I love VN!

[vunguyen]

-ngu ngốc- dull-headed, dumb; vừa vừa- so-so; Tôi hay ngu ngốc. Dẫu cho khi học dữ và lâu thì chỉ làm điểm vừa vừa. (I am dumb. Even when I study hard and long, my grades are still only so-so.)
--> hay: in this case, it means often/usually. Saying "tôi ngốc lắm" is better

-đồng ý- to agree; Tôi không có đồng ý với Thầy Tour. (I don't agree with Dr. Tour.)
--> good, you can take out "có" if you want, sound more "normal" in this specific case

[Paddy]

Note that Hàn Quốc is used more often than Đại Hàn, both terms carry almost the same meaning though.

(Thịt) chà bông, thịt is not really necessary, you can use "chà bông" and it still makes perfect sense, sometimes you want to add "thịt" into if you want to make sure people dont mistake if for "xà bông" (soap). Also, "chà bông" can be made from fish as well, and I believe they even have the vegetable ones so "thịt" is not always the correct term to used.

@Paddy: Ngụy doesn't mean South Vietnamese, please do not make such mis-leading statement.

Let me make it clearer: South does not mean geographical location. It was meant South of 17th parallel. That was why I loosely translated it.

Should we, perhaps, translate it as former regime ? This is kind of vague, since the adjective Ngụy was used in: Ngụy quân, ngụy quyền, nhà ngụy, xe ngụy, ngụy dân, ngụy con, gái ngụy, etc. It seem like this word ngụy was used to indicate anything South of 17 parallel.


As for the chà bông, I know there is mushroom chà bông (but I have not had a chance to try it).

Some one in VN once told me that the Koreans (south) want to be call people of Hàn Quốc. However, I asked a lady from South Korea and she told me the correct term is people of Đại Hàn (Minh Quốc). As for the word of Triều Tiên, I think the Northern Koreans tend to use it rather than Đại Hàn.

[vunguyen]

It seem like this word ngụy was used to indicate anything South of 17 parallel.
--> this is incorrect information, however I dont think this is an appropriate place to argue such things, so I will pass.

the correct term is people of Đại Hàn (Minh Quốc)
--> this maybe correct, but does it matter? Because in a similar America should not be called Mỹ but almost all Vietnamese people (in Vietnam) use the later term. When you learn a language, you would want to know which term is used the most (and thus considered normal) in the country.

[Paddy]

It seem like this word ngụy was used to indicate anything South of 17 parallel.
--> this is incorrect information, however I dont think this is an appropriate place to argue such things, so I will pass.

the correct term is people of Đại Hàn (Minh Quốc)
--> this maybe correct, but does it matter? Because in a similar America should not be called Mỹ but almost all Vietnamese people (in Vietnam) use the later term. When you learn a language, you would want to know which term is used the most (and thus considered normal) in the country.

Thanks for the reponse.

This is a forum for languages, I don't think the admin would mind if we discuss such words in a polite and non-political manner. Or else he\she would have deleted previous post already. So, please enlighten us how you would translate this word into English in different contexts like I mentioned above.

The term Hàn Quốc seems to be more popular after 1975. I don't recall anyone in the South (of 17th parallel, of course) using it. I have not talked to anyone from North Korea, so don't know if they prefer to be called Triều Tiên.

[mattglop]

-ngu ngốc- dull-headed, dumb; vừa vừa- so-so; Tôi hay ngu ngốc. Dẫu cho khi học dữ và lâu thì chỉ làm điểm vừa vừa. (I am dumb. Even when I study hard and long, my grades are still only so-so.)
--> hay: in this case, it means often/usually. Saying "tôi ngốc lắm" is better

-đồng ý- to agree; Tôi không có đồng ý với Thầy Tour. (I don't agree with Dr. Tour.)
--> good, you can take out "có" if you want, sound more "normal" in this specific case

Cám ơn!

Từ của hơm nay:

-quần trong- underwear; Chác là người gái ấy không đang mặc quần trong. (That girl is probably not wearing underwear.)

-thắng lợi- to be successful; Tôi chỉ muốn thắng lợi. (I just wanna be successful.)

-bệnh ỉa chảy- diarrhea; Hôm qua, tôi có bệnh ỉa chảy nhưng mà tôi không biết tại sao. Có thể ăn đồ mục ở nhà thờ. (Yesterday I had diarrhea but I don't know why. Maybe I ate some rotten food at church.)

-phần nào- kind of; không biết có... không- whether; Tôi thích người gái kia phần nào và tôi không biết có tôi nên làm bồ của em ấy không. (I kind of like that girl and I don't know whether I should be her boyfriend.)

[vunguyen]

Ngụy is the term used for people/organizations associated/on the same side with the Southern Vietnamese Gov (pre 1975). This is a term used by the North, and I don't think I have enough knowledge to discuss the correctness of the term. However, as you can see, with the above def it does not cover everyone in the South, as not all people in the South associated themselves with the Gov there. The same goes for the term Viet Cong, people tend to associate this term with everyone from the North, but this is not entirely true either, as there are anti-communist in the North as well.
So anyhow, Ngụy was NOT used to indicate anything South of 17 parallel.

The term Hàn Quốc seems to be more popular after 1975. I don't recall anyone in the South (of 17th parallel, of course) using it. I have not talked to anyone from North Korea, so don't know if they prefer to be called Triều Tiên.
--> You are right. In Vietnam now the term Hàn Quốc is used for South Korea, while North Korea is called Bắc Triều Tiên. While it does sound very weird and probably incorrect, those terms are the common terms now, so if mattglop goes to Vietnam he should use these terms so that people can easily understand him.

[vunguyen]

-quần trong- underwear; Chác là người gái ấy không đang mặc quần trong. (That girl is probably not wearing underwear.)
--> chắc

-thắng lợi- to be successful; Tôi chỉ muốn thắng lợi. (I just wanna be successful.)
--> thành công is a more correct translation here.

-bệnh ỉa chảy- diarrhea; Hôm qua, tôi có bệnh ỉa chảy nhưng mà tôi không biết tại sao. Có thể ăn đồ mục ở nhà thờ. (Yesterday I had diarrhea but I don't know why. Maybe I ate some rotten food at church.)
--> when you say about "having" something negative, you should use bị instead of có
--> for food, rotten should be translated to hư/thối rữa

@mattglop: you sometimes make a spelling mistake, I think this may result in the incorrect pronunciation of the word (and vice-versa), Vietnamese is difficult to pronounce with its 6 tones, make sure you put time into pronunciation practice. I hope your current teacher is someone from Hanoi or at least can pronounce everything correctly because it is very very important. Most people from the South and many parts from the North cannot pronounce certain words correctly. That doesn't mean everyone from the South cannot pronounce correctly of course, I'm also from the South and I can do it, but sadly (or not) I don't do it on daily communication since I prefer my Southern dialect.

[Tanyenbai]

nowadays, people rarely address the third man as "thằng" and the third woman as "con". Only when they are bossom friends

[vunguyen]

nowadays, people rarely address the third man as "thằng" and the third woman as "con". Only when they are bossom friends

--> Language learners should avoid using this unless they are 100% sure, this can offend ppl a great deal if used incorrectly.

[mattglop]

nowadays, people rarely address the third man as "thằng" and the third woman as "con". Only when they are bossom friends

Ah I see. Thank you Tanyenbai

nowadays, people rarely address the third man as "thằng" and the third woman as "con". Only when they are bossom friends

--> Language learners should avoid using this unless they are 100% sure, this can offend ppl a great deal if used incorrectly.

Thank you Vu. I will avoid using these words.

Today is a little different...more dialogue-ish.


Chào Chị. Matt đây. (Hello, it is Matt.)

Lâu quá không gập. (Long time no see.)

Chỉ muốn hỏi Chị có được bầu cử cho Matt cho chủ tịch của Nhóm Việt ở trường. (I just wanted to ask whether you could vote for me for President of the VSA.)

Néo mà thắng được, thì Matt sẽ gắng hết sức làm Nhóm Việt đáng kinh. (If I am elected, I will try my best to make the VSA super awesome.)

Chắc là Chị không hiểu được cái gì mà Matt đang nói vì Matt nói tiếng Việt dở quá nên Matt cũng sẽ nói bằng tiếng Anh. (You probably don't understand what I am saying because I suck at Vietnamese so I will also speak in English.)