Aside from the rapidity of speech the tones are the only obstacle. No plurals, no conjugation, no declension, no adverbs, and the grammar is all subject-verb-object.
Want eat what?
Want eat noodle.
Pronouns are a little weird as the rules of deference are a lot more complex than how-low-do-I-bow as in Japan. The same word can mean I, you, and he in the same sentence but it's usually pretty clear. Two twins know which was born a few minutes before the other and address each other differently. But there are defaults for most cases, "friend" being a near-universal one.
Some people pick up the tones easily, but in Cantonese it took me six weeks then between one minute and the next I got them, exactly as I started using the middle and ring fingers of my right hand to pick guitar strings. Vietnamese took a year, but once I could do the northern tones the southern were easy.
Other people simply can't fathom them ever. In my first class we had two Chinese students and I figured they would get Vietnamese tones much faster than they rest of us. If anything it took them longer, because as I said before the tones are at the foundation of their listening. For me they're just pronunciation.
But .. Vietnamese is an unearthly sounding language. Even though I can speak and be clearly understood, I can read most signs (not newspapers, they are hard), I can still barely understand spoken Vietnamese, unless I talk to northerners and then I get about half of it. Listening to southerners I may as well be trying to understand Hindi.
While I was there, I saw it as a beautiful place I would like to visit after the war (never did). I was in the area that the US military designated as I-Corps (mountains and valleys). Sadly, in places those mountains looked like the surface of the moon from helicopter rides due to defoliant, artillery and bomb craters. Hopefully their natural beauty has been restored, assuming that the effect of Agent Orange is shorter lived on plant life than on the local population and veterans. And there are the damned mines.
Pronunciation gives me fits where "I said that" "no you didn't" is my world. The Thai language also has some embarrassing word meaning changes due to tones.
"The words for old (not people), tool, and penis are all cu with different tones."
And with that sentence, you've convinced me not to try to learn Vietnameseš Beautiful country though, I spent a month there a few years ago.
Aside from the rapidity of speech the tones are the only obstacle. No plurals, no conjugation, no declension, no adverbs, and the grammar is all subject-verb-object.
Want eat what?
Want eat noodle.
Pronouns are a little weird as the rules of deference are a lot more complex than how-low-do-I-bow as in Japan. The same word can mean I, you, and he in the same sentence but it's usually pretty clear. Two twins know which was born a few minutes before the other and address each other differently. But there are defaults for most cases, "friend" being a near-universal one.
Some people pick up the tones easily, but in Cantonese it took me six weeks then between one minute and the next I got them, exactly as I started using the middle and ring fingers of my right hand to pick guitar strings. Vietnamese took a year, but once I could do the northern tones the southern were easy.
Other people simply can't fathom them ever. In my first class we had two Chinese students and I figured they would get Vietnamese tones much faster than they rest of us. If anything it took them longer, because as I said before the tones are at the foundation of their listening. For me they're just pronunciation.
But .. Vietnamese is an unearthly sounding language. Even though I can speak and be clearly understood, I can read most signs (not newspapers, they are hard), I can still barely understand spoken Vietnamese, unless I talk to northerners and then I get about half of it. Listening to southerners I may as well be trying to understand Hindi.
While I was there, I saw it as a beautiful place I would like to visit after the war (never did). I was in the area that the US military designated as I-Corps (mountains and valleys). Sadly, in places those mountains looked like the surface of the moon from helicopter rides due to defoliant, artillery and bomb craters. Hopefully their natural beauty has been restored, assuming that the effect of Agent Orange is shorter lived on plant life than on the local population and veterans. And there are the damned mines.
Pronunciation gives me fits where "I said that" "no you didn't" is my world. The Thai language also has some embarrassing word meaning changes due to tones.