Job Discussion Forums

Springtime · Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2009 12:13 am Post subject: Languages Spoken

Dear Friends:
My husband and I have had 2 language classes to learn Vietnamese and I'm not optimistic about ever getting fluent! Do most of you speak English most of the time? How about French? I understand that only the older people know French. How hard should we work at Vietnamese - it's a bear!
Springtime in California

inky · Joined: 05 Jan 2009 Posts: 283 Location: Hanoi

It's easy to 'get by' with very little Vietnamese in the major cities. Very often you will encounter people who speak some English. Menus are usually in English as well as Vietnamese. Because their alphabet uses 'Roman" letters it's very easy to look things up in a dictionary or phrasebook. If you are here for a while you'll discover that you are picking up phrases through immersion. If you want to make more meaningful friendships then of course you'll need more language skills.

Forget about French.

Springtime · Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2009 10:06 pm Post subject: Languages Spoken

Dear Inky:
Thank you - that's what I've heard. We'll learn what we can to make it easier once we get there. It's not the kind of language you can pick up on your own very easily so we'll finish the 8 classes and see if we can get by with tapes.
Springtime in California