A very quick update

Well it’s been a while since I last wrote something, and I’m not about to write much right now.

Since the last post, I’ve finished my vietnamese class, so there’s definitely a lot I can write there in the future, however I’m still not able to speak it, but I understand it better.

Also, I’m now officially married, we’ve been through the engagement and wedding ceremonies here, end of january, early february. Once again, a lot of things to write and images to share. I will get there eventually. I have about 40 GB of photos and videos, of these events, so I need to start sorting them. This was followed by a week in Laos and a long weekend in Phu Quoc, which is a vietnamese island in the Thailand Gulf.

And last, I’m starting a new hobby: photography! I just bought myself a Canon EOS 60D with the following lenses: the EF 50mm F/1.4 USM and the EF 24-105mm F/4L IS USM. These 2 lenses should help me get started and find my way. So expect to see some pictures popping up once in a while.

So that’s it for now, nothing very interesting right now, but a lot to look forward to. I have a lot of writing ahead of me!

Lesson 1 – Introducing yourself

I’m following a vietnamese class for absolute beginners in Hanoi, from L’Espace, which is the french institute in the Hoan Kiem district. As I need to practice it, I thought that writing it down on this blog will help me, and it might also be nice for anyone else passing by.

The first lesson, introduced us some basics on how to address other people, this will mostly depend on the age difference between the 2 people, but it’s not just about age, it’s also about the rank in the family. For example a cousin who’s father is the little brother of my father, I will address him differently if his father had been the elder brother. If someone is older than you, probably the age of your own parents, then it’s different again. And if the person is more in the age range of a grand parent, then it’s different again, and if you are not sure exactly, it’s better to play it on the safe side, as you don’t want to be rude :)

As I’ve been living with my fiancee’s family in Hanoi for 2 months already, I’m a bit familiar with this, and it’s still very difficult to remember all the forms, and then you need to remember their position in the family. The list given in the course is incomplete as it’s probably the hardest thing for a foreigner to learn, but here is a mix from the class, and the ones I know:

Masculin Feminin
cháu – very young children
em – someone younger than you
bạn – someone the same age as you
anh chị someone older than you
thầy cô a teacher
bố mẹ your parents
chú thím younger brother of father (and his wife)
cậu mợ younger brother of mother (and his wife)
chú cô younger sister of father (and her husband)
chú dì younger sister of mother (and her husband)
bác – older brother and sister of father and mother
ông  bà  someone your grand parents age

Next step was to say what your name is, and how to ask people their own names:

  • Em tên là gì ?
em the way you would address someone, I will always write this in italic to indicate it will vary
tên name
là to be (verb)
gì what
  • Em tên là Anthony
  • còn em ?
còn and

If you want to call someone (and I mean anyone, friend, parent, taxi driver …), you can use the following:

  • Em ơi !

The next thing you will want to ask, is where is someone from:

  • Em là người nước nào ?
người people, human, …
nước country
nào which
  • Em là người Pháp
Pháp France
Việt Nam Vietnam
Anh England
Bỉ Belgium
Đức Germany
Nga Russia
Nhật Japan
Hàn Quốc Korea

Then you could ask how the person is doing:

  • Em (có) khoé không ?
có … không how (the first word can be omitted in the question)
khoé good
  • Em khoé, cám ơn
cám ơn thank you, this can also be written: cảm ơn
  • Không có gì
we already have all the words for this, but it means: you’re welcome
không this word has several meanings: 0 (zero), no (as opposed to yes), and to express the negation

Finally, you can ask what does someone do:

  • Em làm nghề gì ?
làm to do (verb)
nghề job
  • Em là kỹ sư
kỹ sư engineer
giáo viên teacher
học sinh pupil
sinh viên student
thư ký secretary
luật sư lawyer
nghệ sỹ artist
  • Em không làm việc
I don’t have a job

If you want to talk about someone else (he/she):

  • Em ấy tên là gì ?
  • Em ấy tên là Tom
ấy when you add this to the subject, it means you are talking about someone else

That’s almost it for the first lesson about introduction yourself, here are some extra words picked up during the class:

tốt good
rất tốt very good
xin lỗi excuse me
nhé
thế thôi that’s it (as in we are done)
Thứ năm nhé see you on Thursday

There was also a part about the 6 tones used in the vietnamese language, but I’m not sure how I’m going to put this here :)

If you want to know how to write these vietnamese letters and tones on a computer, check this other post of mine.

Thế thôi !

How to write vietnamese letters and tones

I just started a vietnamese course, and of course, as someone who uses a computer every day, I want to learn how to type those new letters and tones!

It’s actually a lot simpler than I thought it would be, once you have the proper input language set up on your computer.

To enable vietnamese input on OSX, here are the steps to follow:

  1. Open System Preferences
  2. Open Language & Text
  3. Click on Input Sources
  4. Scroll down to Vietnamese UniKey and select Telex

If you want to be able to quickly switch between your input sources with a keyboard shortcut, you will need to follow the following steps, as the shortcuts are disabled by default, and Spotlight has one similar shortcut. I’m only using one of the 2 Spotlight shortcuts so I reassigned the other for this:

  1. From the Language & Text window, and Input Sources tab, if the shortcuts on the right hand side are greyed out, click on the Keyboard Shortcuts button
  2. Select Spotlight
  3. Uncheck Show Spotlight Window
  4. Select Keyboard & Text Input
  5. Check Select next source in input menu
  6. Click on the right hand side to assign a new shortcut, and assign the one you want (I use alt+cmd+space)

That’s all you need to get started with OSX, if you are running Windows or Linux, I’m afraid I can’t help you.

Now, let’s start with the new letters found in the vietnamese alphabet, you will have to type the base letter, plus a second letter to create the new one which I’ll designate as the modifier:

Letter Base Modifier
Ă ă A a w
 â A a a
Đ đ D d d
Ê ê E e e
Ô ô O o o
Ơ ơ O o w
Ư ư U u w

As you will notice, it’s quite simple.

Now, there are also 6 tones in the vietnamese language, these tones apply to the whole word, so they are not tied to a specific letter, therefore, you will first type the word you want, and then apply the tone by hitting another letter (modifier):

Tone name Example Base Modifier
ngang ba ba
huyền bà ba f
ngã bã ba x
hỏi bả ba r
sắc bá ba s
nặng bạ ba j

I will not even try to explain how these tones are pronounced, that’s out of the scope of this post.

Thế thôi !

Interview with Vietnamese Administration

Well, that’s it !

This afternoon we went for our individual interviews with the vietnamese administration about our marriage. This is only needed when a foreigner wants to get married with a vietnamese. They do these interviews to try to screen out any marriage that might be a fake one, such as those organized by “agencies” to find wives for example.

For this interview, I had to hire an interpreter to translate questions and answers back and forth. I was a bit stressed about it at first, as it’s not just any “job interview” … this is my marriage we are talking about here! And from some comments we had read from people going through this procedure, some people had actually failed the interviews! But after a few minutes in there, everything was going alright, I even noticed the women smiling as I was explaining how I proposed to N. Which I hope is a good sign …

The interview was also shorter than I thought it would be, I believe it lasted around 20 minutes or so, and I was expecting to have to into much details , but that wasn’t necessary after all.

Here is a list of questions I’ve been asked, I may have forgotten a couple :

  1. How and when did I meet N
  2. When did I fall in love with her
  3. How many times did I come to Vietnam
  4. Have I met N’s family
  5. Has N met my family
  6. What do our families think about our wedding
  7. What do I do for a living
  8. What does N do these days
  9. Have I been planning the wedding
  10. When was our wedding
  11. Will my family come to my wedding
  12. Where will we live after our wedding
  13. Was I forced into marrying N

That’s all I can remember for now. I will update the list if I remember any others.

Another positive note about our interviews, the women doing them is the mother of one of N’s friends who is currently living in Lyon in France. So that might get us some sympathy ^^

With the interview over, we have now finished the administrative paperwork, all that’s left on this side now, is waiting. I believe they will be publishing our names for a few weeks, and if everything goes well, that should be it !

Now we need to continue to organize the engagement and wedding days.

Cheers!

Wedding administration, almost done !

Well well, 2 posts in 2 days … who would have thought !

Anyway, a quick update, I “survived” the mental check up we went for this morning. Of course, it didn’t have anything to do with me being crazy or not, go figure. It was quite straight forward, if not a little awkward in fact. After filling a little form to say who I was, we were measured and weighed. Then, a little heart beat check to make sure I was still alive … and then … I had to take my pants off, for the doctor to “peak” to see if I had any sexual diseases … awwwkwaaard.

And that was it, 30 mins later we received our “mental” check up approval letter! This was the last document we needed to be able to finally apply for the marriage. So, that’s what we did just after this “joke”.

The marriage application, will take between 30 to 40 days to be processed apparently, and we were booked for individual interviews. I will need to hire a translator to get through this one though. Our interviews are early next week, so we are almost done with the all the administrative part. All that will be left will be some little waiting!

Next week, I will need to look into renewing my VISA for Vietnam. I initially got a 3 month one (which is the longest you can get for a tourist visa), and it’s been 2 months already, time flies when you are having fun !

That’s it for today, don’t want to be writing too much or you will get used to me giving frequent news, and expect some more often ^^

Cheers!