As a native English-speaker in a foreign city, I’m of two minds about how much English is spoken around me. Since I was trained in Vietnamese, I like it when I can communicate in that language. As someone whose Vietnamese remains flawed at best, I love it when I can communicate at all. Which puts me into a quandary. Do I struggle through conversations or hope that I can get my point across in English? I have to admit that after the first option hits some road bumps, I quickly switch to the second. And this is becoming easier and easier as the local community upgrades its English-comprehension.
In Hanoi, speaking English is a key to upward mobility. It’s a key to good jobs and the ability to join in the global community. Many countries and cultures vie for influence among the Vietnamese population and the U.S. is by no means the automatic choice (though we are quite popular here right now), but the English language blows away other foreign tongues as the choice for communication with the rest of the world.
What does this mean in practical terms? Well, kids start learning English early in grade school. But families with the means often send their children to private tutors before then. Or parents will teach themselves English to give their kids a head start. Vietnamese schools typically rely on rote-learning, so many youngsters who can read and write English pretty well lack the confidence to speak it. Nevertheless, I remember a trip upcountry to Cao Bang where a 9 or 10 year old screwed up his nerve in front of his friends and started a halting conversation with me in English. His peers crowded around in wonder as he kept asking me basic questions; “how old are you?” “where are you from?” The number of students traveling to the U.S. for college has skyrocketed with Vietnam jumping from the 22nd largest supplier to number 8 in one year. While many students go to Japan or China or France, many more are going to other English-language countries, such as the UK, New Zealand, Australia or Singapore.
Of course, there is a flip side to this. And that’s the good impression foreigners make when they attempt to use Vietnamese. Vietnamese seem consistently amazed when I start a conversation in their language and will routinely praise the most limited language capacity as “rat gioi” (extremely skillful). Responding “ciao em” to teens who yell out “hello” is guaranteed to get a double-take or, at least, surprised giggles. Though it is still very useful to speak Vietnamese with cabbies, many of whom come from small towns and speak nothing but Vietnamese, at many restaurants, shops, and stores, the attendants try to speak English as much as possible to hone their skills for a better shot at an office job or to pass university examinations.
English also gives goods and services cachet. It’s remarkable to me how many shops around town owned by Vietnamese with wholly Vietnamese clientele use English in their advertisements. Every fashion store is a “collection.” New restaurants are “opening soon,” and there are plenty of “sales” and “discounts.” Even more, English phrasing is used to plug the goods, even though sometimes it sounds a bit off to a native-speaker. There is “Teeny Pizza: High School Restaurant,” for the kids, beauty products at a store that will “Make you lovely and more lovely” and clothing for the office gal at the shop that sells outfits “for women who use computers.”
I don’t mean to mock. I am thoroughly impressed by the rapid adoption of my native-tongue. Our housekeeper speaks English better than I speak Vietnamese – with no training. By comparison, in my (admittedly short) trips to big, modern Chinese cities, I saw no advertisements in English. In the hotels and restaurants catering to foreign tourist, the garbled English seemed to have been translated by way of Farsi and Hungarian. In Hanoi, at least, the tense may not always be correct, but I’m always pretty sure of the meaning.
When we lived in Thailand, I loved looking out for shirts and jackets in non-sense English, wondering why the manufacturer chose this or that collection of random nouns, verbs and adjectives. I still see some of that in Hanoi, but more frequently, I see grammatically correct phrases or sentences, but wonder about the possible linkages between style and substance. For example, on the street yesterday, a girl biked by wearing a “Grateful Dead Forever” shirt, but done in sequins and not with the typical skull or dancing teddy bear favored by U.S. deadheads.
