Hey, guys.
Do you guys still remember what "cheesy English" is?
"Cheesy English" means ways of using English that aren't exactly wrong,
but simply unnatural and funny sounding.
You guys want to speak cool English, not cheesy English, right?
Let me help you with that, ok?
Imagine you're eating pho, and someone asks:
Is the pho good?
You find the pho not very impressive—not good, but not bad, either.
What would you say?
"Bình thường." (Basically means "normal." But not exactly, as we'll say later.)
Now imagine that someone asks you:
How are you today?
You don't really feel happy, but not sad, either.
What would you say?
"Bình thường." (Like "normal," remember?‚
All right, now imagine speaking English in those situations.
You can translate the word "bình thường" as "normal" in a lot of situations,
but not in the two situations before.
Native English speakers use "normal" to talk about a situation or event that happens frequently.
For example:
And we also use "normal" to comment on the characteristics of objects and people,
but in that situation, "normal" carries a meaning kind of like "not strange."
So when you guys say,
or,
native speakers will understand it like this:
This pho isn't strange.
I feel not strange.
Huh?
What you guys should say is "ordinary."
It means something like, "not special," or "the same as any others."
Or you could also say, "nothing special."
And when someone asks,
and you want to answer "bình thường" ("normal"), then the most natural thing to say is:
Simple, right?
I find that Vietnamese people ask about other people's feelings all the time.
When eating pho:
When watching a movie:
When looking at girls:
No. That sounds really weird.
We say "How do you feel?" when asking others about their emotions or their physical feelings.
For example, my girlfriend was just accepted for a new job. I ask her:
Or a friend of mine just ate rotten meat. I ask him:
When asking about people's opinions and preferences, though, "How do you feel?" isn't natural at all.
It's better if you ask, "What do you think?"
When eating pho:
When watching a movie:
When looking at girls:
Let's talk about pho one more time.
If you really liked a certain bowl of pho, what would you say in Vietnamese?
Mm, this pho is really good.
No, I mean when you *really* like it.
This pho is wonderful.
No! When you really, really like it!
This pho is "too" good.
There you go! But you shouldn't apply that to English and say:
In general, the words "quá" and "too" have the same meaning, but they have slightly different essences.
In Vietnamese, "quá" can be used both with negative adjectives—
"Wow, it's too hot!"
—and also with positive adjectives—
"Wow, she's 'too' beautiful!"
The proportions for the two cases are about 50% negative and 50% positive.
In English, we can use "too" with both positive and negative adjectives,
but the proportions for both cases are about 99% negative and 1% positive.
In general, we very rarely use "too" with positive adjectives, and I urge you not to use it that way.
You've got to be very deeply familiar with the intonation and speaking style of natives in order to use it naturally.
With positive adjectives, it's better if you just say "so."
A question:
How many members does your family have?
Do my dad's three ex-wives count?
Depends on what kind of relationship your dad still has with them.
Uh, we're getting off topic.
When speaking English, you shouldn't ask:
And you also shouldn't say:
I find a lot of Vietnamese people say things like that, but where I'm from, no one says that.
It's the same as in Vietnam, really—
people usually ask you how many brothers and sisters you have, right?
When talking about family members, do you ever say,
"My family includes my father, my mother, my sister, and me?"
Of course not.
Native English speakers are the same. We just ask about brothers and sisters.
For example:
Or,
And when answering, you should say something simple like: "I've got one older brother," for example.
Your mom and dad, and you yourself . . .
no one cares.
The previous "Cheesy English" video ended with something that often appears in your text messages,
and this video is the same.
When I'm messaging Vietnamese friends late at night, they often wish me good night like this:
Before coming to Vietnam, I had never seen that.
It just doesn't exist in English-speaking countries.
What's more, it really irritates native speakers, because it's based on bad pronunciation.
Guys, note the final sounds, ok?
To Vietnamese people, "night" and "nine" sound basically the same,
but native speakers can distinguish them very clearly,
so we find this "G9" business really ridiculous.
Like I said in the previous video, I don't care what you write when messaging your Vietnamese friends.
Whatever!
However, when messaging native speakers, please write "Good night."