[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
tie^'ng Vie^.t-Nam va`/or English
It seems this list has various purposes.
....One is communication in Vietnamese
...Vietnamese language is about 20% of this list.
...For me, a sometimes, part-time, hobbyist student of Vietnamese,
the Vietnamese listings are delightful challenges.
....I would be very disappointed if it all was translated.
.....There are various ways of looking at people around you speaking
in another language you don't understand.
Where I work we have lots of immigrant Laotians, and some Cambodians, and
Koreans,
and Vietnamese on our second shift. Throughout the company, when they are
together, they talk in their first languages. Some of the 2nd, 3rd, 4th...
generation Americans working with them worry they are being talked about or
maybe left out. I know the
first shift, with many more 2nd, 3rd... generation Americans feels it is
difficult to
communicate projects to 2nd shift during shift change. They also fit the joke:
If someone who speaks 3 languages is tri-lingual, and someone speaking 2 is
bi-lingual,
what is someone who speaks only one? An American.
I have some idea from learning Vietnamese what it's like to have partial
understanding
of another language - I'm never quite sure what I think I am saying in
Vietnamese
means what I think it does. I've also quizzed some of my immigrant Hmong,
Chinese,
and Vietnamese friends about words when they happened to read something to me.
I've discovered the average book holds roughly 20 unknown words per page for
them!
It is very understandable that they communicate in a fully understood
language when
they have a chance.
I personally find it delightful to have so many different languages and
cultures around me. I enjoy the interactions I have with these people very
much, and am very fond of
them. I'm pleased to see them interact in any language they like.
Similarly, I'm
delighted by the Vietnamese language stuff on this list.
Sometimes I take the time to translate it. It takes maybe 1 hour per paragraph.
(If I look at a Vietnamese book, I see about 80% unknown words on a page :))
I've concentrated on conversational Vietnamese, which seems to use a somewhat
different set of words.
Minh/Mark mpls
-------------------------------------------------------------------