Learn how to introduce yourself
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| INTRODUCTION | |
| Becky: Hi everyone! I’m Becky. Welcome to VietnamesePod101.com This is the Absolute Beginner Series, Season 1, Lesson 1- Introducing Yourself in Vietnamese. | |
| Huyen: Xin chào! I’m Huyen. | |
| Becky: In this lesson, you will learn basic greetings and self-introduction in Vietnamese. The conversation takes place at a cafeteria and is between two students, An and Mary. | |
| Huyen: They’re meeting each other for the first time, so they’ll be using formal Vietnamese. | |
| Becky: Let’s listen to the conversation. | |
| DIALOGUE | |
| An: Xin chào, tôi tên là An. | |
| Mary: Xin chào, tôi tên là Mary. | |
| An: Rất vui được gặp bạn. | |
| Mary: Tôi cũng vậy. | |
| An: Tạm biệt | |
| Mary: Tạm biệt. Hẹn gặp lại. | |
| An: Hello. My name is An. | |
| Mary: Hello. My name is Mary. | |
| An: Nice to meet you. | |
| Mary: Me too. | |
| An: Goodbye. | |
| Mary: Goodbye. See you again. | |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER | |
| Becky: Let’s give our listeners some ideas about Vietnamese names. | |
| Huyen: Sure. A Vietnamese name usually consists of three parts- The family name comes first, then the middle name, and the first name comes at the end. | |
| Becky: Wow, it’s so different from English. | |
| Huyen: Right. Vietnamese people often use first names to introduce themselves, or address each other in both formal and informal situations. | |
| Becky: Yes, in the dialogue the first person introduces herself as “An”, which is her first name, isn’t it? | |
| Huyen: That’s right, even though it’s their first time meeting. It’s common to use first names. | |
| Becky: I see. So, how can we make it more formal? Would we use a pronoun or a title of some sort before the name? | |
| Huyen: Exactly! For example, a man named Nguyễn Văn Nam can be or Anh Nguyễn Văn Nam… | |
| Becky: ...which means “Mr.”... | |
| Huyen: or Giám đốc Nguyễn Văn Nam... | |
| Becky: ...which means “Director”. Please remember that depending on the person's gender and age, the pronoun will be different. Vietnamese people don’t use family names to address each other like in Western culture. Okay, now let’s move on to the vocab. | |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES | |
| Becky: Let’s take a closer look at some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word is | |
| Huyen: Tôi. | |
| Becky: This means “I” or “me”, and it’s a first person pronoun which can be used in both formal and informal situations. But this is just the general equivalent of “I or me”. Depending on gender, age and relationship, this equivalent also varies in different situations. | |
| Huyen: Right, and we’ll gradually learn those situations throughout this series. The next word is bạn. | |
| Becky: This is the general pronoun referring to the person directly talking with you at the moment of speaking. | |
| In other words, “bạn” is the general equivalent of “you”. Again, this will vary depending on gender, age, and relationship. | |
| Huyen: And finally we have Rất vui được gặp bạn. | |
| Becky: “Nice to meet you.” | |
| Huyen: Rất vui means.. | |
| Becky: ...“Very happy”, | |
| Huyen: And được gặp bạn means... | |
| Becky: “To meet you” or “to be able to meet you”. So, the whole sentence literally means “I’m very happy to meet you” and can be understood as “Nice to meet you” in English.There’s another way to say “Nice to meet you,” isn’t there? | |
| Huyen: Yes, we can also say Rất vui được làm quen với bạn. | |
| Becky: And this literally means “I’m happy to get acquainted with you”. It’s commonly used when meeting someone for the first time in Vietnam. Cool. Okay, now onto the grammar. | |
| GRAMMAR POINT | |
| Becky: In this lesson, you’ll learn about self-introductions in Vietnamese. | |
| Huyen: In the conversation, An says Xin chào, tôi tên là An. Rất vui được gặp bạn. That’s basically how you introduce yourself in Vietnamese. | |
| Becky: Let’s break down these two sentences: First we have... | |
| Huyen: Xin chào | |
| Becky: ...which means “hello” or “hi”. It’s used as a greeting when you meet someone. It can be used to greet anyone at anytime of day and in both formal and informal situations. | |
| Huyen: When someone says xin chào to you, simply reply with the same greeting. xin chào! | |
| Becky: Then introduce your name by saying.... | |
| Huyen: tôi tên là and your name. Tôi means “I”, Tên means “name”, and là is the verb “to be”. | |
| Becky: It can be literally translated as “I am named” but it’s the way Vietnamese people usually introduce themselves. And the last sentence is.... | |
| Huyen: Rất vui được gặp bạn. | |
| Becky: “Nice to meet you”. | |
| Huyen: You can reply with Tôi cũng vậy... | |
| Becky: ...which means “Me too”. This can also be used in other situations when you agree with someone’s opinion. Let’s listen to some more examples. | |
| Huyen: Xin chào, tôi tên là Jenny. Rất vui được gặp bạn. | |
| Becky: “Hello, my name is Jenny. Nice to meet you.” | |
| Huyen: Xin chào, tôi tên là Lan. Rất vui được gặp bạn. | |
| Becky: “Hello, my name is Lan. Nice to meet you.” Now listeners, it’s your turn to try. Please say the Vietnamese for “Hello”. | |
| Huyen: [pause] Xin chào. | |
| Becky: “My name is…” and then say your name! | |
| Huyen: [pause] Tôi tên là... | |
| Becky: And finally, the phrase for “Nice to meet you.” | |
| Huyen: [pause] Rất vui được gặp bạn. | |
| Becky: How did you do? Please try it one more time, putting it all together. | |
| Huyen: [pause] Xin chào, tôi tên là.... Rất vui được gặp bạn. | |
| Becky: Great job!! | |
Outro |
|
|---|---|
| Huyen: That’s all about self-introduction in Vietnamese. It’s not very difficult, right? I’m sure you can easily introduce yourself when meeting a Vietnamese person now. | |
| Becky: Please check the lesson notes for more examples and information. | |
| Huyen: We hope that you enjoyed this lesson. Thank you and we’ll see you again in the next lesson. | |
| Becky: Tạm biệt! |
90 Comments
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Let's practice through comments!
Hi Thanh,
Thank you for posting.
We are glad to hear that you are enjoying our material.
Cheers,
Laura
Team VietnamesePod101.com
Xin chao, toi ten la Thanh,
I'm loving it so far. I'm Vietnamese but never became fluent in it. This helps a lot, thank you!
Hi Tim,
Thank you for posting.
We will consider your suggestion of adding the slow version of the vocabulary word to the phone application.
Let us know if you have any question regarding the lessons and material.
Kind regards,
Laura
Team VietnamesePod101.com
Xin chao, toi ten la Tim. I am using both my iPad and iPhone for lessons. The ipad has slow motion pronunciations but the iPhone doesnt. I really miss the additional slow-mo version because I will be using my iphone for most of the lessons. Are the slo-mo pronunciations there?
Hello Jo Lee,
Thank you for your comment.
I would like to roughly translate word by word from Vietnamese into English the sentence "Rất vui được gặp bạn" as below:
Rất = Very
Vui = Happy
Được = used as in passive voice, so in this case, it can be referred as "am"
Gặp = Meet
Bạn = You
---> Rất vui được gặp bạn = Very happy (I) am met you (Incorrect English grammar, so we adjust it into "Nice to meet you")
Please let us know if you have further question.
Best regards,
Nguyet Nguyen
Team VietnamesePod101.com
The phrase Rat Vui duoc gap ban , iam able to say Rat Vui alright because the word Rat in English would be zat and Vui is easy enough. But when I get to duci gap ban I am having trouble understanding. Would it be possible to tell me English word that sound like duci gap ban?
Hello Lyn,
Thank you for your question.
Northern people pronounce "r" as "z" while southern people pronounce "r" as "r". We do not pronounce "r" as "s".
Please let us know if you have further question.
Best regards,
Nguyet Nguyen
Team VietnamesePod101.com
Hello Stephaine Carter/ Xin chào Stephaine Carter,
Nice to hear from you. Hope you enjoy learning Vietnamese.
I just want to correct a little bit your typing. It should be "Tôi tên là Stephaine".
If you have any question regarding learning Vietnamese, please let us know.
Best regards,
Nguyet Nguyen
Team VietnamesePod101.com
Xin chào! Toi tên la Stephaine
Hello Steve,
Thank you for your kind feedback!
We hope you'll have a nice time at Hanoi!
Let us know if you have any question.
Cheers,
Lena
Team VietnamesePod101.com