Jun 2009

When an Australian lives in Vietnam with a Brazilian, there's always some sort of issue with language. I find myself at many times in situations where there will be three or more languages being thrown around the dinner table. One couple that I know (Brazilian man, Vietnamese woman) speak alternately between Vietnamese and English (he speaks good Vietnamese and low level/ok English), with a bit of Portuguese in there too.

At a barbecue the other night (with only Brazilians + me + baby Ryan whom I can sneakily teach to speak English with me!), I found myself speaking three languages in one sentence. Without even trying.

Someone asked me if I spoke Vietnamese, and I ended up saying without noticing "I fala.....(thinking of Portuguese word for little).......chut chut".
Direct translation - I speak little.
I - English
fala - "speak" in Portuguese
chut chut - "little" in Vietnamese (after not remembering little in P.)

So, in conclusion, can I just make up my own language??

It's easy for me, because I'm an English speaker, but I've never had any exposure before to other languages. I quit Indonesian in Year 9, and never learnt anything new after. But I'm learning now. And it's great great fun.

Vietnamese is an extremely difficult language for those interested. Three letters e.g. "anh" can mean 6 different things depending on how you say it PLUS, it is also a name for a girl. The name "Thuy" for a girl, has three ways of saying it, and it's owners like to correct you when you don't say their name with the correct tone.

I have sort of been on and off learning Portuguese a little bit here and there over the last few months, but only just this week I'm really getting serious about it. I've downloaded audio/video lessons, and made cool fun flashcard things (being the highly organised person I tend to be). I've even thought of some games that I can play, which I am excited about, so I don't care how nerdy it is.

Raphael has learnt his English purely himself (not even a year ago did he start learning), with one small pocket book, and lots and lots of music (read: hip hop). While were on the topic of hip hop, if you thought American hip hop/rap music is full of violence, drugs, and bad role models (which it is), listen to Brazilian rap and you'll have new insight into an even more extreme version of the above.

He is an excellent English speaker, but of course, like any new language, there are questions and misunderstandings.

Here's an example of a scenario we were in at Big C the other day:

R: Baby, what does "????" mean?
C: What's the word? (with confusion)
R: "????"
C: How do you write it?
R: B-U-S-T-W
C: Baby, that's not a word.
R: Yes it is! It's in the song.
C: "the" song?! What song?

On further research, the word is simply "bust", sung in "Bust it" by Plies feat. Neyo. Considering I don't know anybody with an interest in this music, I don't really expect anyone to watch it!

I had no idea what the word means, but I've just looked it up now in the useful "Urban Dictionary", however I'm not going to repeat the definitions here. I don't think it's even worth figuring out how to translate these American gangster slang words, considering I'm not going to use them in everyday language. Funnily enough, Raphael did ask me one day what "hood" means (from a song). I said it is the hat part of a jumper, but another new definition would be someone's house or territory. Well that's I think. As long as he doesn't go telling people to "come to our hood". I politely explained not to use that word in normal conversation.

While Portuguese is considerably easier than Vietnamese, there are still a few rules that are really difficult to master.
- You need to change the ending vowel sound in a word depending on if you are male or female.
- Some nouns are considered feminine, while some are considered male. When I was learning about this today, I learnt that a plate is considered feminine, and a table is considered male. Maybe I'm totally wrong, but I just don't undesrtand. On the other hand, a car is masculine and a house is feminine. Ok, that's more believable, but come on! Since when are pure, concrete, tangible objects gender classified?

Before I bore you with the gritty linguistics of Portuguese, listen to this beautiful song, sung in Brazilian Portuguese and English.

"Boa Sorte/Good luck" by Ben Harper and Vanessa de Mata.

I have been learning the Portuguese lyrics, and I don't even need to translate it myself, as Ben Harper sings the direct translation after the Portuguese. It's a beautiful song, and I love Vanessa de Mata. She is from Rio de Janeiro.

I will go back to Vietnamese for a minute, and the silly situations I find myself in with the language. For those of you who don't know, when Vietnamese people see a white face, they mostly won't listen to what you say, even if it's Vietnamese. Thus, your attempts to speak their language fail miserably.

Here is a common scenario I find myself in at the markets:

Marketeer: Helloooooo
C: Xin Chao
after collection of all fruit/vegetables, they proceed to add up the amounts and write it down on a piece of paper to show me.
C: Khong khong khong! Bao nhieu tien?!!! (no.... how much money?)
M: xx,xxx Dong
C: Cam on Chi (thankyou ma'am).................soooooooo.......... Ten la gi? (what's your name?)
M: Ten la Xuong/Phuoc/Thuy/Giang/Trang etc and so forth
C: Ten la Cat. Same same "mew" Tieng Viet (My name is Cat. The same to "mew" in Vietnamese).
The point here is to explain that my name in Vietnamese is a cat ("mew" in Vietnamese).
M: ......... looks dumbfoundedly.
C: gives up, brushing it off. Pays, says goodbye knowing that the next time we meet they will have forgotten my name or just call me "Casss".

I've learnt my lesson now not to give this pointless instruction in how my name is Cat, as in the cat the animal.

Oh well, maybe Brazil will understand.

Love.
Cat.

Due to my severe lack of musical ability, I could not think of more appropriate lyrics that were actually related to Da Nang, so I just left the original lyrics. I have made a list of things that I love in this city, businesses, people and past-times.

Christie's Cool Spot

We refer to Christie's as the "Australian restaurant", as apparently it was once owned by an Australian. If that is true, I have no idea. The Australian restaurant offers a huge menu of food, from Vietnamese to Western, Japanese to European. The food is quick, English is excellent, and the prices are not expensive. They make a deliciously huge fresh orange juice.

My Khe Beach

The beach within 2 minutes walking of our house, is quiet and uncrowded during the day, then extremely packed from 4pm onwards. Stretching miles and miles down to China Beach and then to Hoi An, who could wish for better natural scenery at their doorstep.

Son Tra Peninsula

LIterally a big mountain overlooking My Khe Beach which also prevents strong winds causing rips in the water. If you drive up and up and up the road, you will just get better and better views, until you hit what looks like a secret headquarters of a massive international company. From there, back away before the cameras get you (experience only tells).

Furama Swimming Pool

The main pool is a big square shape, with a waterfall into the baby pool, looking directly at the beach. You've got swiming pool, beach, mountains all in one, and it's not normally very busy either (literally nobody else except on the weekends). For $10, you can laze by the pool all day, but I don't like the extremely expensive food or drinks which are generally below par for such a fine establishment. The jet ski is $40 for 30 minutes, which is heaps of time to have a lot of fun out in the open sea with nobody around, and no instruction beforehand in safety or rules either. Just wear the lifejacket, this is go, this is stop. Woooo!!

Do'Ro Spa

I have only been to Do'ro once, but it was just magnificent. I had a 75 minute facial for 200,000 Dong ($14 AUD), complete with ultra clean rooms, professional and well spoken (English) staff, well compared to a salon in Australia. They even operated this high tec machines on my face, I don't actually know what they were doing, but I'm sure that would cost alot back home. I am looking forward to there full body massage at 100,000 D and there body scrubs. For that price in Hanoi, the service and quality is nothing like here.

Chi Lang stadium and "bong da"

Da Nang draws in the biggest crowds for football games in all of Vietnam's stadiums. Da Nang is currently the number 1 team, and recent home games are pulling in crowds of 35000 people. The atmosphere is just so exciting, especially now that Da Nang is the top team. The constant overplaying of Ricky Martin's "Cup of Life" just makes you laugh, and the constant stares when a foreigner screams in excitement, are just ignored. The 20 year old security boys guard the barriers between the field and crowd, while really itching to be able to watch the game.

My house rooftop

On the roof of our house, we have a magnificent views of Son Tra Peninsula and the beach, plus on the west side, the city.

The cool evenings

Evening though it's stinking hot in the day right now, at around 4pm it begins to cool down, and the nights are comfortbaly mild, perfect for any night time activity.

Skype

With this magniicent piece of technology, I can speak to anybody in the world with visual image for free. That's all I need to say about that.

The market

If you go to Hanoi's busy markets, prices are inflated for tourists, if you even go to Danang's central market, prices are inflated, but if you go to the market in my street, the prices are cheaper than anywhere. I can buy fresh fruit and vegetables at a cheap price, plus have a (restricted) pleasant conversation with the sellers. They are very friendly and they now know me as a local, but probably more as Raphael's girlfriend.

Those are a few of my favourite things......

I have begun writing articles on a travel website for Vietnam (www.travelvietnaminfo.com). I have written articles on both Da Nang and Ninh Binh cities, and am currently working on an article for the Mekong Delta in Southern Vietnam. Read the article on Da Nang, and maybe you will be tempted to visit......

While the hot weather strikes this city, Da Nang is experiencing a series of power outages. In Hanoi, they are excused as "sheduled maintenance", however I'm not sure why maintenance must take place during the hottest months. Our house shares the corner with the street's electricity pole, so every power out, we must listen to a bunch of people gathered around our house attempting to fix the electricity. Sometimes, there is even a generator placed literally next to our window, which creates a real sense of serenity. Some workers have even stepped into our home (open door) to look at the pole from a different angle (out our window).

With the changing weather, Vietnam's summer fruit have really come into season. Fruit such as "mang cut" (mangosteen) are deliciously sweet with a small hint of citrus. Also star fruit is lining the market stalls, although I have never tried it. "Mit" (jackfruit) is very common, although it is so sweet I just can't handle it, plus it's sold in markets pre-cut and not so hygenic. Of course "nuoc dua" (coconut juice) drunken from the actual coconut is popular, along with "nuoc mia" (sugarcane drink) which is drunken by locals walking to and from the beach in the evenings.

I have become friends with a young girl who lives across the road. Her English is ok, but she has a tendency to say "you" instead of "I" or "me" which normally creates confusion. She adores both of us, and loves to pop over whenever she's home. I help her with her English homework, which is incredibly boring worksheets, and rather difficult (e.g. pages of pronunciation questions). Pronunciation I think is the hardest part of learning English for Vietnamese students, so it's good that I can help her with it. She is only 14, so I'm sure she will improve greatly by the time she graduates.

In other news, SHB Da Nang sits on top of the V-League ladder (http://english.vietnamnet.vn/sports/2009/05/848899/), however most of Pleiku city's team lies in hospital with apparent swine flu (http://www.saigon-gpdaily.com.vn/Health/2009/6/71567/). Up until a few days ago, there were less than 10 swine flu cases in Vietnam, and now the entire team is hospitalised. Sunday's match would be believe it, is still going ahead. Da Nang have held the top spot the entire year, and are 7 points ahead of team number 2. If they win the entire championship, they will get the opportunity to represent Vietnam in the Asia Cup, against other Asian teams and also Australia, depending on who qualifies.

I filmed a video down beach road, near my house so you can get an idea of my district. I had included some commentary, but there was too much background noise, so I covered it with music.

Love.
Cat.