The Vietnamese community is the fourth-largest Asian community in the US. The countries share a rich history but there are also several important linguistic considerations to keep in mind. Vietnamese is the official language of Vietnam and there it is recognized as such in the country\u2019s Constitution. It is spoken by over 77 million people around the world and it\u2019s a mainly tonal language that consists of six different tones. While many of the words are quite short, leading one to the incorrect assumption and Vietnamese is relatively easy to learn, pronunciation is very important in conveying the right meaning and therefore not coming across as incorrect or offensive. With the richness of language, Vietnamese people in the US sometimes struggle with communication in English and there have been several patterns of language misuse that have been identified. We take a look at some of these below.<\/p>\n
There are between 19 and 21 consonants in Vietnamese, and these depend on the area where you find yourself. It is a language peculiarity of Vietnamese to sometimes simplify initial consonant clusters. For example, the word \u201cstring\u201d starts with the consonant cluster \u201cst\u201d but a Vietnamese speaker, usually an English as a second language learner (in most cases, adults) would substitute the \u201cst\u201d and replace it with an \u201cs\u201d only to say \u201csring\u201d instead.<\/p>\n
Another interesting aspect is the issue of substitution of English consonants with Vietnamese consonants as this makes for easier transference. One example of this is the \u201ct\u201d in the word \u201cdental\u201d. In English, it\u2019s pronounced as a hard \u201ct\u201d whereas some Vietnamese speakers may substitute it with a soft \u201cth\u201d sound. <\/p>\n
Consonants are not the only culprit as so are vowels. One extended vowel is the double \u201cee\u201d sound in Vietnamese. In English, the word \u201cchick\u201d has a short \u201ci\u201d sound whereas a Vietnamese speaker may substitute the \u201ci\u201d with a double \u201cee\u201d sound.<\/p>\n
Whereas English is not a tonal language, Vietnamese is. This means that Vietnamese speakers who speak in English may find themselves with rising and falling tones on various different individual tones and this is not strictly necessary in English.<\/p>\n
![\"Vietnamese](\"https:\/\/www.1stopasia.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Vietnamese-in-the-US-300x178.jpg\")
It\u2019s natural for languages not to have equivalent words in other languages when translated and the same is true for the relationship between English and Vietnamese. In English, verbs like \u201cto do\u201d, \u201cto work\u201d, and \u201cto make\u201d are actually represented by one verb in Vietnamese (l\u00e0m). Therefore, it\u2019s not always easy to pick the correct word or to express oneself with the highest levels of accuracy if there are no comparative words in the language.<\/p>\n
A further challenge arises for Vietnamese speakers who may find that they struggle with endings that indicate a change in word class. Let\u2019s take the example of the adjective \u201cboring\u201d. In Vietnamese, it may be common for the \u201c-ing\u201d suffix to be omitted and leave the verb form of the word \u201cbore\u201d to try to convey the same meaning.<\/p>\n
English is full of different suffixes for verb endings to indicate tense. However, this differs in Vietnamese. One example is the verb \u201cwalked\u201d in the past tense and \u201cwalk\u201d in the present tense. In Vietnamese, this verb in its two different forms here would be written as \u201c\u0111i b\u1ed9\u201d only to signify both tense types.<\/p>\n
In English, many words in the plural form end with an \u201cs\u201d, but this is not a direct translation into Vietnamese where plurality is not always indicated clearly. For example, it may be easier for a Vietnamese speaker learning English to say \u201ctwo dollar\u201d instead of \u201ctwo dollars\u201d.<\/p>\n
Conjugation of verbs is crucial for correct subject-verb agreement. Yet, it\u2019s common for verb endings and conjugations to be entirely omitted in Vietnamese and this reflects in attempts to use rules of Vietnamese and substitute them for English. An instance of this is a speaker referring to a female who walks as \u201cshe walk\u201d instead of \u201cshe walks\u201d.<\/p>\n
Auxiliary verbs are those that are used with another verb to show the verb\u2019s tense, aspect, modality, voice, questions, etc. Some Vietnamese speakers may completely omit these verbs from sentences or questions to result in statements like \u201cYou hungry?\u201d instead of asking the full question \u201cAre you hungry?\u201d.<\/p>\n
The English rule of thumb is to place adjectives before nouns to give the noun a description and add more life and details to a sentence. In Vietnamese, on the other hand, adjectives are placed after the nouns they describe and this ordering of words can create sentences that may be incorrect in English. For instance, a Vietnamese second language English speaker who is in the early stages of learning English may substitute the Vietnamese rule for the English one and say something such as \u201ccar big\u201d instead of \u201cbig car\u201d.<\/p>\n
The final challenge we\u2019ll explore for this language group as it relates to the English language is the difficulty with word order when it comes to questions. Therefore, the question \u201cWhat do you want to eat?\u201d in English may have the word order changed by a Vietnamese speaker to read \u201cYou want to eat what?\u201d.<\/p>\n
Vietnamese is a complex language and Vietnamese language speakers who are in the process of learning English may face some or all of the above challenges when learning the new language. It is commonplace for people who speak two languages to sometimes substitute the rule of their primary language into the new target language to try and create a meaningful statement, albeit incorrect grammatically. Nevertheless, it is worth exploring these challenges to better identify where areas of improvement can be addressed, especially for those who deal with Vietnamese-English speakers and students, whether children or adults or for those involved in the translation industry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"