Learn how to how to make a complaint
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Eric: Hi everyone, and welcome back to VietnamesePod101.com. This is Intermediate Season 1 Lesson 6 - Have You Had a Bad Dining Experience in Vietnam? Eric here. |
| Hoang Anh: Chào. I'm Hoang Anh. |
| Eric: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to make a complaint in Vietnamese. The conversation takes place in an office. |
| Hoang Anh: It's between Nam and Minh. |
| Eric: The speakers are co-workers, so they’ll use informal Vietnamese. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| Nam: Bực mình quá! |
| Minh: Sao thế ông bạn? |
| Nam: Ông có biết cái quán ăn mới khai trương ở tầng 1 không? |
| Minh: À, tôi biết. Cái quán đó nhìn cũng khang trang đấy chứ. |
| Nam: Tốt nhất là ông đừng nên ăn ở đó. |
| Minh: Sao thế? |
| Nam: Tôi vừa ăn ở đó đây. Phục vụ thì chậm chạp, nhân viên thì thô lỗ, đồ ăn thì đắt. |
| Minh: Thế à? |
| Nam: Ừ, đúng là đáng thất vọng. |
| Minh: May mà tôi chưa mời bạn gái đến đó. |
| Eric: Listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| Nam: I'm so pissed off. |
| Minh: What's up, buddy? |
| Nam: Do you know the newly opened restaurant on the first floor? |
| Minh: Ah, I know. That restaurant looks quite spacious, doesn't it? |
| Nam: You'd better not eat there. |
| Minh: What's wrong? |
| Nam: I’ve just eaten there. The service is slow, the staff is rude, and the food is expensive. |
| Minh: Really? |
| Nam: Yup, it was really disappointing. |
| Minh: Fortunately I haven't invited my girlfriend there. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Eric: Hoang Anh, tell us about the workplace environment in Vietnam. |
| Hoang Anh: I would say it's quite friendly. Except for the board of directors, who the employees show respect for and keep at a distance, the relationships between co-workers is quite informal. People also show respect to senior employees, but they don’t speak very formally. |
| Eric: Do colleagues go out for lunch together? |
| Hoang Anh: It's not uncommon for colleagues to go out for lunch or dinner together, hang out on weekends, or gather in the cafeteria for a chat. It is also normal for a person to invite colleagues to his or her wedding. |
| Eric: Good to know! Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Eric: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Hoang Anh: ông - tôi [natural native speed] |
| Eric: you, me , I (used between male friends) |
| Hoang Anh: ông - tôi [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hoang Anh: ông - tôi [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Hoang Anh: khai trương [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to open (shop/restaurant/hotel) |
| Hoang Anh: khai trương [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hoang Anh: khai trương [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Hoang Anh: khang trang [natural native speed] |
| Eric: spacious |
| Hoang Anh: khang trang [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hoang Anh: khang trang [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Hoang Anh: tốt nhất [natural native speed] |
| Eric: the best |
| Hoang Anh: tốt nhất [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hoang Anh: tốt nhất [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Hoang Anh: phục vụ [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to serve |
| Hoang Anh: phục vụ [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hoang Anh: phục vụ [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Hoang Anh: chậm chạp [natural native speed] |
| Eric: slow |
| Hoang Anh: chậm chạp [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hoang Anh: chậm chạp [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Hoang Anh: nhân viên [natural native speed] |
| Eric: staff |
| Hoang Anh: nhân viên [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hoang Anh: nhân viên [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Hoang Anh: thô lỗ [natural native speed] |
| Eric: rude |
| Hoang Anh: thô lỗ [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hoang Anh: thô lỗ [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Hoang Anh: đáng thất vọng [natural native speed] |
| Eric: disappointing |
| Hoang Anh: đáng thất vọng [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hoang Anh: đáng thất vọng [natural native speed] |
| Eric: And last.. |
| Hoang Anh: may mà [natural native speed] |
| Eric: fortunately |
| Hoang Anh: may mà [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hoang Anh: may mà [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Eric: Let's have a closer look at some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Hoang Anh: ông - tôi |
| Eric: which means “you-me” or “ I-you.” |
| Hoang Anh: ông refers to a man of the same age or rank and is used as the equivalent of “you.” And tôi generally means “I” or “me.” |
| Eric: This pair of pronouns is used between two men of the same age or rank, for example friends, colleagues and so on, who are quite close to each other. |
| Hoang Anh: Right. Please don't use ông - tôi in formal situations or with people with whom you are not close. |
| Eric: Hoang Anh, can you give us an example using this word? |
| Hoang Anh: Sure. For example, A says Lâu rồi không gặp ông bạn. Dạo này thế nào? Then B answers Tôi vẫn thế. Ông thì sao? |
| Eric: ..which means A says “Hey buddy, long time no see. How're you doing?” and B answers “I'm fine, as usual. You?” |
| Eric: Okay, what's the next word? |
| Hoang Anh: tốt nhất |
| Eric: which means “the best.” |
| Hoang Anh: tốt means “good, nice” and nhất means “the most, the best.” tốt nhất |
| Eric: You can use this phrase right after a noun to mean “the best + noun” |
| Hoang Anh: tốt nhất in this lesson literally means “the best is …” and is used to mean “you had better …” You can also use tốt nhất là at the beginning of the sentence, right before a complete clause, to give advice or a suggestion. |
| Eric: So, can we use this in any situation? |
| Hoang Anh: tốt nhất là is more appropriate to use when giving advice to people of the same age or rank or younger people. It can be used with older people, but only when they are close to you. tốt nhất là is often used with a clause using nên, which means “should” or không nên or đừng, which mean “shouldn't,” and “don't” respectively. |
| Eric: Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Hoang Anh: Sure. For example, you can say.. Tốt nhất là cậu không nên đến muộn. |
| Eric: .. which means “You had better not come late.” Okay, what's the last word? |
| Hoang Anh: may mà |
| Eric: which means “fortunately.” |
| Hoang Anh: may mà literally means “it's fortunate that …” |
| Eric: You can translate it as “fortunately,” or “luckily.”How can you use it in a sentence? |
| Hoang Anh: Put may mà at the beginning of a sentence and then add a clause to indicate what was or was not fortunate. May mà can be followed directly by a verb phrase without a subject if the subject is tôi. |
| Eric: Which is “I” in English. Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Hoang Anh: Sure. For example, you can say.. May mà (tôi) đã chuẩn bị bài thuyết trình cẩn thận. |
| Eric: .. which means “Fortunately I prepared the speech carefully.” |
| Hoang Anh: Another example is...May mà anh ta không đi theo tôi. |
| Eric: “Luckily he did not follow me.” Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
| Eric: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to make a complaint in Vietnamese. |
| Hoang Anh: To do this you can use the following pattern.. “thì A thì B” |
| Eric: which means “is A is B” or “are A are B” in English. Hoang Anh, what's the grammar structure? |
| Hoang Anh: Subject 1...plus thì...plus adjective 1. After it add subject 2...plus thì plus adjective 2. |
| Eric: Subjects 1 and 2 can be a noun or noun phrase or a verb and verb phrase and indicate the topics that the speaker wants to talk about. |
| Hoang Anh: thì here can be used as the equivalent of the verb “to be.” |
| Eric: Adjective 1 and 2 show the quality of subject 1 and 2. This structure is not limited to two subjects with two adjectives. It’s possible to add as many subjects and adjectives as you want, but normally there will be three. |
| Hoang Anh: The adjectives here can have both positive and negative meanings. Because we are talking about complaints, we’ll use only negative adjectives. |
| Eric: Hoang Anh, let's give our listeners some examples. |
| Hoang Anh: Sure. Phòng thì nhỏ, giá thuê thì đắt, vị trí cũng không tiện lắm nên tôi sẽ tìm căn hộ khác. |
| Eric: This means “The room is small, the rent is expensive and the location isn’t convenient either, so I'll search for another flat.” |
| Hoang Anh: Another example is...Lương thì thấp, công việc thì vất vả, nên nhiều nhân viên đã nghĩ đến chuyển việc. |
| Eric: “The salary is low and the work is hard, so a lot of employees have thought of changing jobs.” |
| Hoang Anh: Listeners, please note that the second or third thì can also be replaced by lại or cũng, which mean “also,” for emphasis. |
| Eric: You can use those words interchangeably. |
| Hoang Anh: Right. But they can be used to replace the first thì. Another sentence or clause showing the speaker’s opinion or conclusion about the mentioned topics often comes after the sentence containing thì. |
| Eric: Can you give us an example? |
| Hoang Anh: Sure. Phòng thì nhỏ, giá thuê thì đắt, vị trí cũng không tiện lắm nên tôi sẽ tìm căn hộ khác. |
| Eric: This means “The room is small, the rent is expensive and the location isn’t convenient either, so I'll search for another flat.” |
| Hoang Anh: In this sentence, the third thì is replaced by cũng, meaning “also,” for emphasis. The clause nên tôi sẽ tìm căn hộ khác, which means “so I’ll search for another flat” shows the speaker’s conclusion. |
| Eric: Some more examples, please. |
| Hoang Anh: Giao thông thì thuận lợi, an ninh thì/ lại/ cũng tốt, khu vực này rất dễ sống. |
| Eric: “The transportation is convenient, the security is good, this area is easy to live in.” |
| Hoang Anh: Học thì kém, làm việc lại không nghiêm túc, cậu ta khó mà thành công được. |
| Eric: “Bad at learning and not serious at work, it's hard for him to succeed.” |
| Hoang Anh: Listeners, here’s another tip. Cũng is not appropriate as a replacement for thì if adjectives 1 and 2 have opposite meanings. For example…Món súp thì mặn, món rau xào thì/ lại nhạt, đồ ăn ở đây chán thật. |
| Eric: “The soup is salty, the stir-fried vegetables are bland, food here is so bad.” |
| Hoang Anh: In this sentence, “salty” and “bland” both have negative meanings but their meanings are opposite, so only thì and lại can be used. |
Outro |
| Eric: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Hoang Anh: Tạm biệt. |
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