Some housekeeping.
One commenter who wished to remain anonymous, but was obviously raised in the south, wants to know if the regional differences in language still exist.
Oh yes – very much so. Northerners complain they cannot understand the lazy southerners, and say others have a “Huê accent.” Of course, southerners say the northerners talk too fast. But, there are real differences in pronunciation. For instance, the letter D (not Ð – that is a different letter) is pronounced like a Y in the center and south. Northerners say it with a “dz” sound. In another example, the word anh is pronounced “ine” in the north, but aaaaan here in the center. There are many more regional differences. Of course, Hanoians say they speak the only proper Vietnamese, while the Saigonese scoff at that idea.
Another commenter wanted a running dialogue on Tết . Sorry to say, I will not be in Việt Nam during Tết . I have a business meeting I must attend. More on that later. But, in the meantime, you can feel the excitement in the air. I’ve had students return borrowed books lately (Tết is a time to get out of debt). We’ve seen walls painted up, and women cleaning out the house. People whiz by on
motorbikes laden with packages. People come by the guest house just to visit and be social. But, the Vietnamese must know we are here because they went out of their way to make the Mystery Guest Blogger feel welcome. They named some cookies after her!
Finally, this marks almost a year since we came to Việt Nam. We were in Thailand last year by this time , taking our training for living and teaching in Việt Nam. The past few days we have been joined by a married couple who came to Asia with us and now teach in China. We share the feelings – we have come so far in one year, yet know more than before that we will never truly know Asia. Folks who visit Việt Nam for two weeks know enough to go home and write a book, but the longer one lives here, the more one knows how little one really knows.