Are there any other non-Viet who are learning Vietnamese?

Tôi học tập chuyên Cần nói tiếng Việt nhưng sống ở Cần Tho,

I have an informal local group of expats and educated Vietnamese, we meet irregularly at Cà Phê Pha Lê and practice,  I'm intermediate level and my big obstacle is listening comprehension in southern dialect, mainly because people talk way too fast.

Where's your group here? 

My Skype is chrisfox431.

Hi Chris, thanks for the response.

My group is in HCMC, and I'm trying to nail down a specific/regular location from our upcoming second meeting forward.

I'm with you, my biggest challenge is comprehension because I was taught using Northern, my ear can't catch the speed and lack of clear enunciation that my northern ear knows.

Your first sentence in Vietnamese reads that you're currently in Can Tho, is this correct? Is your group at Ca Phe Pha Le in HCMC?

I'd like to stop by sometime if the group is in fact in HCMC. Sounds like we match levels.

Jesse

Chris: no need to capitalize "C" in "cần- chuyên cần". And you miss this (') above "O"

ChrisFox wrote:

Tôi học tập chuyên Cần nói tiếng Việt

Since you want to be better Vietnamese, here is some helpful advices.

Your sentence sounds weird for a Vietnamese's ear.

If you want to say "I am studying spoken Vietnamese diligently", you should have written "Tôi đang chăm chỉ học nói tiếng Việt", or even better "Tôi đang cố (gắng) học tiếng Việt" I am striving to learn Vietnamese.

học tập is more used to indicate the act of studying.
chuyên cần is not natural in this sentence, however "học tập chuyên cần" (dilligent study (habit)) is often used.

TonyVu wrote:

Chris: no need to capitalize "C" in "cần- chuyên cần". And you miss this (') above "O"

I didn't.  My iPad has some funny ideas about proper nouns in Vietnamese.  I have to correct that word half the time

Anatta wrote:

ChrisFox wrote:

Tôi học tập chuyên Cần nói tiếng Việt

Since you want to be better Vietnamese, here is some helpful advices.

Your sentence sounds weird for a Vietnamese's ear.

If you want to say "I am studying spoken Vietnamese diligently", you should have written "Tôi đang chăm chỉ học nói tiếng Việt", or even better "Tôi đang cố (gắng) học tiếng Việt" I am striving to learn Vietnamese.

học tập is more used to indicate the act of studying.
chuyên cần is not natural in this sentence, however "học tập chuyên cần" (dilligent study (habit)) is often used.

Thanks.  The last one sounds to me like "I am currently trying to learn Vietnamese; the first one has some other meaning for words I thought I knew and I read as "I am currently slow[ly] only speaking Vietnamese."  Probably a compound word I don't know.

Thanks you.

turbopaved wrote:

I'm with you, my biggest challenge is comprehension because I was taught using Northern, my ear can't catch the speed and lack of clear enunciation that my northern ear knows.

Your first sentence in Vietnamese reads that you're currently in Can Tho, is this correct? Is your group at Ca Phe Pha Le in HCMC?

No,  Pha Lê in Cần Thơ.

If there is a Cần Thơ accent I've never been able to identify it.  The northern dialect is a lot clearer to my ear even though I've been around the southern hundreds of times as long.  People here are almost all transplants from villages each with their own dialects; we have a workman who, as far I can tell, is speaking Hindi or Nahuatl, I mean I don't get one word.  One time I said something to him slowly, clearly, carefully, making sure to get everything right .. he waggles his hand and goes

"Cow hoo!"

Không hiểu, so I refer to him as cow hoo now. 

So this is the third country whose language I've learned where the people in the north are easier to understand than the south.  But I swear I can understand the Plattdeutsch in "Das Boot" easier than I can understand the English of rural Alabama or rural southern Vietnamese.  My partner can't even understand the latter and he was born hee.

chăm chỉ means the same as chuyên cần, i.e., diligent, studious, steadfast, dedicated,... Other synonyms: cần mẫn, siêng năng... It is a more appropriate word in this setting. No, it does not mean "slowly".

Yes, the last one means: I am currently trying to learn Vietnamese. It is a better sentence that using "I am diligently learning Vietnamese" (if that is what you are trying to say). Asians want to put themselves down when it comes to their own efforts and it shows through their language .