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Vocabulary (Review)

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Hello and welcome to Southern Vietnamese Survival Phrases brought to you by VietnamesePod101.com. This course is designed to equip you with the language skills and knowledge to enable you to get the most out of your visit to Southern Vietnam. You’ll be surprised at how far a little Vietnamese will go. Now, before we jump in, remember to stop by VietnamesePod101.com. There, you’ll find the accompanying PDF lesson notes and additional info in the post. If you stop by, be sure to leave us a comment.

Lesson focus

Southern Vietnamese Survival Phrases lesson 22 - Riding the Bus in Southern Vietnam 2
Once on the bus, you'll hear announcements informing the passengers of where the bus will stop next. Now in the case that there is no English announcement, you may not catch the location just announced, so the phrase "What is the next stop?" may be indispensable.
In Vietnamese "What is the next stop?" is Bến tới là bến gì?
Bến tới là bến gì?
Let’s break it down by syllable: Bến tới là bến gì?
Now, let’s hear it again, Bến tới là bến gì?
The first word, bến, means "stop" or “bus station.”
Let’s say it again, bến.
This is followed by tới, which in Vietnamese is "next."
So, to recap here, we have bến tới. Literally, this means "next stop."
Let’s take a look at the next word, là, which means "is, am, or are"
Once again, là.
The last word is gì, gì which means "what."
So bến gì, bến - gì, means "what stop" or "what bus station."
So all together we have Bến tới là bến gì?
Literally, this means "What is the next stop?"
Another way of inquiring could be asking if your desired destination is the next stop. For this phrase, we'll use Ben Thanh Market as the destination. So the phrase "Is Ben Thanh Market the next stop?" is Bến tới có phải chợ Bến Thành không?
Bến tới có phải chợ Bến Thành không?
Let’s break it down by syllable: Bến tới có phải chợ Bến Thành không?
Now, let’s hear it again, Bến tới có phải chợ Bến Thành không?
The first two words, bến tới, means “the next stop.”
Let’s break this down and hear it again, bến tới.
bến tới
This is followed by có phải, which together with không ending the sentence in Vietnamese is "Is it (something) or not?" A yes-or-no question with “to be” as the verb.
có phải không
có phải không
có phải không
The other word is chợ. Chợ is "market" in Vietnamese.
Chợ Bến Thành is located in District 1, the central area of Saigon.
Let’s hear it one more time, chợ Bến Thành.
chợ Bến Thành
chợ Bến Thành
So all together, we have Bến tới có phải chợ Bến Thành không?
Literally, this means "Is Ben Thanh market the next stop?"
In Vietnamese, there are three major dialects, the Northern, Middle, and Southern dialects. Most Vietnamese can understand Northern dialect, but sometimes, people still get confused with different words meaning the same thing. For instance, in the north, “bus stop” is bến, but in the South, it is trạm. When I was in Saigon, I said bến while speaking Vietnamese with a Southern accent and the bus driver didn’t understand me. She corrected me and said trạm tới . You can learn through communicating with locals. It’s much more fun. So to ask what is the next stop in the Southern dialect is Trạm tới là trạm gì?
Trạm tới là trạm gì?

Outro

Okay, to close out today’s lesson, we'd like for you to practice what you've just learned. I'll provide you with the English equivalent of the phrase and you're responsible for shouting it out loud. You’ll have a few seconds before I give you the answer, so, chúc may mắn, this means “good luck” in Vietnamese.
Okay, here we go!
What is the next stop? (in the Northern dialect) - Bến tới là bến gì?
Bến tới là bến gì?
Bến tới là bến gì?
What is the next stop? (in the Southern dialect) - Trạm tới là trạm gì?
Trạm tới là trạm gì?
Trạm tới là trạm gì?
All right, that's going to do it for this lesson. Remember to stop by VietnamesePod101.com and pick up the accompanying PDF lesson notes. If you stop by, be sure to leave us a comment. Bye!

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