Tuesday, June 13, 2006

For the past semester I've been going over to my friend's house once a week... well more like once every 1.5 weeks considering certain interferences-- to study Vietnamese. I guess you could say that I learned a lot. I knew a lot, too, but lots of things didn't make sense until my friend helped me figure out what I was doing wrong.

In the Vietnamese language, as in many Asian languages, words depend on the tone. The differences between Vietnamese dialects are the tones and a few sounds like the English (z), (y), (v) sounds. My issue was that the way I spoke, my accent or dialect caused me to spell words that would sound right when read, but looked wrong. It's kine uf lik I'm spilleng the wurdz lik howl I speek it, instead of in the standardized way. Now these differences will look very subtle to someone who doesn't speak Vietnamese. For example:

1.) Em đi với má.
2.) Êm đi với mã.


Which means very different things:
1.) I am going with Mom.
2.) Softness goes with the horse.


My main goal was to get waived on a language exam that I needed credits for. God knows I'm behind on my degree, and needn't take any more classes. I applied for the Vietnamese test. Now here's the annoying part: Unlike other language tests, the Vietnamese test at my university only tests you in writing-- one question answered in essay format. So there was no room to use context and answer multiple choice questions as I'd hope.

I studied. Went to take the test mid-May. The question was: "Do you prefer indoor activities or outdoor activities? Why?" Luckily I'd prepared for a similar question, so I was confident I was OK.

I got an email last night: "I am pleased to report that you have passed the Vietnamese Waiver Exam and have demonstrated 4th semester proficiency in the Vietnamese language. Your petition for foreign language waiver has been forwarded to the College of Education Division for final approval."



That's like 15 hours, or 2 years, or coming into VN Level V, come on. I mean it's not that great considering I speak it almost "fluently", but it kicks ass. And I'm pleased. Just a lil dissapointed I won't get any GPA booster points for it. Just a waive.
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