Added: 2 years ago
From: ProfASAr
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  • ignorant piece of shit all language sound different does not mean it ugly ur black skin is ugly u never see us say it stupid nigger at least our language is abc and not that stupd cave men symbol like laos thai chink and jap fuk our langugfe does sound liek that monkey shit from afica

  • ugliest language on earth hands down

  • 4:08 "But" or "butt"? The latter would be quite interesting to mix up with "mother". XD

  • this is one difficult language to learn. Like Mandarin, to learn to speak it fluently you need to study it for several years

  • chuc mung nam moi

  • Nhảm nhí

  • this guy is so white

  • these vietnamese instructors probably don't speak french because if they did they'd know that, while french influence on vietnamese wasn't as deep as that of chinese it still left many marks on the vietnamese language, much more than they alluded to here.

    i can think off the top of my head quite a few vietnamese words of french root: so mi (chemise), pho mat (fromage), su chien (soutien), buot bo (pour boire), den pha (phare), ban (panne), ca to mat (tomate), ruou vang (vin)...

  • Did Vietnam use characters before the French changed its written language to alphabets?

  • @guayx2

    yes, vietnam used chinese characters up until the latter 19th century. like korea and japan that came up with their own writing systems (hangul and kana respectively), vietnam also devised its own character system based on chinese in order to express native vietnamese words. this script was called 'chu nom'.

  • @guayx2 Yes, my understanding was that it was Chinese characters up until missionaries - possibly french I'm not sure - introduced a system that used a latin based script.

  • Viet Nam has 3 regions and each region has its unique pronunciation and words. They must have one more teacher from the middle of Viet Nam. For example, from the word "ma", if u call "mạ" in Huế(one of the middle cities), it means "mother".

    OMG, when this guy is repeating some Kiều poem sentences, I cant help laughing LOLL

  • Great video and idea. My name is Tony and I am going to Vietnam for Tet in 2012 and would like to learn a little Vietnamese. Is there anyone who can help tutor me? I am actually half Vietnamese and was adopted to an American family when I was very young and since have forgotten how to speak the Vietnamese language. Any help would be greatly appreciated as I would like to speak to some family members while I'm there.

  • @openmindednessessary I hope you can visit Phu Quoc island, it's my country and I want to guide you some interesting place at this island

  • This guy is like the Mr. Rogers of language learning. I keep thinking I'm going to hear that little trolley coming...

  • Very helpful, thanks for sharing Alexander!

  • central vietnamese is the hardest to understand.... haha

  • LOL... ma = ghost má = mother (south vietnamese) mạ = mother (central vietnamese) mà = but mả = grave mã = horse (chinese vietnamese) the lowest is "mạ", and then "mả" -> "mà" -> "ma" -> "má" is the highest... the pronunciation of "mã" sound like "mả" but it has a little bit sound after... i think "mã" = "mả" + a...... (pronounce the sound of "a" out from your throat) for example, "sữa" (milk) = "sửa" (fix) + ưa (like) remember, dont speak "ưa" out loud... that's it :)
  • @blueealge332 That's somehow true in northern dialect but not in the south. in the south, "mả" and "mã" sound totally similar, but in the south we often say "mộ" instead of "mả" ("grave"), and so with "sữa" and "sửa", etc. Anyway, the north vietnamese is considered the standard Vietnamese (but not totally) in our country.

  • Interesting

  • you also need to invite people from the middle of the country, they have a completely different tone and words......North and south aren't enough

  • Helpful, but quite the self advertisement.

  • Awesome

  • did she just said saphon?? in tagalog its sabon which is soap too. hehe. I LOVE WATCHING THIS.

  • @utubeviewer93 in Malay it's sabun :)

  • @utubeviewer93 Sa Bom

    Which means, to Rub bubbles or foam AHHAHAHA

  • @utubeviewer93 yeah, she did. In northern dialect we say "xà phòng" /safong/ but in the south, "xà bông" /sabong/. sorry cannot type IPA...

  • @randyorton4evaz

    yah? 1 mistake is called "son of bitch," then what would they be called?

    Btw, I'd just typed "her translation is not good" first, but then I thought it wasn't that important to write formal language here. So, I chose "sucks," but I didn't delete it all because of mistake. And, hello, I just wanted to share things I know. That's not even saying that they claimed they were teachers; and I claimed nothing. And if you're really educated, stop using fault language, B.

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  • La memoria conta molto immagino.... immagino che dopo questa conversazione si sia ricordato bene tutte quelle parole che ha sentito con relativa intonazione!

    anche a me sono sempre piaciute molto le lingue... sarebbe bello impararle come si deve!

  • You do not mention the name of the more modern book with the better audio CD. I cannot find it based on cover only. Could you possibly post the name here? Thanks!

  • Now you need central .

  • At 10:08 Troi Xanh is "heaven blue" Troi = Heaven Xanh=Blue not blue heaven Vietnamese some of the times has the same order as English but there are a lot of times were its just revise. And heart is not "long" to say heart it is "tim" "long" actually means "feeling". It really all depends on how you say it and what words you put together to make your sentence. Vietnamese sometimes can be too confusing!

  • @JunHuynh2418 Wait. Troi Xanh SPOKEN would mean Blue Heaven, if we were to say, Xanh Troi . it would be blue heaven . That's how I grew up knowing how to place words

  • @whitelotus77 Yes you are right. What I'm saying is more literal you know. Like the order of the way we say things in English or Vietnamese the translation comes out differently. Like if you were to translate a sentence it would come out different than if you were to translate each word of a sentence and putting them together. You know what I mean? I'm not sure how to explain it myself.

  • Her translation is sucks, seriously!! For example, "destination" that she has said should be "fortune," and "trong thay" which is "looked," not "watched" LOL...

    She's not good at English...

    (I'm Vietnamese)

  • @Mikliao91 youre not good at english neither lol... "trong thay" is "saw" . Honestly your grammar isnt so great neither stop the criticizing

    By the way, "is sucks" does not make any sense

  • Isnt south vietnamese more slang i dont rember im south viet

  • I'm learning Vietnamese and my hardest task is in remembering which tones to apply to a given word. I'm quite good at spelling, but I've noticed that when it comes to VN words, I can easily remember the Latinized portion of a word, but not the additional diacritics. (I think, because English speakers are raised to recognize only symbols a - z, VNese diacritics appear to our brains as "background noise").

    I'm wondering if there is any kind of established method to attack this problem?

  • The variety of tones always makes the language sound interesting.

  • @WhoCareswhatever2009 : "NO one interested in learning viet language. There is no reason for it cuz vietnam is forever 3rd world country and have have low academic achievement unlike the people of CHina, Japan, and Korea."

    Are you stupid or something? I'm Vietnamese and I speak English much better than a lot of Chinese, Japanese or Korean people. Also, my academic result is always better than them ... lol , so shut up and get your ass out of here!

  • Learn viet to do what??? Be a criminal or go back to swamp gook land and work as a swamp gook??

  • Phong ba bão táp không bằng ngữ pháp Việt Nam =]

  • Thanks for posting this video. Could you please tell me the titles and authors of the book that's a "descriptive introduction" and the modern book that has good audio. Also do you know if there is a book like the "Handbook of Korean Vocabulary" for Vietnamese?

  • @WhoCareswhatever2009 Poor your parents, they must feel very ashamed because their child has everything but a brain.LOL. Besides, they didn't do a very good job in teaching their child, you don't know how to read. There are people want to learn Vietnamese, idiot! Oh btw, as you mentioned academic achievement, find some books and read my friend, I feel pity for your English teachers, you're a complete failure!

  • @TheTrieutran , the failure is your parents created you.

  • vietnamese have have big wide flat noses. They have very huge nastrils that scared the shit out of me. VIetnamese accent when speaking english is horrible. They cannot fully pronounce english words and often time chop up the words. Horrible swamp gooks go home please and stop welfare fraud . Why couldn't you swamp gook moneys refugees to like africa.

  • @WhoCareswhatever2009 Why did I just see you around all the videos about Vietnamese? :D.Am I so rude to ask you if you had a Vietnamese bf/gf and that person cheated on you or tried to slit your throat? That can explain many things.LOL. I don't want to waste my time arguing with such a foolish person but your cmts really annoyed me. Stop making fun of others' accents because you will do just the same thing when you try to learn another language.

  • @WhoCareswhatever2009, I'm sorry to say that your comments lack moral values and are inappropriate. Your generalization reflects your limited thoughts.

  • im lucky i speak vietnamese! :D

  • Vietnamese is a beautiful language just like any other language in the world. I recommend that people who want to study Vietnamese speak with the Northern accent. It's standard.

  • Yeah, I'm Vietnamese and Canadian, and when my mom came back from her vacation in Vietnam, she bought a few Vietnamese-English dictionary, and they weren't precise and concise. This is because there are some words in English that doesn't make sense in Vietnamese.

  • I'm not a "bastrad" and I think viet people are cool, but their language just isn't pleasant to my ears. But sorry if I offended you

  • abosolutely NOTHING against viet people, but their language sounds so ugly..

  • @loonylovegood27 well fuck you i'm vietnam and you are a bastrad

  • @loonylovegood27 I don't know whether English got the word "ugly" changed already or not, but does it have positive meaning right now :D?

    "Oh I don't say anything against you but you're ugly anyway"

    How nice hah =))

  • u shoot si-pik viet-nam-me

  • the word chao is hello in french and vietnamese at least i think thats how you spell it but they're pronounced differently

  • @wizardsue9 You're thinking of the Italian "ciao", aren't you? In any case, I've noticed that too, asked about it (I live in Saigon), and there is apparently no connection between the two. It seems to predate any contact with Europeans.

    But, who knows, maybe Marco Polo made a stop here on his way to China. ;-)

  • the woman on the left is my ex-teacher in High school

  • i think the hardest thing for foreigner to learn is not grammar but pronunciation

  • Thank you for sharing this video. At one time I spoke Vietnamese very well, but life took me in another direction and I find myself very rusty these days trying to converse. After watching your video I am now encouraged to get my fluency back.

  • má hồng đánh ghen = cat fight

  • Is this the correct order translated from English straight to Vietnamese?

    English= "I like you very much"

    Vietnamese= " Em tite unn neu lumm"

    I am learning Vietnamese right now because my new boyfriend is Vietnamese :D

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  • it would be nice to share and talk on skype to learn! I would like that.

  • Hi, you missed someone to represent Central Vietnam since Vietnam has 3 distinct region, North, Central, and South.

  • I'm a native Vietnamese speaker,I was born in Vietnam and raised there but sometimes I can't understand some words =.= This language is hard for foreigners to learn,I think.

  • Some guy said to me "Yon jen won jet lo hong" and said it was vietnamese but he didn't have anything that would type the symbols so I don't know what it means. Please help. I have tried many translators but they don't help.

  • Thank you so much for this video. It is just what I needed. A good, detailed video that explains the Vietnamese language very well. Cám ón!

  • @xuesheng1000 It's "cám ơn"!

  • @ProfASAr:

    Actually, I would like to tell you something about the the poem titled "The Tale of Kieu". Basically, in the 18th and 19th Century. The Vietnamese didn't use the language which we use now, so "the Tale of Kieu" was written in Nom script. And later on, the modern Vietnamese translated into Quốc Ngữ - 国語 (National Language). Thus, the language you see in the book that you're holding is NOT the language they used in 19th century but the modern language (words and grammars).

  • Take the damn guy named "Nguyễn Văn Vĩnh" and shoot him in the head

  • You should make a video on Paraguayan Guaraní some day.

  • This guy is like a genius that makes mensa members seem retarded.

  • I soo proud of ASEAN

  • I went to Vietnam last year. It's a tough language.

  • @RobertNicholls right,it's a tonal language,just like Chinese.

  • Haha,true,there are tons of Chinese words in Vietnamese,I am going to learn Mandarin.

  • The two Vietnamese teachers are so bad. They even don't understand their language well. Lot of words borrowed from French but they could not tell one. (ca` phe, se^n, ba-ga, xich lo, culi, Da^`m ...) What a shame if they teach Vietnamese but don't understand Kieu. "La gi" is not "it is no strange" They are product of communist education system. They are destroying the language

  • @lvhbao somehow it's really hard to translate from English to Viet, not included the fact that they're just a teachers who basically understands English like the old-fashion way. I think Viet's foreign languages (especially English) is one of the best in Southeast Asia. And it's just because the department of education of Viet "treat" English really bad, like an "out-standing" subject with a minimum foreign language teachers, so we can't blame it on anyone. But i love your points by the way!

  • @lvhbao

    shudda fuck up! americanès dog!

  • @leductuan99

    What language are you using? I guess either your teachers or your parents taught you that.... You are the product of communist education system too. I love Vietnam but I cannot love the culture that has been ruined by the commies

  • @lvhbao

    Commies commies....ruined this, ruined that...lmaoooooooooooooooo...i­f yo don't like that then why da heck u don't do something to help change it in real life ...and instead yo hav time to talk shjt on Youtube...

  • Troi Xanh = Blue Heaven

    Troi = Heaven, Sky

    Xanh = Can be Green or Blue, in this case it's Blue.

    so in this Troi Xanh = Heaven Blue....not really same order as English. that lady sucks!

  • OMG, that's miss Kim Anh

  • I like how some french words sneak into the Vietnamese language. For instance,

    fromage (cheese) is pho mát

  • Some French words are khăn mùi xoa, bê đan, vô lăng, pa tê, etc (it's French origin and it's used in the North) while in the South people say khăn tay, bàn đạp, tay lái, pa tê ( same), etc. . And the North and the South accents are differently, not just in the vocabulary but also in the way people speak.

  • I would like to Skpe with a Vietnamese speaker. I have the Foreign Service Institute program. thank you

  • @Ericavd1234 : hi !!!!!!!! I'm a native speaker, we could talk on Skype : baobenh

  • @baobenh Great! I would enjoy that. Are you in Vietnam, or somewhere else? I would like to figure out a time to do this. Cam on!

  • @Ericavd1234 : I'm in Australia , just for studying. I'm more on Skype in late evening, around 10pm to 12:30am. Anyway, my Skype id is : baobenh

  • don't try to speak Vietnamese, many many word you pronounce wrong will lead to very big misunderstandings, they'll beat if you aren't carefully.

  • how interesting

  • Great video! Super helpful. I'm going to pick up the Teach Yourself book next week. What was the name of that last book that you mentioned that had the best recordings? You mentioned so quickly that I couldn't pick up the title. Thanks!

  • Man this guy's speaking is so annoying, sounds so snobbish and unnatural

  • iam vietnamese, and i want to understand this video totally.

    and i want you to know:" Phong ba bảo táp không bằng ngữ pháp việt nam"

    but dont worry,my language is really so great.

    just listen few famous songs,and you will like it.

  • A great video! I am interested in having a Vietnamese tutor through Skype. Are there any Vietnamese teachers out there that want a student to talk with for three hours a week?

  • @soojiwei I'm Vietnamese, I glad to have some conversations in Vietnamese. Add my skype: trantuananh0711

  • Wow, so complex but a beautiful language but after hearing and seeing this video, of all the languages I would love to study, this one would be too hard for me. The tones would really throw me and I would probably sound like a moron trying to repeat it back to a native speaker! lol! They would laugh themselves silly trying to understand me! lol!

  • @ilovetheniqab You are true, I am vietnamese, and me and my cousins tend to laugh really hard at peopl that try to speak our language, but it is a great language.

  • @Kevinophamaa that's cuz vietnamese is unpronounceable :P

    i mean really, it took me a few hours just to be able to almost say a word.

  • The best way to learn Vietnamese is taking conversations.

  • wow i really like your voice alexander. what country are your from? arguelles sounds like a portuguess, spanish, or french name...

  • Hi.. this is an excellent video about learning vietnamese. I would like to learn vietnamese too but I find it too hard for me.. i've brought some of the books you mention in your video but I dont find them useful. =( As a mandrin speaker, some of the vietnamese words are hard to pronounce.. Will appreciate if someone can help.. Thanks~

  • I am Vietnamese. If you want to know more or learn Vietnamese, talk with me on Skype. (My ID is lecongtuan2).

    Good introduction, Prof!

  • Hello, I see you make a really valuable contribution to the Internet community with those videos. However, I would suggest to improve the filming. For example your guests should not flow out of the frame, at least not they way they do here. As native speakers (and simply guests) they are of great importance, aren't they? Maybe let them occupy one side of the screen. This turning left-right-left-right is a little bit distracting. Your skills are admirable though! Regards.

  • "Lạ" is strange, but "Lạ gì" means No strange

  • I'm from the south and north took over the south not American I'm a 100% sure it is true but in history it said American took over south i don't belove that because American help south traveled here which is USA

  • i swear the man make Vietnamese sound like Chinese. haha

  • It might be the only East-Asian language using latin alphabet ?

  • Great introduction!

  • just to let you know in case someone hasn't informed you the word order is really different from English. for example "blue heavens" would literally translate to "heavens blue". the lady just didn't completely understand you when you asked if it was the same word order.

  • I really enjoyed this video, and have tried the various materials you have here. I would like to break through and learn Vietnamese.

  • Vietnamese is a beautiful language. I just find it too bad that they completely gave up the sino script.

  • @SleazyProduction I guess, but it's a lot easier to learn an alphabet than several thousand Chinese-related characters. Increases the literacy rate I guess.

  • @SleazyProduction I guess, but it's a lot easier to learn an alphabet than several thousand Chinese-related characters.

  • To me, the Southern Vietnamese is easy to speak & learn than the North.

  • Hi, I would also like to improve my Vietnamese via Skype and I would be happy to help out with English in return. I speak Thai and Lao already and I'm very interested in the languages of South-East Asia.

    Hope to hear from you soon, HTLAL's fat-tony

  • The video was great: clear, educational; thank you.

    I want to learn Vietnamese! I live in Bangkok, and speak some Chinese and some Thai, so I feel comfortable with tonal languages. Is there anyone still available I could make Skype contact with? I'm in the Thailand time zone, so that might make timing easier.

    I see you've had a lot of responses, so I won't be surprised if you can't reply, but know that I'll really appreciate it if you do have the time.

    Thanks a lot,

    -Matthew

  • @matthewvaughan Matthew - there should certainly still be some available and interested members of my group of Vietnamese teachers, who have now all returned home. I told them to monitor this video looking out for letters like yours, and though I don't know how often they do so, someone will probably contact you soon. Alternatively, you could try writing, e.g. to the person who wrote just before you (anhkinh), as she is one of them.

  • That sounds great, thanks very much :)

  • @ProfASAr you forgot to include a person from hue in there :D. the Hue accent is quite extreme and very different from the southern or northern accent, i should know, i speak vietnamese with a hue accent :D. sometimes people can't understand me lol.

  • @matthewvaughan hi i'm speak vietnam i could teach you

  • From this video, do you think it's interesting and easy to learn Vietnamese? Of course, yes.

    Many people are willing to help you to learn Vietnamese!!

  • Hell, I want to learn vietnamese!!!

    But I've got to finish first my russian course. Got to be focused on what i'm doing right now.

  • That"s very interesting. Vietnamese language is not too difficult to learn

  • In my opinion, the tones in Vietnamese are even difficult than the ones in Mandarin. I wonder if the Professor is going to make a video about Indonesian? Because I remember reading on his site that he didn't get far in it.

  • I agree. I think Vietnamese is a lot more difficult than Mandarin in terms of tones, pronunciation.

  • For a Westerner, I think the hardest aspect would be the pronunciation. Diphthongs, clipped consonants, and even some of the initial nasal sounds are quite difficult to achieve at a native level. I've even experienced words that don't exactly match what's written, similar to some Korean verbs. Still, it's a wonderful language and I hope to become near native level one day

  • Good Video!

  • awesome video. i would love to learn some basic vietnamese conversation.

  • One word differentiated only by tone to mean eight or nine things. D:

    I've been waiting forever for a new vid, btw.

  • Nice and useful video and it's really nice to have some native speakers as well and to have some conversation with them, it made the topic "more live" if I can say that ...

  • Really very interesting, thank you for making this, I hope lots of people learn Vietnamese!

  • I like it very much.

  • it seems to be useful !

  • Amazing video. This style of video would have been fantastic for your germanic videos. so good to see you posting videos again.

  • A new video! Thanks ProfASAr!

  • it's very interesting video.

  • this is very interesting. Vietnamese is very fascinating

  • Comment removed

  • It was an interesting intro to othe Vietnamese language. I have Vietnamese brothers. They never taught me the language, because they thought I would not get it. So, it will be interesting to try. Thanks Mr. Arguelles for your vidoes. They are most enjoyable,. I have learned alot.

  • It's interesting how the two dialects perpetuate different accents even when speaking English.

  • yes, please do Thai!

  • that sounds interesting

  • The professor is alive and well! I really enjoyed this new style of video, not that I didn't enjoy the others. I can't wait for some more. Asia has robbed us of a legend!

  • Nah, you probably just have a shorter attention span than most.

  • haha

  • I see you have Bernard Comrie's "The World's Major Languages" in front of you. That is a most excellent book for anyone interested in learning about the languages of the world! It is the first book I turn to when I want an overview of some language I don't know a whole lot about. It's also fascinating just to browse through. A bit on the expensive side, but in my opinion it's well worth every penny.

  • do Thai please

  • I can consider myself a southeast asian, from Malaysia exactly. I do have heard Vietnamese, but would be really interested in Thai.

    I do not speak Malay (the language of my country) because I have been living in Spain for over 10 years. That is quite a problem bacause I have also forgotten my Chinese... So it is quite a pitty... But I always try my best in recovering all that I can. Salutations from Spain! By the way, interesting video!!

  • "Tchau também?"

    Hope next video doesn't take so long to come out.

  • @AvanRJ It's "Chào tạm biệt"

  • @AvanRJ It's "Chào tạm biệt". you can also say "Chào" or "tạm biệt" instead.

  • very nice :)

  • Hi! I like much. 5 stars

  • Interesting, when she says "south" at 0:58 it sounds like a Dutch accent.

  • great to hear from you professor!

  • yay more videos!

  • ProfASAr strikes again. To misquote Fred Rogers "a great teacher is someone who loves what they do, and they love it right in front of you".

    Thanks for loving language so much Alex.

  • 5 stars, well done!

    I'll add that the day a video on Korean appears is the day I will be a very very happy fellow.