Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Notes

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Becky: Hi everyone, and welcome back to VietnamesePod101.com. This is Beginner Season 1 Lesson 3 - Sending a Package from Vietnam. Becky here.
Huyen: Xin chào. I'm Huyen.
Becky: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to send a parcel where you want by post in Vietnam.
Huyen: It's between Nam and the post office staff, Linh.
Becky: The speakers are meeting each other for the first time, so they will be using formal Vietnamese. Okay, let's listen to the conversation.

Lesson conversation

Nam: Tôi muốn gửi bưu phẩm sang Mỹ.
Linh: Anh muốn gửi loại bưu phẩm gì?
Nam: Một món quà lưu niệm nhỏ bằng gỗ.
Linh: Anh muốn gửi thường hay gửi đảm bảo?
Nam: Gửi đảm bảo ạ. Cước phí là bao nhiêu ạ?
Linh: Để tôi kiểm tra trọng lượng. 1000g, cước phí là 10 đô ạ.
Nam: Mất bao lâu thì đến nơi?
Linh: Khoảng một tuần,anh ạ.
Becky: Listen to the conversation one time slowly.
Nam: Tôi muốn gửi bưu phẩm sang Mỹ.
Linh: Anh muốn gửi loại bưu phẩm gì?
Nam: Một món quà lưu niệm nhỏ bằng gỗ.
Linh: Anh muốn gửi thường hay gửi đảm bảo?
Nam: Gửi đảm bảo ạ. Cước phí là bao nhiêu ạ?
Linh: Để tôi kiểm tra trọng lượng. 1000g, cước phí là 10 đô ạ.
Nam: Mất bao lâu thì đến nơi?
Linh: Khoảng một tuần, anh ạ.
Becky: Listen to the conversation with the English translation
Nam: I would like to send a parcel to America.
Linh: What kind of parcel is it?
Nam: A small souvenir made of wood.
Linh: Would you like regular or insured delivery?
Nam: Insured delivery. How much is the postage?
Linh: Let me check its weight. 1000g, so the postage is 10 USD.
Nam: How long will it take to arrive at the destination?
Linh: About one week, sir.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Huyen: Becky, what do you usually send at a post office?
Becky: Well, I haven’t used the post office for a while, but I sometimes use it to send souvenirs.
Huyen: Sending souvenirs from the post office sounds good. If you want to try that in Vietnam, I have some souvenirs to recommend.
Becky: Oh, what are they?
Huyen: Do you know Áo dài?
Becky: Oh, you mean the long traditional dress, right?
Huyen: That’s right. Many tourists buy them as souvenirs. If you are a woman, you’ll like it a lot.
Becky: You might have seen it on TV already, but it’s a tight fitting silk tunic, worn over pants. It represents the feminine beauty of Vietnamese women. What else do you want to recommend?
Huyen: What about Nón lá, the conical hat?
Becky: You mean the hat made of straw, right?
Huyen: Yes, we use it to protect ourselves from the sun, but it could be good for decorating your room. Or you can get Tranh Đông Hồ or “Dong Ho painting” too.
Becky: If you haven’t seen them yet, they are a line of folk paintings originating from Dong Ho village, an old village in a province of northern Vietnam. These were some great recommendations! Now let’s move on to the vocab.
VOCAB LIST
Becky: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is..
Huyen: muốn [natural native speed]
Becky: to want
Huyen: muốn[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Huyen: muốn [natural native speed]
Becky: Next we have..
Huyen: bưu phẩm [natural native speed]
Becky: parcel
Huyen: bưu phẩm[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Huyen: bưu phẩm [natural native speed]
Becky: Next we have..
Huyen: quà lưu niệm [natural native speed]
Becky: souvenir
Huyen: quà lưu niệm[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Huyen: quà lưu niệm [natural native speed]
Becky: Next we have..
Huyen: gửi thường [natural native speed]
Becky: to send by regular mail
Huyen: gửi thường[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Huyen: gửi thường [natural native speed]
Becky: Next we have..
Huyen: gửi đảm bảo [natural native speed]
Becky: to send by insured mail
Huyen: gửi đảm bảo[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Huyen: gửi đảm bảo [natural native speed]
Becky: Next we have..
Huyen: cước phí [natural native speed]
Becky: fee
Huyen: cước phí[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Huyen: cước phí [natural native speed]
Becky: Next we have..
Huyen: kiểm tra [natural native speed]
Becky: to check
Huyen: kiểm tra[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Huyen: kiểm tra [natural native speed]
Becky: Next we have..
Huyen: trọng lượng [natural native speed]
Becky: weight
Huyen: trọng lượng[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Huyen: trọng lượng [natural native speed]
Becky: Next we have..
Huyen: mất bao lâu [natural native speed]
Becky: a question phrase meaning "how long does it take..."
Huyen: mất bao lâu[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Huyen: mất bao lâu [natural native speed]
Becky: And last..
Huyen: đến nơi [natural native speed]
Becky: to arrive at the destination
Huyen: đến nơi[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Huyen: đến nơi [natural native speed]
KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES
Becky: Let's have a closer look at some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word is..
Huyen: bưu phẩm
Becky: meaning "parcel." But note that it can be any small package when it’s less than 2 kilograms.
Huyen: With something more than 2 kilograms or something big, you can use bưu kiện.
Becky: What does this literally mean?
Huyen: bưu means "postal" and kiện means "package," so literally it means “postal package.”
Becky: Speaking of things to send at a post office, what’s the word for “postcard”?
Huyen: It’s bưu thiếp. bưu again is “postal,” and thiếp means “card.”
Becky: All of these words start with the word meaning “postal.”
Huyen: That’s right. bưu phẩm, bưu kiện, and bưu thiếp.
Becky: So "a parcel,” "a big package," and "a postcard." Okay, what's the next word?
Huyen: muốn
Becky: meaning "to want." The usage seems to be the same as the English word “to want.”
Huyen: That’s right. For example, if you want a new car, you can use this verb and say Tôi muốn một chiếc ô tô mới.
Becky: “I want a new car.”
Huyen: Here, we have Tôi muốn, “I want,” and một chiếc ô tô mới, meaning “a new car.”
Becky: And like in English, you can use this verb to mean “I want to do something” right?
Huyen: That’s right. You can say muốn with another verb to mean what you want to do. For example, if you want to learn how to drive, you can say.. Tôi muốn học lái xe.
Becky: “I want to learn how to drive.”
Huyen: Here, we have Tôi muốn meaning “I want,” then the verb học meaning “to learn.” Altogether, Tôi muốn học is “I want to learn.”
Becky: So we just need to place two verbs next to each other to say “I want to do something”, right?
Huyen: That’s right!
Becky: Okay, now onto the lesson focus.

Lesson focus

Becky: In this lesson you'll learn how to send a parcel somewhere by post. Let’s learn the expressions and related grammar points one by one.
Huyen: First we have Mất bao lâu?
Becky: “How long does it take?”
Huyen: The first word is mất, which means “to take.”
Becky: It’s usually followed by the number of hours in affirmative sentences or something like “how long.”
Huyen: In Vietnamese, that's bao lâu. So, mất bao lâu all together means "how long does it take?” or literally means “how long take?”
Becky: So using this phrase, we can also ask more specific questions like “how long does it take to go from Hanoi to Hue?”, right?
Huyen: Yes. First, just say.. mất bao lâu, literally meaning “how long take?” Then you can add extra information.
Becky: And if we want to ask “to go from Hanoi to Hue,” what can we say?
Huyen: Just add để đi từ Hà Nội đến Huế, after saying mất bao lâu. Mất bao lâu để đi từ Hà Nội đến Huế?
Becky: “How long does it take to go from Hanoi to Hue? And using the same pattern, we can ask something like “How long does it take to arrive at the destination?” at a post office.
Huyen: In that case, you can say.. Mất bao lâu thì đến nơi? First, we have Mất bao lâu meaning “how long does it take” and you can add the extra information, for example, thì đến nơi.
Becky: “to arrive at the destination.” And all together, once again..
Huyen: Mất bao lâu thì đến nơi?
Becky: “How long does it take to arrive at the destination?”
Huyen: Here, we have thì meaning “then” and the verb phrase đến nơi which means “to arrive at the destination.
Becky: Should we always add the word meaning “then”?
Huyen: There are two cases in which you need to add thì to Mất bao lâu. First, when you are talking about a destination, and second when you are talking about the completion of a task.
Becky: I see. But it seems like sometimes people use a different word.
Huyen: You mean the word để which means “in order to,” right? You can use it instead of thì. It’s still correct and commonly used in daily conversation.
Becky: I see. Listeners, we have more information in the lesson notes, so make sure to check them out.

Outro

Becky: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye!
Huyen: Cảm ơn các bạn.

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