Dialogue

Vocabulary

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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 28 - Directions in Southern Vietnamese 1.
In today’s lesson we'll introduce you to a phrase that will help you find the place you’re looking for. Today's phrase is "Is there a (something) near here?" First we need something, so let's use the word bãi biển which means "beach."
Let’s break it down by syllable: bãi biển.
Bãi is the broken rising tone and biển is falling rising.
Let’s say it again, bãi biển.
bãi biển
bãi biển
In Vietnamese "Is there a beach near here?" is Có bãi biển ở gần đây không.
Có bãi biển ở gần đây không.
Let’s break this down by syllable: Có bãi biển ở gần đây không.
Let’s hear it again, Có bãi biển ở gần đây không.
The first word, có, is the rising tone and means "is."
Let’s say it again, có.
This is followed by the word for beach, bãi biển.
bãi biển
Next is ở gần đây.
ở gần đây
ở is the falling tone, gần falls gradually, and đây is flat.
Loosely, ở gần đây means, "near here." So all together again, ở gần đây.
ở gần đây
This entire phrase ends with không.
không
This word should sound familiar to us by now. As a reminder, it means "no" and is flat. So the entire phrase, Có bãi biển ở gần đây không, literally means "is beach near here no?"
Let’s practice the entire phrase again, Có bãi biển ở gần đây không.
Có bãi biển ở gần đây không.
Now, to ask for a different location or place, we can just replace the word for beach with any other word and the phrase works just fine. Let's try tiệm ăn which means “restaurant.” So to ask, “Is there is a restaurant near here?” we would say Có tiệm ăn ở gần đây không? As you can see, the only thing that changes is the word for the place that you are looking for.
So let’s practice it again, Có tiệm ăn ở gần đây không?
Có tiệm ăn ở gần đây không?
This phrase will come in handy before leaving the hotel, talking with taxi drivers or other people trying help you locate a desired place.
Now that you’re able to ask, you’re going to get an answer. As we’re running out of time, we’re gonna have to cover that next time.
In Vietnam, you may have difficulty finding and reading some street signs. Before asking a complete stranger for directions, you may want to say, “Excuse me,” which we remember is Xin lỗi. So we can combine this with the phrase we covered today and ask where the beach is - Xin lỗi. Có bãi biển ở gần đây không?

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!
“Is there a beach near here?” - Có bãi biển ở gần đây không?
Có bãi biển ở gần đây không?
Có bãi biển ở gần đây không?
“Is there a restaurant near here?” - Có tiệm ăn ở gần đây không?
Có tiệm ăn ở gần đây không?
Có tiệm ăn ở gần đây không?
“Excuse me.” - Xin lỗi.
Xin lỗi.
Xin lỗi.
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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