Over Spring Break, my family and I traveled around Ontario, Canada. At one point, we visited my uncle, my father's brother, and his wife in Toronto, and, to my surprise, they only speaks Vietnamese. They live in a Vietnamese community in Toronto and had never felt the need to learn English, so they never learned it. This is the first time I have ever met my aunt and uncle as they moved to Canada before I was born, and we never had an opportunity to meet until now. Although I was confident of my Vietnamese skills up until now, a couple minutes into making small talks, I realized that communicating with them was extremely difficult. My uncle's wife was from Quang Tri, a region in Central Vietnam that uses a dialect that is very different from my family's southern one. Her dialect uses a lot of local slang, rhythm, and sayings that I am unfamiliar with, so I found myself quickly confused by the way she talks. For example, in Vietnamese word for "who" is “ai” [aːi], however, the central dialect pronounced it as “ơi” [əːi] which means 'hey'. My uncle, on the other hand, had a heavy Chinese accent so I also find myself trying to decipher a lot of what he says. Overall, the experience showed me that I still have a lot I need to know, especially in terms of regional differences.
On another note, in an attempt to formally learn more in terms of grammar, I have purchased a textbook: "Elementary Vietnamese" third edition by Như Bình Ngô. It's a textbook/practice book that includes reading comprehension practices -- one of the things that I wanted to focus on in my learning plan. It's a bit of a challenge getting used to the book because there are terminologies that I never used growing up so following directions and understanding practice dialogue can feel a bit dreadful. However, whenever I encounter a word that I don’t understand or how it is supposed to be used, I write it down and quickly run it by my mother – a native speaker – or my language partner the next time we meet.
As per my last journal, I have started to listen to more Vietnamese music. I can now understand more words much more quickly. It definitely seems to have improved my listening, so to build on in, I have also started to watch Vietnamese or Vietnamese dubbed movies, comedy skits, and drama. This expose me to not only some day-to-day survival words and phrases but also uncommon words and phrases that I don’t usually use or hear. Even better, watching Vietnamese entertainment contents also allow me to observe more about the culture. For example, thanks to a Paris by Night (a Vietnamese Entertainment company) comedy skit, I learned about Ông Táo – a Vietnamese Kitchen God who also serves as a messenger from heaven. Growing up, I have often heard of “Ông Táo” but I never really knew what it was/meant until now.
Replies