Hello, everyone.
It's been a long time since I've made a video about Vinglish.
It's been so long that a lot of new subscribers to this channel probably don't even know what Vinglish is.
The way I define it, "Vinglish" refers to the characteristic English mistakes made by Vietnamese people,
especially those that come from you guys "Vietnamese-ifying" English.
So, in this video I'm going to fix a few mistakes that most of you guys make,
starting with:
Among native speakers, the word "fighting" is only used when two or more parties are . . . well, fighting.
But Vietnamese people use it to console and encourage others:
Or to cheer people on:
Jesus, Vietnamese people even use it in their videos:
It seems that you guys think "Fighting!" means something like "Cố len!" (Roughly: "Try more!")
Not even close.
First of all, the grammar is wrong.
For example, when you say "cố len," you're telling that person to "cố len," right?
And when we tell someone to do something in English, we use the infinitive form:
And the word "fight" . . .
it doesn't fit at all. Sounds pretty goofy, actually.
In the case of encouraging someone, native speakers would say something like:
And in the case of cheering someone on, we'd say something like:
In fact, English has a lot of different phrases that can be used like "cố lên," but "fighting" isn't one of them.
I feel so frustrated in my classes any time I'm talking about, say, present continuous,
and I say:
And then the students reply in unison:
I had never heard "verb ing" until I started teaching English in Vietnam.
It's got two problems.
First, the grammar is wrong,
because in the phrase "verb ing," the word "verb" is acting as a noun,
and the "ing" part is acting as an adjective.
Therefore, the "ing" part should come before the word "verb."
Also, native speakers don't pronounce these three letters as "ing," but rather "I-N-G."
So, the thing that Vietnamese people call "verb ing,"
native speakers call "an -ing verb."
Something else that often happens in my classes
is a student will ask about a Vietnamese word like this:
I always want to answer:
Do you get it?
A Vietnamese word is going to be meaningless in an English sentence.
In that situation, you shouldn't use the word "mean."
Instead, just ask:
And a related mistake is that students will often point to something or other and ask:
No.
You guys shouldn't use "how," you shouldn't use "can," and you shouldn't use "we," either.
The two most natural sentences to use in that situation are:
Or:
In a previous video about Vinglish, I told you guys not to say "most favorite,"
and there's another mistake you guys often make with the word "favorite,"
which is that lots of you are under the impression that it means the same thing as "hobby."
So, you guys might say:
Or :
No. Not ok, because "favorite" is an adjective, so it needs to come before a noun.
And it is sometimes used as a noun, for example:
But in this sentence, "favorite" doesn't mean "hobby."
"One of my favorites" means "one of my favorite songs."
And when you're talking about hobbies, use the word "hobby" or "interest."
(If you don't know the song I'm listening to here, you won't get the joke. Sorry.)
Prepositions are one of the hardest things when studying a foreign language,
because they can be very arbitrary.
And a lot of times, different languages use different prepositions in the same situation.
For example, when you're speaking Vietnamese, and you're talking about your ability with respect to some activity,
you would use the word "với" ("with"), for example, "With me, learning English is very difficult."
However, the correct word in English isn't "with," but "for."
Or when talking about your opinion, you guys would also typically use "With me . . ."
But when using English in this situation, "to" is the right word.
Be careful about this.
We only use "with me" when talking about someone going somewhere or doing something with us.
And another mistake with "with" is when you guys talk about prices,
because Vietnamese people usually say, "With . . ." some price.
"With" only 500 dong,
you can own a beer can that appeared in one of Dan's videos!
But in that situation, we native speakers once again use "for":
"Besides" is a word that I think I've never seen a single Vietnamese person use correctly.
It seems like you guys think it's used in the same way as "hơn nữa."
For example, a lot of people write sentences like this:
No.
No, no, no.
In that situation, we would just use "also," "too," or "as well."
Besides, on the other hand, is very different, and its use is a bit complicated.
We use it in order to give an additional reason for something
right after giving the main reason.
For example, if you were trying to convince your friend to go see a free concert, you might say:
See? The main reason your friend should go is that it'll be fun,
and the additional reason is that it's free.
Or if you're explaining why you don't want to do something:
There you go: the main reason, and the additional reason.
I hope that makes it clearer for you.
And another word that everyone in Vietnam misuses is:
This is another word I often see in your writing, for example:
100% wrong.
I think you guys have been influenced by the way "đặc biệt" is used in Vietnamese. Take this, for example:
"The white sand beaches (blah blah blah) are the first thing you'll see when you arrive in Con Dao,
especially Bai Dam Trau (blah blah blah)."
In that situation, native speakers might use "especially," but it needs to have an adjective after it, for example:
Or, returning to our first example about Da Nang,
if native speakers used "especially," we would write a whole clause:
And when the thing coming after "especially" isn't either an adjective or a verb,
then its meaning isn't really "đặc biệt là," but rather "nhất là." For example:
Hold on a second.
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