Vietnamese language – translations and other Vietnamese language solutions

Vietnamese belongs to the Vietnamese language group of the East Asian language family and it is the official language of Vietnam. About 150 years ago, Vietnamese was classified as a language of the Mon-Khmer branch of the East Asian language family. Later it was discovered that it is actually more closely related to the Muong language than to the other Mon-Khmer languages, therefore a branch of the Viet-Muong languages was created, which included other languages that were closest to them. The term “Vietnamese languages” was first introduced by linguist Hayes (La Vaughn H. Hayes) in 1992. Vietnamese is a monosyllabic language. This means that Vietnamese words can’t be conjugated and instead use musical accents. The musical accents are defined by diacritical marks above and below the vowel. Vietnamese has six different accents. This makes learning the language more difficult. By comparison, Mandarin Chinese has four accents (including neutral accents), while Cantonese has as many as eight accents. Vietnamese also has no feminine or masculine gender. The Vietnamese do not address each other by their first names. As in many Asian cultures, in Vietnam everyone is called “sister”, “brother”, “uncle”, etc. Even married couples use the word “sister” or “brother” when talking to each other. It’s the Vietnamese way of showing respect. Nowadays, Vietnamese can be heard in many parts of the world, not just in China, Cambodia or Laos. In fact, around 90 million people in the world speak Vietnamese. Vietnam has a 94% literacy rate. Vietnamese is the sixth largest language in the United States, the seventh largest in Australia and the eighth largest in France. Vietnam is thought to be divided into three main regions (North, Central and South), with each region having distinct dialects. It is believed, that the people in the northern region, especially in the capital Hanoi, have the most common pronunciation. The main differences between these dialects are the sounds used, pronunciation and some vocabulary. The Chinese, who dominated Northern Vietnam in the 2^nd century BC, heavily influenced the region both politically and culturally. The ruling class adopted Classical Chinese as the formal means of administration, scholarship and literature after the emergence of the first Vietnamese kingdom in the early 10^th century. To write and describe Vietnamese words that did not exist in Chinese, this century the Vietnamese created chữ nôm (a modified Chinese character set), which is based on the traditional Chinese writing system. The dominance of Chinese resulted in a strong influence of Chinese vocabulary and grammar. For example, some Vietnamese words that are derived from Chinese are gia đình − family, đồng ý − to agree. A part of Vietnamese vocabulary in all fields consists of Chinese-Vietnamese compound words (these make up about a third of all Vietnamese vocabulary and can account for as much as 60% of the vocabulary used in official texts). When France invaded Vietnam in the late 19th century, French gradually replaced Chinese as the official language of education and public administration. Traditional Chinese is no longer officially used in the country. The Vietnamese adopted many French terms such as đầm – lady – from the French madame, ga – railway station – from the French gare, sơ mi – shirt – from the French chemise, pho mat – cheese – from the French fromage, bo – butter – from the French beurre and búp bê – doll – from the French poupée. Similar to Swedish, Vietnamese has a lot of combined words, e.g. tủ lạnh (cupboard cold) is refrigerator and ngựa vằn (horse stripe) is zebra. In the Czech Republic, for example, Vietnamese today is recognised as one of 14 minority languages, based on the traditional or long-standing population communities living in the country. Such status for Vietnamese entitles the community to representation on the Government Council of Nationalities, the Czech government’s advisory body on national minority policy. The large Vietnamese diaspora worldwide is the main facilitator to Vietnamese becoming increasingly accessible in schools and institutions outside Vietnam. In countries with large Vietnamese-speaking communities, such as the United States, France, Australia, Canada, Germany and the Czech Republic, Vietnamese language education largely fulfils the function of a culture and tradition transmission, to introduce the descendants of Vietnamese immigrants to the cultural heritage of their ancestors. Since the 1980s, numerous Vietnamese-speaking communities around the world have experienced the establishment of Vietnamese schools. In the United States alone there are 39 Vietnamese schools and even several universities that offer Vietnamese language courses. Also, since the late 80s, the Vietnamese-German community has used the support of city governments to include Vietnamese in high school curricula in order to teach, remind and encourage Vietnamese-German students to learn their mother tongue. In addition, many Germans have chosen to study Vietnamese directly because of the growing business opportunities.

With a coastline that exceeds 2,500 miles, Vietnam heavily depends on fishing for its economy and cuisine – the sea has always fed the country. Fishermen believe that whales protect them when they are at sea, and in many cases help boats find the shore when the weather is bad. There are countless stories of lives saved by a whale that guided boats to safety during a storm. Whale worship is widespread along the coast, but strangely enough is more common in the central parts of the country. Old boats are converted into shrines and temples, or new temples are built. The altars are filled with whale bones, and fishermen gather there to pray for safety and prosperity at sea.

Vietnam is the world’s second largest coffee producer after Brazil. Coffee was first introduced to Vietnam by a French priest in the mid-19th century. Nowadays, Vietnamese coffee is among the best in the world and is exported mainly to Europe. Vietnamese coffee is served sweet and strong, with ice and often sweetened condensed milk. The use of sweetened condensed milk rather than fresh milk is linked to its availability and easier storage in tropical climates. Traditional egg coffee has recently become very popular in cafés.

Throughout its history, Vietnam has experienced numerous wars and periods of occupation, but the country has maintained its identity through folktales and poetry. Vietnam’s history is full of heroes, and their stories are a very important part of Vietnam’s culture. These famous heroes are often quoted and play a prominent role in modern songs and poems, thus continuing to provide important moral guidance to the Vietnamese. It is also very common to see young people hanging out in parks and cafés, playing guitar and singing popular and traditional songs. The act of a man crying isn’t considered unmanly at all.