Why don't Vietnamese understand Vietnamese spoken by a foreigner?

dasiavu wrote:

I really can't comprehend some of the arrogance and to be frank pure ignorance that is being wrote here on this subject from expats including the original poster who are somehow implying in no uncertain terms that it's the Vietnamese peoples fault for not being able to understand your incorrect pronunciation in their language. Some of the commenters even have the cheek to say it's basically because they are stupid.
GET A LIFE. It's YOUR fault. No one else's. What are you thinking? All Vietnamese purposefully do it to annoy you? Vietnamese love and respect anyone who tries to speak their language so show some respect to them and learn it properly before you come on here making a fool of yourself with idiotic comments.  Learn it properly you'll be understood from Sapa to Phu Quoc.

Yes. I might put it a little more delicately, but that's what I meant to suggest; try out your accent over the phone before concluding that the slackjawed misunderstanding is an effect of your appearance.

I remember going to grad school in the U.S. with Koreans who had studied English for years and passed some pretty difficult English exams, yet whose English was *completely* unintelligible. Same story here: the languages are just very, very different phonetically.

It's hard! Practice, practice, practice.

dasiavu wrote:

I really can't comprehend some of the arrogance and to be frank pure ignorance that is being wrote here on this subject from expats including the original poster who are somehow implying in no uncertain terms that it's the Vietnamese peoples fault for not being able to understand your incorrect pronunciation in their language. Some of the commenters even have the cheek to say it's basically because they are stupid.
GET A LIFE. It's YOUR fault. No one else's. What are you thinking? All Vietnamese purposefully do it to annoy you? Vietnamese love and respect anyone who tries to speak their language so show some respect to them and learn it properly before you come on here making a fool of yourself with idiotic comments.  Learn it properly you'll be understood from Sapa to Phu Quoc.

A bit of a radical and maybe harsh response.....in general I don't disagree but there are exceptions.....was in a tea house in Saigon last week. Went to the counter to pay and 5 wait staff were standing there. I said Hello/how are you.....4 sets of eyes lit up and smiled pleasantly and responded and a 5th was staring with a blank look. I singled her out and said it again.....same thing....completely blank look. Then it seemed that all 4 in unison turned to her and said......he said hello and how are you. Even when they said it to her she didn't react. I asked what's up with her.....thinking she may be hearing impaired. One guy said she doesn't understand......I asked how could she not understand when he and 3 others could.....he shrugged his shoulders.....I took it she may be from a region in VN that spoke a dialect and may have been new to the big city.....anyway I will never know but thats a very recent example of a blank stare to well articulated and very simple Tien Viet expressions.

Cheers.

I do believe wrote:

@Mick bui
I decided to try and find a beautiful woman to tutor me seven years ago and am still looking for her.

Why is that sir?
Can you still listen to a beautiful woman when she see in your eyes so deeply ?

I do believe wrote:

@ ngattt

A beautiful woman would keep me focused and I would do whatever she says. I wouldn't look into her eyes because I would be lost..............

Hahaha, because when I teach Vietnamese for foreigners, one to one, I know that I don't want to look into their eyes . Its always very dangerous .

Back to the topic, last week when I teach Vietnamese for a foreigner, he said Vietnamese to another foreigner, then "which language are you saying" ? Even I hear it very clearly, he spoke quite well. Maybe just because we didn't focus on what people were saying, so its hard to understand.

bluenz wrote:

Yes, that can be a problem with " white " men as well, when they see a beautiful girl.

Hahaha, I don't think "white" men are shy when they see a beautiful girl. They may think how to seduce her .

BTW, back to the topic, I think Vietnamese doesn't have rules same same English, and have so many tones as well. So its hard for Vietnamese to guess what you are saying. I am a person who always try to listen, my Vietnamese are quite good, but sometimes, I still can't guess what foreigners are saying when I teach them Vietnamese.

ngattt wrote:

bluenz wrote:

Yes, that can be a problem with " white " men as well, when they see a beautiful girl.

Hahaha, I don't think "white" men are shy when they see a beautiful girl. They may think how to seduce her .

BTW, back to the topic, I think Vietnamese doesn't have rules same same English, and have so many tones as well. So its hard for Vietnamese to guess what you are saying. I am a person who always try to listen, my Vietnamese are quite good, but sometimes, I still can't guess what foreigners are saying when I teach them Vietnamese.

I was actually meaning more of a physical problem, than psychological, but you probably knew that.
It must also be very confusing for VNs because we use the same word for different meanings in English so much, often without altering the tone/accent, where in Viet, you have a Viet word before/after that word. ( which many foreigners forget, and if the tone isn't " exact ", it leaves VN's confused, i.e, muỗi, can be mosquito, (  con muỗi ), or mười by itself, ( 10, and the name of a lot of VNs I know ), muối tiêu, ( grizzle, same as many foreigners have here, not to be confused with " grizzle " as we also do, or " gristle " as in most VN meat ).

Yogi007 wrote:

Matt,
Did you explain to her why after nearly a week of Test cricket , it can often end in a draw.   😁

Let us know how that goes.

Then you can explain what a duck is in cricket.  When your out for a duck , that doesn't mean you've gone to KFC.

Ah well, just for our Vietnamese friends....

Y'see in most parts of the world a draw is the same as a tie; that is to say that the game ended with the results being equal. However in Cricket there is a difference between the two:
Cricket distinguishes between a tie and a draw, which are two possible results of a game:

Tie: A tie is the equal result when each team has scored the same total number of runs after their allotted innings, all innings being completed. This is very rare in Test cricket and has happened only twice in its long history, but they are slightly more commonplace in first-class and limited-overs matches.

Draw: A draw is the inconclusive result that occurs when the allotted playing time for the game expires without the teams having completed their innings. This is relatively common, occurring in 20-30% of Test matches with a perhaps higher percentage of first-class matches as they are scheduled for four days instead of five. Limited-overs matches cannot be drawn, although they can end with a no result if abandoned because of weather or other factors.

As for the duck (or Vit, in Vietnamese):
The name is believed to come from the shape of the number "0" being similar to that of a duck's egg. Hence a batsman scoring zero runs is termed as "DUCK".
If a batsman get out on the first ball faced by him it's known as "Golden Duck".
If the batsman get out on the first ball of the innings then it is known as "Diamond Duck"
If the batsman get out for Zero in both the innings of the test match it is termed as "Pair".

I  might introduce her to fielding positions such as "silly mid on" later.

But when I mentioned it to her just now she said she didn't want to discuss the "silly game" any more. So next season I should be left alone to watch in peace.

Old Saigon Hand wrote:

LOL couldn't agree more dasiavu. Since expats are guests in someone else country the onus is on them to speak well enough to be understood.

Hmmmmmm well I am learning Vietnamese bit by bit and my (Vietnamese) wife who is from Da Lat, but who has lived in Saigon for more than ten years, tells me that when I speak the little Vietnamese that I know, my pronunciation is virtually perfect. She gets frustrated with people when they don't understand what I say and asks them "if you can understand me, why cant you understand him?" but usually doesn't get a satisfactory response.

Another person on here has complained about foreigners arrogance so I would ask, why is trying to learn Vietnamese in the face of an unwillingness to understand, an indication of arrogance. And I would go as far as to say that if a foreigner tries to speak Vietnamese, like many people here tell us to do, surely it works both ways and the Vietnamese should out of courtesy at least just try to understand (many do) instead staring at us with a blank face in disbelief.

One other point I can contribute is that taxi drivers in Vietnam can be tricky at times, however I have never had a taxi driver stare at me with a blank face when I give them directions in Vietnamese. They might ask me to repeat something occasionally but never the blank face treatment..

ngattt wrote:

I think some foreigners meant: Vietnamese didn't try to understand Vietnamese from foreigners, they didn't pay attention, and guess what foreigners were trying to say. Because we can understand something in context, and some Vietnamese didn't try to put it in context.

I think some foreigner's comments here mean to say: Vietnamese don't try to understand Vietnamese spoken by a foreigner, they don't pay attention, and don't try to figure out what a foreigner is trying to say.  We Vietnamese can understand somethings in context but some Vietnamese don't even try to put the foreigners speech in context.

But ngatt that's not what really bothers us, it's the blank eye look or the hand signal that is infuriating. To a foreigner it is simple common sense to listen to what a person is saying to you and digest if it's Vietnamese or not. Tonight I was lost in the far reaches of District 7 and asked different people where is district one - in Vietnamese  (Quận 1 ở đâu?). Most people asked me to repeat it and then instructed me where to go. One woman just looked at me strangely and kept on walking, a young man the same. This tells me, either my Vietnamese is improving or the Vietnamese are improving; up from fifty/fifty.

Kate3687 wrote:

You know, I am Vietnamese, but sometimes I can not recognize what is spoken by a person with central accent or northern accent. I also ask them repeat what they are saying. I need some seconds to figure out what they want to say.  I think it happens with Vietnamese people who speak Vietnamese.
Foreigners have different accents, so it needs time to familiar with that. Not much chance to communicate with foreigners, how can they understand at the first time hearing different accent.

I live Central, and that's why I've stopped wasting my time trying to learn Viet, only every 2nd person can understand me,( if I'm lucky ) .
I now learn on a need to know basis, ( if I need to know something in Viet, that I don't have a sample/photo/drawing or can't act out, I will learn the words ).

bluenz wrote:

Kate3687 wrote:

You know, I am Vietnamese, but sometimes I can not recognize what is spoken by a person with central accent or northern accent. I also ask them repeat what they are saying. I need some seconds to figure out what they want to say.  I think it happens with Vietnamese people who speak Vietnamese.
Foreigners have different accents, so it needs time to familiar with that. Not much chance to communicate with foreigners, how can they understand at the first time hearing different accent.

I live Central, and that's why I've stopped wasting my time trying to learn Viet, only every 2nd person can understand me,( if I'm lucky ) .
I now learn on a need to know basis, ( if I need to know something in Viet, that I don't have a sample/photo/drawing or can't act out, I will learn the words ).

I think foreigner should learn Vietnamese from Hanoi and communicate with Hanoi only because Vietnamese from Hanoi is correct in spelling and pronunciation. Vietnamese from southern is right in writing, but wrong in pronunciation (speaking). That is my language, don't ask why it is like that. therefore, It is very difficult for foreigners to learn Vietnamese from southern because what you study in books is different from what you meet or hear from Vietnamese native speakers. For example, in writing "đi về = go home", in speaking you will hear "đi dìa or đi dề".
in writing "Giận = mad at someone", you will hear "dận". They change "V and GI" to "D". and other words like that. If you want to understand you should learn with a southern person, not with a teacher.

Kate3687 wrote:

bluenz wrote:

Kate3687 wrote:

You know, I am Vietnamese, but sometimes I can not recognize what is spoken by a person with central accent or northern accent. I also ask them repeat what they are saying. I need some seconds to figure out what they want to say.  I think it happens with Vietnamese people who speak Vietnamese.
Foreigners have different accents, so it needs time to familiar with that. Not much chance to communicate with foreigners, how can they understand at the first time hearing different accent.

I live Central, and that's why I've stopped wasting my time trying to learn Viet, only every 2nd person can understand me,( if I'm lucky ) .
I now learn on a need to know basis, ( if I need to know something in Viet, that I don't have a sample/photo/drawing or can't act out, I will learn the words ).

I think foreigner should learn Vietnamese from Hanoi and communicate with Hanoi only because Vietnamese from Hanoi is correct in spelling and pronunciation. Vietnamese from southern is right in writing, but wrong in pronunciation (speaking). That is my language, don't ask why it is like that. therefore, It is very difficult for foreigners to learn Vietnamese from southern because what you study in books is different from what you meet or hear from Vietnamese native speakers. For example, in writing "đi về = go home", in speaking you will hear "đi dìa or đi dề".
in writing "Giận = mad at someone", you will hear "dận". They change "V and GI" to "D". and other words like that. If you want to understand you should learn with a southern person, not with a teacher.

I was told that as well, ( but I'd expect to hear that from a Northerner ), I think Northerners sound like they have a German accent, when their English pronounciation isn't very good.
I had to laugh one day when this French bloke was at my wife's house, ( he is fluent in Viet,  but still can't talk to a VN by phone, or understand some of his farmer neighbours ), he was talking to my Canadian friends about speaking Viet, he said don't listen to my wife, she doesn't speak Viet properly, he was taught Viet in Hanoi, yet when my wife speaks English, she also has what sounds like a German accent??????  ( Zis and Zat, Zey, Zermany, etc ).

BNgoc wrote:

I 've just come back from Hoi An - Da Nang.  It 's seem silly but 40% conversations between me and locals went to nothing.  I had to ask them please to speak slowly and clearly,  listened carefully as I were in my language class.  And ordering food made by hand (showed them on menu ) cause they always thought about another food =]] ,  and I couldn't know why 2 women  quarreling on an old brigde in Hoi An ( so currious he.. he..) oh my God,  my country has 3 part North South and Middle but if go from North to South we have many kinds of pronuonciation and phonic.  But anyway Vietnamese 's so interesting,  let's try it guys.

There is also the Hue accent/dialect around there.