When we study a foreign language, the way we talk is often pretty funny.
Unnatural, unclear, or just childish, even though the grammar and vocabulary might be okay.
It's the same for me. A year ago someone told me my Vietnamese was really cheesy.
In Vietnam, there are lots of ways of speaking English that are funny, though not exactly wrong.
And now, I'm going to correct seven such phrases that you guys use all the time.
When I came to Vietnam, I heard the sentence "See you again" for the first time.
You guys want to say "Hẹn gặp lại," but in that situation, no native speaker says, "See you again."
We say,
To a native speaker, "See you again" sounds like you've already got plans to meet that person at a specific time.
For example:
Or that the person speaking is thinking of some day far, far away.
But if you want to say "Hẹn gặp lại" in a normal situation, then use "See you later."
And don't say it too strongly:
but rather,
When speaking a foreign language, we should follow that language's culture.
In Vietnam, you guys always say, "Chào thầy, chào cô," (Meaning: "Hello, teacher" (male/female, respectively)
but in English-speaking countries, no one calls teachers "Teacher."
Doing so can be considered rude.
For example, my mom was a primary school teacher for 30 years,
and if a student kept calling her like this,
then she'd say,
In America, students always call teachers by their last name, along with Mr., Mrs., or Miss.
And university students usually call their professors by their first names.
And if we met an unfamiliar teacher, whose name we didn't know, we'd just say, "Hello,"
not "Hello, teacher."
In short, you can call me Mr. Hauer or Dan.
Oh, or "Mr. Dan!"
No. Let's move on to number three.
The words Mr., Mrs., Miss, and Ms. always go with the last name, not the first.
In Vietnam, people call each other by first name, because last names are too difficult to differentiate.
So if you want to call Vietnamese people "Mr. Dũng" or "Miss Trang," then go ahead, no problem.
But calling Westerners "Mr. Joe" or "Miss Emily" is really goofy.
Also, honorifics like Mr. and Mrs. are being used less and less by the day,
because they sound old-fashioned and too formal.
I used to work at a small corporation in America, and I didn't call anyone Mr. or Mrs.
I even called the director of the corporation by first name.
I talked about this in a previous video, but I think I ought to repeat it one more time.
"Delicious" doesn't mean "ngon." It means "rất ngon."
If you guys say "delicious" every time you like some food,
then other people are going to think you're too easily impressed by food.
It's better if you just say "good."
And use "delicious" when you feel truly impressed.
Vietnam has a lot of dishes that are tough to stomach, like mắm tôm, trứng vịt lộn, and so on,
but you guys shouldn't ask foreigners,
When I hear that question, I want to answer,
From a native speaker's perspective, eating mắm tôm, or anything else, isn't a matter of having ability or lacking it,
but rather a matter of liking it or disliking it.
You should just ask,
The only time native speakers say, "I can't eat that," is when talking about allergies.
For example, "I can't eat seafood" means, "If I eat seafood, I might die."
Imagine that you mumble something or other,
and then someone asks,
What?
But you feel that what you said isn't very important, and doesn't bear repeating.
What would you say?
Không. (Meaning: "No/nothing")
Now imagine that you were speaking English.
What would you say in place of the word "không?"
Wrong. You need to say,
If you just say, "no," it sounds very abrupt. Saying "nothing" is the natural and polite way.
I see this all the time when sending messages with Vietnamese friends.
Guys, no Westerner writes "E" as short for "English."
If you're messaging a Vietnamese friend, then go ahead, write whatever.
But with Westerners, like me, for example, please write "English" in full, ok?