Learn how to ask someone's nationality
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Becky: HI! I’m Becky. Welcome back to VietnamesePod101.com This is the Absolute Beginner Series, Season 1, Lesson 3 - Talking About Nationality in Vietnamese. |
| Huyen: Xin chào! I’m Huyen. In this lesson you'll learn about nationalities. |
| Becky: The conversation takes place at a university and is between Mai, Mary and Suri. |
| Huyen: They’re meeting for the first time so they’ll be speaking formal Vietnamese. |
| Becky: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Mai: Bạn đến từ đâu? |
| Mary: Tôi đến từ nước Anh. |
| Mai: Bạn là người nước nào? |
| Suri: Tôi là người Mỹ. |
| Mai: Where are you from? |
| Mary: I'm from England. |
| Mai: What nationality are you? |
| Suri: I'm American. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Becky: In the last lesson, we mentioned that Vietnamese people are very interested in talking with foreigners. In this lesson, we’ll learn more about Vietnamese people’s attitude towards foreigners. |
| Huyen: Right, it’s very common to see a Vietnamese person trying to speak a few English words to a foreigner on the street. |
| Becky: I heard that they’re very hospitable and open to foreigners. Do Vietnamese people speak English well? |
| Huyen: More and more people in Vietnam can speak English now, but in general, we don’t use English in our daily lives. |
| Becky: But still, most Vietnamese people are not reluctant to help foreigners who come to Vietnam. That’s great! So listeners, if you come to Vietnam and need help, don’t hesitate to ask anyone you meet. If he or she can’t understand you, I’m sure they’ll find a way to help you! Okay, now let’s take a look at 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: ...Đến. |
| Becky: This verb means “to come” or “ to arrive”. But in many cases it also means “to go” or just “to”. There’s a difference between “to come” and “to go” in Vietnamese as in English, but sometimes they can be used interchangeably. |
| Huyen: For example, đến trường means both “to go to school” and “to come to school”. |
| Becky: And this is regardless of where the speaker is. Let’s hear an example. |
| Huyen: Mai đến nhà tôi chơi nhé. |
| Becky: “Come to my house tomorrow.” |
| Huyen: Đến in this case means “to come”. |
| Becky: Here’s another example. |
| Huyen: Mấy giờ bạn đến trường? |
| Becky: “What time will you go to school?” |
| Huyen: Đến means “to go” in this case. |
| Becky: The next word we have is …. |
| Huyen: Đâu |
| Becky: “Where”. In most cases, it’s used with a preposition and together they’re often put at the end of a sentence. |
| Huyen: Right. The preposition ở is put in front to make ở đâu. |
| Becky: Let’s hear an example. |
| Huyen: Sách của tôi đâu? or Sách của tôi ở đâu? |
| Becky: This means “Where’s my book?” In most cases the preposition makes it sound more formal. Can we have one more example please? |
| Huyen: Sure. Bạn đang ở đâu? |
| Becky: And this means “Where are you?” Okay, now onto the grammar. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Becky: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to ask “Where are you from?” in Vietnamese. |
| Huyen: In Vietnamese, that is Bạn đến từ đâu? |
| Becky: The pronoun... |
| Huyen: ...bạn... |
| Becky: ...means “you” and it comes first. Next is the verb... |
| Huyen: ...đến... |
| Becky: ...which means “to come”, followed by the preposition... |
| Huyen: ...từ... |
| Becky: ...meaning “from”. And finally the question word... |
| Huyen: ...đâu... |
| Becky: ...which means “where”. |
| Huyen: Bạn đến từ đâu? |
| Becky: To answer this question, you say... |
| Huyen: Tôi đến từ nước and your country’s name in Vietnamese. |
| Becky: It literally means “I am come from” and the country. In the dialogue we have... |
| Huyen: Bạn đến từ đâu? Tôi đến từ nước Anh. |
| Becky: “Where are you from?” “I’m from Britain.” Let’s hear some more examples |
| Huyen: Tôi đến từ nước Nhật. |
| Becky: “I’m from Japan.” |
| Huyen: Tôi đến từ nước Pháp. |
| Becky: “I’m from France.” |
| Huyen: The question Bạn đến từ đâu? is the exact translation of “Where are you from?”, but Vietnamese people tend to ask Bạn là người nước nào? |
| Becky: This literally means “You are the person of which country?” Let’s break down this question. The pronoun... |
| Huyen: ...bạn... |
| Becky: ...meaning “you” comes first, followed by the verb… |
| Huyen: ...là… |
| Becky: ...which is “to be”. Next is the noun |
| Huyen: ...người… |
| Becky: ...which means “person” followed by the noun… |
| Huyen: ...nước… |
| Becky: ...which means “country”. Finally we have the question word… |
| Huyen: ...nào… |
| Becky: ...whic means “which”. |
| Huyen: Bạn là người nước nào? |
| Becky: This is similar to “What nationality are you?” To answer this question, you say... |
| Huyen: Tôi là người nước and your country’s name in Vietnamese. |
| Becky: “I’m the person of” and the country. What did we have in the dialogue? |
| Huyen: Bạn là người nước nào? Tôi là người Mỹ. |
| Becky: “What nationality are you?” “I’m American.” Okay, let’s hear some more examples. |
| Huyen: Bạn đến từ đâu? Tôi đến từ Hàn Quốc. |
| Becky: “Where are you from?” “I’m from Korea.” |
| Huyen: Bạn là người nước nào? Tôi là người Hàn Quốc. |
| Becky: “What nationality are you?” “I’m Korean.” |
Outro |
|---|
| Becky: Well, we have covered everything in this lesson. Can you say what nationality you are in Vietnamese now? |
| Huyen: We’ll see you again in the next lesson. |
| Becky: Don’t forget to read the accompanying PDF lesson notes for your reference. See you next time. |
| Huyen: Tạm biệt! |
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