Studying Vietnamese language, tips and questions

Jim-Minh wrote:

I recently found that Google translate has two features I am finding very useful.
We all know it will do a so-so translation of English to Vietnamese and vice-versa but there's more.
If you specify Vietnamese as your source language and do a voice input it will do two neat tricks for you. First, it will show you if your pronunciation is correct. If incorrect, it won't translate.
Second, it will convert voice to text complete with diacritical marks, which is really handy.

Question - I have an Android phone and would like to use a photo-to-text app for translation and transcription. Does anyone have a favorite app they could recommend?

Are you wanting to translate Vietnamese language text from images? I'm sitting in a restaurant in Đà Nẵng right now. Using the "Google Translate" app, I...

1. Set language pair to Vietnamese->English

2. Clicked the camera icon below the text input field.

3. Followed directions and "aligned the text" with text on a LARUE beer poster.

4. Highlighted the text I wanted

5. The app read "TÌNH BẠN MÃI MÃI" and translated it as "LOVE YOU FOREVER".

I'm sure THAT will be picked apart by our resident experts. Just sharing to let you know what I got.

Thanks very much OB. That's exactly the sort of input I was looking for.

tình bạn mãi mãi = love you forever. I would've said luôn luôn - learned something new.

Google is doing a wonderful job.

OB - I just installed it and tried it out.

It works like a hose!!!!

It's easy to use and very intuitive!!!!

The correct translation for Tình Bạn Mãi Mãi is Friendship Forever.

Google Translate (I'm only guessing as I've never used the app or the online version) probably translated it one word at a time  -- Tình: Love,  Bạn: You,  Mãi Mãi:  Forever. 

When the two words "tình bạn" are used together, they mean friendship.  Bạn doesn't always mean "you".

Also. love (a verb) is not the same as love (a noun).   "Yêu" is a verb, while "tình" is a noun.  "Yêu anh/em mãi mãi" is the translation for I love you forever.  You would not use the word "bạn" to call your bf/gf/lover/spouse.

Yes Ciambella. It is going to take a very much smarter program to catch and interpret the multiple word phrases. I am extremely happy to have this. I started studying Vietnamese 25 years ago and would have paid dearly just to have something with 20% of Google's capability.
Vietnamese has more pronouns than you can shake a stick at and Bạn is one of those. What an incredibly interesting language. Vietnamese culture and language are inextricably entangled.

Jim-Minh wrote:

I started studying Vietnamese 25 years ago

Big applause.  Staying with a foreign language for 25 years is a huge commitment.   

Ciambella wrote:

The correct translation for Tình Bạn Mãi Mãi is Friendship Forever.

Google Translate (I'm only guessing as I've never used the app or the online version) probably translated it one word at a time  -- Tình: Love,  Bạn: You,  Mãi Mãi:  Forever. 

When the two words "tình bạn" are used together, they mean friendship.  Bạn doesn't always mean "you".

Also. love (a verb) is not the same as love (a noun).   "Yêu" is a verb, while "tình" is a noun.  "Yêu anh/em mãi mãi" is the translation for I love you forever.  You would not use the word "bạn" to call your bf/gf/lover/spouse.

One thing I'm s.l.o.w.l.y starting to see is how different words are formed. It helped me to read the other day that Vietnamese is written as syllables, which is why the English transliteration "Danang" is properly written as the two-syllable word "Đà Nẵng". And even though a syllable may be a stand-alone word, when that syllable is connected to 1 or more other syllables, a word is expressed.

Of course, initially, I only see a string of syllables, and my western brain tries to interpret them individually.

As I'm practicing more, I'm beginning to identify sets of syllables which form words, and I'm just starting to read a few of them as connected in my mind.

That probably doesn't make much sense, and I know I have a long way to go, but I feel as if I've had a major "aha!" moment.

Or, should I say: an a ha! moment?

OceanBeach92107 wrote:

even though a syllable may be a stand-alone word, when that syllable is connected to 1 or more other syllables, a word is expressed.

As I'm practicing more, I'm beginning to identify sets of syllables which form words, and I'm just starting to read a few of them as connected in my mind.

That probably doesn't make much sense,

You've got it.  And of course it makes sense, at least to the good Alexandre de Rhodes initially.  For the rest of us, we simply look at the nonsense as the natural rhythm of life.

If I may, I would add one word to your comment and change it to "even though a syllable may be a stand-alone word, when that syllable is connected to 1 or more other syllables, a DIFFERENT word is expressed."  Your observation is now more closely reflects reality.

Ciambella wrote:

Jim-Minh wrote:

I started studying Vietnamese 25 years ago

Big applause.  Staying with a foreign language for 25 years is a huge commitment.   

My departed wife and I adopted a Viet orphan in 1992. I helped her learn English and she helped me with my Vietnamese. I found that a family in the delta helped Phuoc through some really tough times after her parents died. Their son, her childhood sweetheart, was left behind when she left Vietnam. I went to VN the first time in '96 and got him out on a student visa.

I now have a grandson that's going to college on a full four year engineering scholarship at a top-notch university. All three of the kids have done an exemplary job of contributing to society. They are fine examples of that incredible Vietnamese work ethic.

Watching the kids and studying Vietnamese has been a pure joy.