Jumping the Language Barrier

Although I had practiced for months using a language CD, I hadn't grasped the subtleties of tone that make Vietnamese a difficult language to speak. Learning to read is said to be relatively easy, but Vietnamese, like most Asian languages, is tonal. Depending on how you say a word, it might mean something totally different than what you intended and my inability to get a handle on the different tones earned me a lot of blank stares, a few guffaws and an appreciation for anyone who wanted to practice their English on me.

Luckily, English is spoken with varying degrees proficiency by a large number of Vietnamese, many of whom are anxious for the opportunity to try it out on a native speaker. The slightest encouragement - a smile, or even eye contact - was often enough to induce a stranger to start a tentative conversation, usually in surprisingly good, if somewhat stilted, English.

Walking through a crowded neighborhood market, I heard someone say "Happy New Year" and looked around in time to see the smiling face of a passing pajama-clad older woman wearing a traditional cone-shaped hat. In another part of town, I raised my camera to take a picture and a street vendor flashed me the peace sign and a big grin.

For the most part, it seems that people - Communist or otherwise - harbor no ill will toward Americans, though the expressions on the faces of a few made it clear that good will is not a universal sentiment. As rare as this was, it was easy enough to ignore.