Learning the Local Language....
Trip Start
Oct 24, 2005
1
45
149
Trip End
Ongoing
Hanoi,
Vietnam
Sunday, July 30, 2006
A few weeks ago, we drove out to this little shop that caters to Westerners. As we were pulling up, we saw a gang of men running down the street. They appeared to be chasing a guy on a motorbike. We assumed he had stolen the motorbike or something like that. Then, it appeared they were chasing one of the other men on foot. They were all angry, screaming at each other, and running so hard they were falling down on the pavement. We were trying to figure out what was going on when suddenly, another man came running from the other direction... wielding two large butcher knives! We took that as our cue to enter the store.
Honestly, our day to day life isn't usually that exciting. There's a lot of sitting around and planning. We're lame, what more can I say? However, it's certainly different than our old lives in The States. Once we venture out of our little world on the seventh floor, we find ourselves in Vietnam. A world where most people don't speak English. Where many people make less in an entire year than we do in one month Where you have to look both ways before crossing the one way street (to make sure you don't get whacked from the inevitable motorbike driving the wrong way).... A world where we only have to walk out our front door to find fresh fruit, veggies, and flowers being sold on the street by women in the traditional cone hats. A world where the gorgeous flowers cost less than a dollar per two dozen. Where beer is 15¢ a glass. And toothbrushes are 40¢ a pop.
A Curious Baby Pie
And electronics cost a fortune....The Vietnamese Language:
We haven't learned as much as we probably should have by this point. We know numbers, lots of food, and a few other things, but we are far from fluent. Tonal languages are tough for us damn romance language speakers. Not only are there diphthongs, but there are tripthongs (and probably even quadrathongs or something like that...).
While we haven't made as much headway as we'd like to, we have at least learned some aspects of the pronunciation, which is good b/c it makes us feel much less foolish in the classroom (aka: we don't end up butchering our students' names). In doing so, I've come to understand that we've been bastardizing Ho Chi Minh's name all these years.... In Vietnamese, nh is pronounced "ng" - so Minh is pronounced "Ming," as in the Chinese dynasty. Also, the order of the names is the opposite of the way we do it: last name first (Ho), middle name (Chi), first name (Minh), so we all call him Uncle Ho, which would be like me saying Uncle Parsons. Another interesting pronunciation quirk is tr. Tr is pronounced "ch" - so Trang is pronounced "Chang."
Settling In:
We continue to get cozy in our "apartment in the sky." We finally got our phone troubles worked out last weekend, so feel free to call us anytime... as long as it isn't in the middle of the night. I know we all feel like conversations have to be so meaningful when someone is living far away, but honestly, that's not the truth, so don't feel pressured. You can just call to say "hey," and hang up. It's just nice to hear your voices. That's it. Plain and simple.
Classes/Teaching:
I've taken on another four hours a week, so I'm up to 25 hours a week. Konrad's M-W-F teen classes came to an end last week, so the blissful summer days of no weekends is drawing to an abrupt close. We'll see what the fall brings - it's pretty unclear what's going to happen at this point. I'm going to try to get moved to the school around the corner from our house, so I don't have to drive anymore. We'll see how well that goes over - I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
Future Plans:
We've warmed to Hanoi. Which is good. And which means we plan to hang around for a few months - probably until December or so. We just don't think we can take the winters here, so we're looking to the horizon... in Turkey. Our tentative plan at this point is to leave Vietnam in January, travel for a few months, end up in Turkey, check it out, and hopefully decide it's pleasant enough to be our new home. We're very interested in the city of Izmir, which is on the Mediterranean, and full of beautiful ruins. It looks gorgeous. But, we have a lot more research to do before making that decision. At this point, it looks feasible, so we're optimistic.
