Traveler's vietnamese?

Question

hey hey ! I'm gonna go to vietnam soon and I need traveler's phrases like "where is" "good restaurant" "how are you" "good morning" etc.

Please also add pronunciation!!

Answer 1

Vietnamese is a tonal language, which would be difficult to pronounce in writing. A quickie (and FREE) Vietnamese language course you may want to review is at the following link:

http://www.nhandan.com.vn/english/culture/studyvn/index.htm

That site will give you the basics that could get you around as a traveler. If you have a few bucks to splurge, you should invest in a pocket interpreter. The Whizmate EV-3009 is the one I had used, because the interpretation is closest to being correct than others I had used before.

A very good idea is to find a guide in Vietnam to accompany you. There are several colleges and schools with students learning English who would be happy to do so for the cost of their travels. An advantage of having a native guide is they can haggle with the vendors for you so you won't get burned (most all the native Vietnamese vendors will see you as a walking money bag).

Good luck to you and Happy Tet!

Chao Em

Answer 2

All the answers above are excellent. The only thing I can ad is to google "Before You Know It". It's a free downloadable beginners course in dozens of languages, including Vietnamese.
As Mojave Dan pointed out, Viet is a tonal language. I bought a phrase book at a bookstore in Saigon called "Learn and Practice Vietnamese" (cam nang hoc tieng viet, cho nguoi nuoc ngoai).
It cost the princely sum of about $2.50 and has English phrases, followed by a phonetic viet pronunciation, followed by the Viet phrase. It has a red paperback cover with a picture of two Viet high school girls. It is THE BEST phrase book I've ever found.
It also has lot's of useful info and addresses for thing's to do in Vietnam.
Enjoy !

Answer 3

you might even get a few phrases here but i would think a phrase book would be the way to go. and you can take it with you, scribble notes in it, etc.

cram a few useful phrases before you go out in the morning. seek out opportunities to use these phrases, it will help to retain them. i do this all the time. vietnam is a beautiful place, hope you enjoy.

Answer 4

Hi,
Let's see...Where is=o dau(pronouce uh dau), good restaurant=nha hang ngon, how are you=khoe khong, good morning=chao buoi sang, thank you=cam on, what's your name=ban ten gi.
Hope these help. Enjoy your trip.