What is the most difficult thing

[johan]

at beggining i have problems with tones, but after a few months it was ok. now i have problems with pronouns. i never know if i have to use co, di, thim or bac. this system is very different of occidental system. The structure is quite simple, there is not a lot of grammar like german or french!

[johan]

Vietnamese Language Structure I think you mean like grammar. If it is grammar, is should be ok except "~" and "?". I am not really sure the rule of this. Some one mentioned to me as it should be used different in pronunciation, but I listen people use them in public. I feel like they are not much different because I have been seen than over fifty percent of people using them as not much diffierent.

if you speack with peaple from south vietnam, there is no difference between ~ and ?. But in northvietnam it's really different.

this is also very difficult cause vietnamese is different in all areas.

[SogniSaigon]

..."vertical rays of the sun" and "the scent of green papaya"...

Hi roundeye,
I'm going to try to find and watch these two films.
I'll let you know how I go.
Thanks for the tip...

[prettygirlvn16]

Learning Vietnamese is not so difficult,i think the most important thing you need to do is listening regularly. You will get used to it with practise. In my opinion, the most diffcult thing for all of who are learning Vnese is how to use the words exactly when you speak or write. Especially, when you speak to the other , its needed to choose the right words , build the right sentences so as to make the listeners understand your real point and make them interested in your talk.
Don't worry, no pain no gain!!!

I agree with you!

[Jswollentongue]

When I have listened and understood what people said it's a little akin to being drunk, viet is so intense that people dont think the words about to come out of my mouth will be viet, they have the same drunken look if it is!
I think acceptance and understanding are huge obstacles with such an intense verbal language, people feel an attitude whether learning or teaching.
Other languages are much more tolerant of stupid mistakes, why so many psuedo variations occur. (I'd hate to suggest using a psuedo viet but every language learns to demand less sophistication from foreign users, its never the same as children where if you give them enough hell they will listen)

[anatak]

When I have listened and understood what people said it's a little akin to being drunk, viet is so intense that people dont think the words about to come out of my mouth will be viet, they have the same drunken look if it is!
I think acceptance and understanding are huge obstacles with such an intense verbal language, people feel an attitude whether learning or teaching.
Other languages are much more tolerant of stupid mistakes, why so many psuedo variations occur. (I'd hate to suggest using a psuedo viet but every language learns to demand less sophistication from foreign users, its never the same as children where if you give them enough hell they will listen)

I think that in Occidental languages the wrong word order or a slightly different word has a big nuance meaning.
I live in Japan and after 3 years talking Japanese is still an uphill struggle every day. Japanese people who have an understanding of English are more tolerant to faults in their language and will try to listen to understand what you say. The general opinion is more that you have to speak perfect or not at all which makes it difficult to practice.

For me in Vietnamese the most difficult thing are the tones. The tones killed me in Chinese already and there are even more tones in Vietnamese so that is really hard for me. After the tones it is knowing what word to use in what situation. for example talking to an older lady/man compared to a younger lady/man. (same thing in Japanese and Chinese)

For me the hardest thing is to find a teacher in Japan but that can not be helped. I ll move to Vietnam to learn the language one day.

[Jswollentongue]

Normally with asian languages people need to clarify the fact of speaking requires tonal accuracy, this is not really hard because you just need to say things as they sound when learnt.

With Vietnamese the flippy thing is that they use the same characters which creates a total spin on understanding. You think your reading but your seriously reading english nonsense and not Viet language. This makes Viet people think your completely simple and if you say it out loud they will think your tongue has a problem. The fact of not hearing difference in tonality also comes into it but hearing your English language words is a far worse mistake that will totally throw you of any discussion if your unwary.

It's so hard not to take the easy road which is false but rather to maintain the dedication to the language accuracy, and it gets worse because Viet people absolutely love a good laugh.