A haphazard chronicle of my inevitable misadventures during a year in Vietnam and points east.

p.s. I'll be pitifully grateful if you send me email during my exile: TravelerKaty@hotmail.com

October 2002 November 2002 December 2002 January 2003 February 2003 March 2003 April 2003 May 2003 June 2003 July 2003 August 2003 September 2003 October 2003 November 2003 February 2006 March 2006 May 2006

 
I didn't do much yesterday, as I was on a bus for six hours going from Hoi An to Hue, so I've decided to give you all a little Vietnamese lesson in honor of Tet.

OK, here's our phrase:

Chuc Mung Nam Moi!

This means "Happy New Year", for the non-Vietnamese speakers out there. But you didn't think it would be that easy, did you? We have to pronounce those crazy words correctly, or we might be saying "Dead Fish Basket Toss" or something like that.

So repeat after me:

Chuc: This is pronouced "chooc", with a rising high tone. And be sure to swallow that final "c", because the Vietnamese really don't feel comfortable with final consonants on their words.

Mung: This "u" actually has a little apostrophe attached to it's top right corner, which makes it a different letter than the "u" in "Chuc". So try to say "mung" with your teeth clenched and smiling. Don't make your mouth into an "OOO" shape! That would be very wrong. And while you do that, remember to do it with a low falling tone.

Nam: This is the easiest word of the bunch. The "a" has a little v-shaped thing on top of it, but that just means it's a shorter vowel sound than the "a" without the v on top, like the one in "Viet Nam". So make this rhyme with Viet Nam, but a teensy bit shorter, and say it with a mid-range even tone.

Moi: OK, we have another apostrophe situation going on here with the "o". That means this "o" doesn't rhyme with any English language "o" sound, and there are tons of those. This one is more like a nasally "uh" but think of it as rhyming with "duh" in that long way that teenagers say it, because this is a longer vowel. If you don't give it enough emphasis, then it's like you're using the Vietnamese letter "a" with a hat on top, and that would be a totally different word. So altogether, it's like "m-uh-ee" with a rising high tone.

Now everybody all together now: Chuc Mung Nam Moi!

Wasn't that easy? Oh, and don't forget that "Tet" has a little hat over the "e", so it's pronounced "tate", with the final "t" kind of swallowed due the national fear of consonants.

© 2003 Katy Warren
posted by Katy at 3:29 AM