My Vietnamese

Here is the follow up to the post I made in August about learning Vietnamese.
(As a side note, I am currently in Greece trying to learn more Greek, and Vietnamese already seems like a lifetime ago. These videos were filmed at the end of May.)

I have learned a lot while trying to learn this language.  Obviously, I did learn some Vietnamese, but I  also increased my understanding of how to learn languages in general.  I can also better sympathize with my students who are struggling to learn English and who are often uncomfortable speaking the language in front of others. I'm definitely not as good as I would have liked to be, but I am still proud of what I was able to learn.

Here are a few videos that demonstrate the level that I have reached.  Thank you to my teacher and friend Quynh for all of her help and for agreeing to film this video with me.  😙  I know that for non Vietnamese speakers, it might sound like I know what I am doing, but unfortunately most Vietnamese probably won't understand, since pronunciation is so important yet so difficult.

The first video is me practising while Zoé films and laughs at me.

The second video is a somewhat staged conversation where I introduce Quynh and then we have a short conversation about our families, our work, and our favourite foods.
Disclaimer: This one will be especially boring for most people, I made it more for myself.

A glimpse of Nik's snack on the table...

This last one shows a few bloopers.

Thank you so much to everybody who has helped me practice and improve my language skills in Vietnamese.  During lunch, after school, in the hallway, by the side of the pool, etc.  

Cảm ơn!!

28h à Phnom Penh

12h d'autobus pour se rendre au Cambodge

2 personnes sur 3 de malade

28 heures à notre destination

À l'itinéraire = au moins 2 sites commémoratifs du génocide

7 heures d'autobus pour le retour

On y va?  Bien sur!

Moi, Sydney, Cay-Lee

Non mais sérieux, des vrais lits dans l'autobus, il n'y a pas de meilleure façon à voyager. 

Malgré le nom, notre hotel était pas mal cool!

Okay Boutique Hotel

En arrivant on se dirige tout de suite aux "killing fields" et par la suite au Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. En effet, pas mal déprimant, mais c'est pour cela qu'on y est aller.  Pour une raison qui m'est encore inconnue, j'ai toujours eu un grand intérêt pour les génocides.  Je suis pourrie en histoire et j'oublie toujours toutes les dates, mais j'ai lu tellement de livres au sujet des Nazis, du génocide au Rwanda, et maintenant du Cambodge.  Pour être honnête je n'avais aucune idée au sujet de ce qui c'est passé au Cambodge avant d'arrivé en Asie.  Au cas ou c'est la même chose pour toi, le lien suivant fourni un bon résumé: Guerre au Cambodge.  

Mais en gros, lors de la guerre civile, près de 21% de la population est morte.  De faim, de maladies diverses et par meurtre. Un livre recommandé est "First they killed my father".  Le film a été produit par Angelina Jolie et est disponible sur Netflix, mais évidemment, le livre est beaucoup mieux. 

Aux deux sites, les tournées audios étaient vraiment bien faits et fournissaient énormément d'info, raconté de façon très intéressante. En visitant des sites de ce genre, on doit prendre le temps de réfléchir et d'absorber ce qu'on voit/entend, mais ce n'est pas toujours évident.  Ce qui m'est resté en tête après est un gros "POURQUOI?". Je ne crois pas que je vais réussir à comprendre pourquoi on se fait ce genre de chose...

Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum.

À part ça, j'ai bien aimé Phnom Penh.  On a magasiné un peu, passé du temps à notre piscine extérieur (au 14e), visité le marché ainsi qu'une rue avec pleins de peintures murales. En voici quelques exemples.

J'adore!

On essai d'imiter la madame, mais sans trop de succès...

Go Saigon!

Il ne faut pas oublié qu'on a fait plusieurs tours de Tuk-Tuk et qu'on s'est même rendu à l'ambassade du Vietnam car notre conducteur ne parlais pas du tout anglais et ne savais pas comment utiliser son GPS.

Notre propre conducteur toute la journée.  Pas pire, pas pire. 

Ambassade du Vietnam... pas du tout sur notre itinéraire.

Finalement, comme au Vietnam, il y avait des rues avec juste une chose.  Par exemple, ici à HCMC on a "sports street", "book street", "shoe street", etc.  La bas on a vue la rue des motos mais ce qu'on a trouvé de comique est la rue des pharmacies.  Je ne suis pas allée à l'intérieur d'une pharmacie, mais il en avait sérieusement une douzaine, une après l'autre. J'ai de la difficulté à imaginé que les produits et les prix varient tant que ça. Mais bon, au moins si ont avait soudainement mal à la tête, on savait ou aller.

Besoin de drogues?

To the new people in my (our) life...

We landed in Vietnam over 10 months ago not knowing a single soul here.

That can be pretty scary and lonely but lucky for us, we quickly met many incredible people!  Throughout the year we have built numerous relationships and we are so grateful for every single one of them.  Even though at times it can be a little tricky to be neighbours with your colleagues, and travel companions with your neighbours, I can't believe how lucky we have been joining this crazy community of people.

My bday dinner

I want to thank everybody that I have met in the past 10 months.  Without you, this adventure would not have been the same.

Now the school year is coming to an end and I am sad to think that I will probably never see the majority of you again.  Perhaps we will have run-ins with some of you. Hopefully, we will be able to coordinate to meet with others, and who knows... maybe we will find ourselves teaching together at another international school in the future. Or opening our own school in the Philippines, right?

Until then though, a big thank you to the people who:

• Always had a warm greeting and smile for us in the elevator
• Treated our kids like their own
• Took our kids places, cooked with them, danced with them, etc.
• Gave us travel, restaurant and/or shopping advice
• Brought me flowers
• Joined me on crazy market adventures
• Were always up for a chat by The Sunflower or the pool
• Helped me with my Vietnamese
• Shared sound professional advice and resources
• Helped me better understand my students and the culture in general
• Encouraged me to exercice in this intense heat
• Collaborated with me on class projects
• Offered to help in various ways and on various occasions
• Gave warm hugs
• Cooked for us
• Shared their watermelon with us
• Made my kids feel better when they weren't feeling well
• Always had a compliment to give
• Invited us into their homes
• Had so many interesting stories and experiences to share
• and more...

Also, it's actually quite impressive how you can develop a relationship with somebody with whom you can barely communicate.  I feel as though I have many relationships here where 90% of the time we do not understand each other. Sometimes we try a lot (like with this older lady in the building) and at times we simply settle for a smile and a Xin Chao (like with certain of my Vietnamese colleagues).  There is even one of the security guards at school to whom I always say the same thing (in Viet.) as I cross the street to go eat lunch (I go eat lunch) but who actually understands me (except when I try to add new words in there).

Even though those people are not reading this post, I will not forget them either.

So to everybody, whether you have become a close friend or just an acquaintance, whether we have had 100 good conversations or just 1, thank you for being there.