[Moshikashitara]

Yes, I've noticed that.. the more you strive to understand how a foreign language relates to English, the better you get at English..usually. I maintain that there are some really useless and impossible words in the English language!

What's Vietnamese like? Any idea if the pronunciation is more like Chinese or Japanese (and there are differences!)? And, best of all, is it fun? :D

~Moshi-chan

[Army Air Corps]

Well, Vietnamese is similar to southern Chinese dialects in terms of grammar. The sentence structure is fairly straight forward. Verb tenses are achieved via context and, therefore, require folks to pay attention to what they are reading or to what they or others are saying. The added bonus is that they use a latin alphabet! Here is an example of tiếng việt.

[Army Air Corps]

If you want to hear Vietnamese, then try this link.

[kilowhskey]

Vietnamese is a highly tonal language. It does not suffice to learn vocabulary and grammar. True story: During one of LBJ's many visits to Saigon, the Vietnamese government hosted a diplomatic reception for him. An American embassy staffer taught him to say "I am happy to be in Viet Nam today," which is what he said to each Vietnamese citizen who came through the receiving line. Because he so totally mangled the tonalities of the sentence, what he was actually saying was "The ducks in the pond are dead." The Vietnamese diplomats and government officials kept straight faces, while their children laughed uproariously.