-^-for posterity-^-

going up to hai ninh was a wonderful language session. one of the barriers to development is different dialects around the country. i come from a place where one language is spoken and constantly updated by the cultural politburo of mtv. here, things are quite different.

there is the standard vietnamese which is located in and around hanoi. it is a sharp, crisp language with lots of 'z' sounds. the tones are very precise and are said sharply. i find it impossible to understand.

in the south, there is a very different dialect. the sounds are all dragged out and there are lots of 'y' sounds. the tones float around a bit more and two of the tones are very similar and no one bothers to distinguish them in any way. it's much easier to understand simply because i've become used to it.

in the middle of the country there is a very different language. everyone i talked to said this language is the most difficult to understand and, after meeting with the basketball team from hue, i'd have to agree. the team from hue spoke a dialect that was virtually impossible to understand. they used words that are not found in the vietnamese of the north or the south. their tones were completely backwards and not always consistent. my basketball team even had a hard time understanding them. there were times when they would have to 'interpret' for me and there were even a couple of times when i understood words they didn't understand and i said them with a southern accent. i find the language impossible.

on top of all of that, there are languages that are very different. in hai ninh, the majority of the population is chinese. they spoke a strange version of chinese that had been fostered after years and years away from the mainland in their own tight-knit community. one of the basketball players knew standard chinese but found it impossible to understand their dialect. then there's khmer in the south. there's cham. there are 56 different ethnic groups all speaking different languages.

i grew up in a place where the only dialect i was exposed to was pennsylvania dutch and one could only feasibly make fun of the drawl of the southerners. in a place where there are so many different languages and dialects, it is amazing so much actually gets done.