大咖福利影院

ChrisFox wrote:

T么i học tập chuy锚n Cần n贸i tiếng Việt

Since you want to be better Vietnamese, here is some helpful advices.

Your sentence sounds weird for a Vietnamese's ear.

If you want to say "I am studying spoken Vietnamese diligently", you should have written "T么i đang chăm chỉ học n贸i tiếng Việt", or even better "T么i đang cố (gắng) học tiếng Việt" I am striving to learn Vietnamese.

học tập is more used to indicate the act of studying.
chuy锚n cần is not natural in this sentence, however "học tập chuy锚n cần" (dilligent study (habit)) is often used.

TonyVu wrote:

Chris: no need to capitalize "C" in "cần- chuy锚n cần". And you miss this (') above "O"

I didn't.  My iPad has some funny ideas about proper nouns in Vietnamese.  I have to correct that word half the time

Anatta wrote:

ChrisFox wrote:

T么i học tập chuy锚n Cần n贸i tiếng Việt

Since you want to be better Vietnamese, here is some helpful advices.

Your sentence sounds weird for a Vietnamese's ear.

If you want to say "I am studying spoken Vietnamese diligently", you should have written "T么i đang chăm chỉ học n贸i tiếng Việt", or even better "T么i đang cố (gắng) học tiếng Việt" I am striving to learn Vietnamese.

học tập is more used to indicate the act of studying.
chuy锚n cần is not natural in this sentence, however "học tập chuy锚n cần" (dilligent study (habit)) is often used.

Thanks.  The last one sounds to me like "I am currently trying to learn Vietnamese; the first one has some other meaning for words I thought I knew and I read as "I am currently slow[ly] only speaking Vietnamese."  Probably a compound word I don't know.

Thanks you.

turbopaved wrote:

I'm with you, my biggest challenge is comprehension because I was taught using Northern, my ear can't catch the speed and lack of clear enunciation that my northern ear knows.

Your first sentence in Vietnamese reads that you're currently in Can Tho, is this correct? Is your group at Ca Phe Pha Le in HCMC?

No,  Pha L锚 in Cần Thơ.

If there is a Cần Thơ accent I've never been able to identify it.  The northern dialect is a lot clearer to my ear even though I've been around the southern hundreds of times as long.  People here are almost all transplants from villages each with their own dialects; we have a workman who, as far I can tell, is speaking Hindi or Nahuatl, I mean I don't get one word.  One time I said something to him slowly, clearly, carefully, making sure to get everything right .. he waggles his hand and goes

"Cow hoo!"

Kh么ng hiểu, so I refer to him as cow hoo now. 

So this is the third country whose language I've learned where the people in the north are easier to understand than the south.  But I swear I can understand the Plattdeutsch in "Das Boot" easier than I can understand the English of rural Alabama or rural southern Vietnamese.  My partner can't even understand the latter and he was born hee.

Anatta wrote:

chăm chỉ means the same as chuy锚n cần, i.e., diligent, studious, steadfast, dedicated,... Other synonyms: cần mẫn, si锚ng năng... It is a more appropriate word in this setting. No, it does not mean "slowly".

Yes, the last one means: I am currently trying to learn Vietnamese. It is a better sentence that using "I am diligently learning Vietnamese" (if that is what you are trying to say). Asians want to put themselves down when it comes to their own efforts and it shows through their language.

Oh, well we Americans like to pound our chests and boast ceaselessly.  It's as much a national pastime as counting money is in VN. 

I'm writing all this down.  These little idiomatic tidbits are precious to me.