sections, the market has something for everyone. Pick up kitchenware, cloth, candied goods, plastic gimcracks, whatnots, plus a whole lot more. Don't expect the hard sales pitch at Binh Tay. For every vendor doing math on a portable calculator, chances are good there's another snoozing away in a hastily erected hammock.

Many businesses and restaurants buy their produce wholesale here.


Where to buy goods:

* Suitcases, bags: If you need suitcases for travel or a few fashion bags, you should go to Le Lai Street, District 1. There are many kinds, which are nice, unique and of good quality. It is just 20 meters from Ben Thanh Market.

* Clothing: You are a fashion enthusiast and you want to buy stylish clothes? Saigon Square is a suitable destination. This shopping mall offers clothes and bags, from ordinary to luxury goods. As the prices are unlisted, you should bargain before deciding to buy. Nguyen Trai Street is also an interesting destination for clothes shopping.

* Paintings: If you are looking for some paintings to decorate your house, you are advised to visit Tran Phu Street, District 5. There are many painting stores here, where you can easily find pictures and paintings of all genres or the copies of famous paintings.

* Shoes, sandals: There are two addresses. If you like fashionable and high-quality footwear, you should go to Ly Chinh Thang Street, District 3, home to the most famous footwear brands of Saigon. Located to the left of Ben Thanh Market, Luu Van Lang Street, District 1 is also the center of shoes and sandals for tourists. Coming here you can find the best flip-flops or footwear for children.

* Cloth: If you want to find beautiful cloth as gifts or to sew traditional ao dai, you should go to Soai Kinh Lam Market.

* Antiques: Le Cong Kieu Street, District 1 is considered Saigon’s street of antiques, where you can buy bronze items like incense burners, altars or Buddha statues, old porcelain products and also old stamps and coins.

Pha Le

[KangTuo]

There is a Aeon Mall... very impressive

[jackbl]

Locked iPhone 6 in big demand in Vietnam
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VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnamese Apple fans have been able to purchase iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus smartphones, just two weeks after the products hit the market.

However, the products were brought to Vietnam through unofficial channels, either by foreign travelers to Vietnam or Vietnamese individuals for domestic sale. The product from authorised sources will be available in November.

Buyers have been looking for the locked-version products, despite high prices of VND15-16.5 million for products sourced from the US and VND14-14.5 million from Japan for iPhone 6 and VND18 million for iPhone 6 Plus.

Hoang Trung Thanh, the salesman of a mobile phone shop in Hanoi, said the locked iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus now available in the market are from two main markets, the US and Japan.

Thanh said the products sourced from the US were always more expensive, because of the high price of the code to unlock iPhone 6 in the US, about $90, or VND2 million.

Meanwhile, those who buy the products sourced from Japan have to unlock the phones with the heicard nano-sim, because it is still impossible to do this with normal code.

According to Thanh, consumers have to spend VND1.7-2.5 million to unlock an iPhone 6 with code.

Tuan, the owner of a shop providing unlock and jailbreak services, said the heicard nano-sims to unlock iPhone 6 were available in the domestic market last week. The presence of the key has encouraged traders to bring more locked-versions iPhone 6 to Vietnam.

According to Tuan, this nano-sim card can be bought for only VND300,000. If someone buys a Japan-sourced iPhone 6, either from Docomo or Softbank, the expense would be VND15 million only.

However, if they buy the international version, they will have to pay VND18 million.

He went on to say that the latest-generation nano-sims are made with high technology, so they can fix most of the problems in locked versions. Locked products are safer and cheaper.

“Once the jailbreak version for iOS 8 comes out, the users can download the software which can completely fix the problems of the locked version. So the locked version will be nearly the same as the international version,” he said.

Observers say there are more iPhone 6 devices than iPhone 6 Plus devices because dealers thought the iPhone 6 Plus was too expensive and would not sell well in Vietnam. Vietnamese also prefer 64GB and 128GB to 16GB versions.

One year ago, when Apple launched the iPhone 5S, Vietnamese had to wait for a long time to be able to buy the products. Only in December 2013 did the mobile network operators loosen regulations on selling the code to unlock the iPhone 5S. The nano-sim finally began running well on iOS 7 that month also.

[damong777]

Was asked by Jackbl on how did i learn TV

Quite painful and funny...but that what you get for trying to learn without paying for a teacher and thinking it is easy to pick up (that was my thought at first and how wrong it was)

Enjoy...

1) read through pages here and copy and paste all tv verses in self help dictionary; dun quite understand wordings and meaning. Keeping asking H88 for help till he pissed
2) As advised by some bro, go online e.g. youtube and learn from videos...not really successful since no one to correct pronunciation.
3) First vb did not want to teach me tieng viet as scared i go xao more con gai so failure too
4) decided to buy language books to read up and take H88 advise on learning 5 words a day
5) Add numerous con gai on fb and wechat for practicing writing first (on going). Make a point to write in tv even if they ask me to write in english, chinese or voice message. Just ignore. And be thick skinned
6) Met my current vb gf. Every talk video chat with her and make it a point to speak in tv since she does not understand English or chinese (another thing i learn, better a vb who not corrupt yet). And at least learn one new word a day.
7) Try not using google transit. Even if i write wrongly now, she or other con gai would correct for me. So ongoing process


Honestly speaking tv still sucks (worse than pre school standard there), but writing and understanding basic sentences getting better daily.

Practice make prefect.

[singlun]

Originally Posted by damong777

Was asked by Jackbl on how did i learn TV

Quite painful and funny...but that what you get for trying to learn without paying for a teacher and thinking it is easy to pick up (that was my thought at first and how wrong it was)

Enjoy...

1) read through pages here and copy and paste all tv verses in self help dictionary; dun quite understand wordings and meaning. Keeping asking H88 for help till he pissed
2) As advised by some bro, go online e.g. youtube and learn from videos...not really successful since no one to correct pronunciation.
3) First vb did not want to teach me tieng viet as scared i go xao more con gai so failure too
4) decided to buy language books to read up and take H88 advise on learning 5 words a day
5) Add numerous con gai on fb and wechat for practicing writing first (on going). Make a point to write in tv even if they ask me to write in english, chinese or voice message. Just ignore. And be thick skinned
6) Met my current vb gf. Every talk video chat with her and make it a point to speak in tv since she does not understand English or chinese (another thing i learn, better a vb who not corrupt yet). And at least learn one new word a day.
7) Try not using google transit. Even if i write wrongly now, she or other con gai would correct for me. So ongoing process


Honestly speaking tv still sucks (worse than pre school standard there), but writing and understanding basic sentences getting better daily.

Practice make prefect.

So the key to success is to make H88 pissed ? Ha ha ha
I feel that the phasing and sequence of the language is similar to mandarin... how about you ?

[jackbl]

Originally Posted by singlun

I feel that the phasing and sequence of the language is similar to mandarin... how about you ?

One example of Sequence is : My friend. In vn they say Ban Toi.... so what you think???

[damong777]

Originally Posted by singlun

So the key to success is to make H88 pissed ? Ha ha ha
I feel that the phasing and sequence of the language is similar to mandarin... how about you ?

Make h88 pissed no good. He is a great teacher if you have met him. Is just he hates people who waste his time.

Not really same phasing and sequence. They had borrowed elements from Chinese and French, but tv is in their style. Sometimes I still get chided by my gal for saying it wrongly. But you learn

[miumiu6464]

Originally Posted by singlun

So the key to success is to make H88 pissed ? Ha ha ha
I feel that the phasing and sequence of the language is similar to mandarin... how about you ?

Nope. . More like its more similar to Malay. .

姐姐我 - chi cua toi - kak aku

[Hurricane88]

Originally Posted by singlun

So the key to success is to make H88 pissed ? Ha ha ha
I feel that the phasing and sequence of the language is similar to mandarin... how about you ?

haha...pissed me off ha...

to me I switch off all language and never think Tieng Viet similar to any...I learned to write and read first before I learned pronounce...then I try to use the words often so I dun forget...try to speak to local Vietnamese often...refused to speak to any Viets trying to speak to me in English, Mandarin or Cantonese...best opportunity to learn Tieng Viet from them...

[volcano]

Originally Posted by singlun

So the key to success is to make H88 pissed ? Ha ha ha
I feel that the phasing and sequence of the language is similar to mandarin... how about you ?

it is some how a bit similar to how Malaysians speak Mandarin

speaking TV is easy...many foreigners always "wow" when they heard i speak TV...i would say my TV standard easily pass of as a Vietnamese Chinese...

nowadays,first time met Vietnamese will only ask if i am a Chinese and not where am i from.

but when i speak with my wife's family members and relatives...there will still be many phrases where i dont understand...and these words are where only local Vietnamese speak and understand.

still a long long way to go in order to master the language....haizzzz....