Learn how to say "sorry"
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Becky: Hi everyone. I’m Becky. Welcome back to VietnamesePod101.com This is the Absolute Beginner series, Season 1, Lesson 6 - Saying Sorry in Vietnamese. |
| Huyen: Xin chào! I’m Huyen. |
| Becky: In this lesson you will learn how to say “sorry” in Vietnamese. The conversation takes place in the director’s room and is between An and her boss. |
| Huyen: They are employee and employer at their workplace so, they’ll be using formal Vietnamese. |
| Becky: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| An: Xin lỗi ... |
| Boss: Mời vào! |
| An: Xin lỗi tôi đến muộn. |
| Boss: Không sao, mời cô ngồi. |
| An: Cảm ơn |
| Becky: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| An: Xin lỗi ... |
| Boss: Mời vào! |
| An: Xin lỗi tôi đến muộn. |
| Boss: Không sao, mời cô ngồi. |
| An: Cảm ơn |
| Becky: Now let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| An: Xin lỗi … |
| Becky: Excuse me! |
| Boss: Mời vào! |
| Becky: Come in, please. |
| An: Xin lỗi tôi đến muộn. |
| Becky: I'm sorry I'm late. |
| Boss: Không sao, mời cô ngồi. |
| Becky: No problem. Please sit down, miss. |
| An: Cảm ơn |
| Becky: Thank you. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Becky: Schools in Vietnam start early in the morning and most kids from 4 to 14 years old are sent to school by the parents, so in order to make it convenient for workers, offices often open at 8: 00 a.m and finish at 5 p.m. In some companies, to avoid rush hour office hours are from 9 a.m to 6 p.m. Normally, Vietnamese people take a nap at noon so lunch is between one to one and half hours. |
| Huyen: Exactly. Rush hour in the morning is from 7 am to 9 am and in the evening from 5 pm to 7 pm. |
| Becky: I heard that the majority of Vietnamese people use motorbikes rather than public transportation, so they are likely to be stuck in heavy traffic. |
| Huyen: Right. In particular, because women tend to take their children to school before they go to work, they are more likely to be late. |
| Becky: I guess the most common excuse for being late in Vietnam is “traffic jam”. Okay, now let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Becky: The first word we shall see is... |
| Huyen: Xin lỗi [natural native speed] |
| Becky: excuse me |
| Huyen: Xin lỗi [slowly - broken down by syllable] Xin lỗi [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next |
| Huyen: Mời [natural native speed] |
| Becky: please |
| Huyen: Mời [slowly - broken down by syllable] Mời [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next |
| Huyen: Vào [natural native speed] |
| Becky: come in |
| Huyen: Vào [slowly - broken down by syllable] Vào [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next |
| Huyen: đến [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to come |
| Huyen: đến [slowly - broken down by syllable] đến [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next |
| Huyen: muộn [natural native speed] |
| Becky: late |
| Huyen: muộn [slowly - broken down by syllable] muộn [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next |
| Huyen: Không sao. [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Don't worry./ Never mind. |
| Huyen: Không sao. [slowly - broken down by syllable] Không sao. [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next |
| Huyen: ngồi [natural native speed] |
| Becky: sit |
| Huyen: ngồi [slowly - broken down by syllable] ngồi [natural native speed] |
| Becky: And last |
| Huyen: Cô [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Miss/Young lady |
| Huyen: Cô [slowly - broken down by syllable] Cô [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Becky: Let’s take a closer look at some of the words and phrases from this lesson. First we have... |
| Huyen: Mời. |
| Becky: In this dialogue, this word means “please”. |
| Huyen: This is the short form of xin mời. |
| Becky: It’s added before a main verb to make a polite request but it can only be used with certain verbs. |
| Huyen: The word mời itself means “to invite”. |
| Becky: So literally, the request implied here is more like an invitation to someone to do something. In the dialogue we have... |
| Huyen: ...Mời vào. |
| Becky: “Please come in” and |
| Huyen: Mời ngồi. |
| Becky: “Please sit down.” |
| Huyen: We can also say Mời dùng bữa. |
| Becky: “Please eat.” This is very formal. Also in the dialogue, we have |
| Huyen: Cô |
| Becky: which is a common pronoun in Vietnamese. The pronoun itself means “aunt”, but it refers to any woman who is about fifteen to twenty years older than you. It can also be used to address a young lady in a very formal situation. |
| Huyen: In this case, it’s much more formal than the pronoun chị we learned in the previous lesson. |
| Becky: Okay, now onto the grammar. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Becky: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to say “sorry” in Vietnamese. |
| Huyen: Xin lỗi. |
| Becky: “Excuse me” or “I’m sorry”. For “excuse me”, it’s usually placed at the beginning of a sentence, followed by a question or a polite request. When you really want to apologize to someone for doing something, simply say... |
| Huyen: ...Xin lỗi... or ...Tôi xin lỗi, which means “I’m sorry”. |
| Becky: When someone says “sorry” to you, reply with... |
| Huyen: ...Không sao... |
| Becky: ...which means “No problem”. |
| Huyen: And when someone says Cảm ơn, you can reply with Không có gì... |
| Becky: ...which means “Not at all", or it can be understood as “you’re welcome". Let’s hear some examples.. |
| Huyen: Xin lỗi, cho tôi mượn cái bút. |
| Becky: “Excuse me, may I borrow your pen?” |
| Huyen: Xin lỗi, tôi đã quên tài liệu. |
| Becky: “Sorry, I forgot the documents.” |
| Huyen: In the dialogue we hear, Xin lỗi tôi đến muộn. |
| Becky: “I’m sorry for coming late.” |
Outro |
|---|
| Becky: Okay, that’s it for this lesson. |
| Huyen: For a review of this lesson, please check the lesson notes. |
| Becky: Thank you for listening. Remember, your comments and questions will always be welcome on the lessons page. And we’ll see you in the next lesson. Bye! |
| Huyen: Tạm biệt. |
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