Learn how to make a simple phone call
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Becky: Hi everyone, and welcome back to VietnamesePod101.com. This is Beginner Season 1 Lesson 6 - Making a Phone Call in Vietnam. Becky here. |
| Huyen: Xin chào. I'm Huyen. |
| Becky: In this lesson, you’ll learn about present continuous tense in Vietnamese. The conversation takes place at the speaker's' home. |
| Huyen: It's between Nam and Linh. |
| Becky: The speakers are friends, so they will be using informal Vietnamese. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| Huyen, please record Linh’s lines. |
| Nam: A lô, Linh à? Tớ Nam đây. |
| Linh: Ôi Nam à? Lâu quá không gặp. Cậu khỏe chứ? |
| Nam: Tớ vẫn khỏe. Vừa mới chuyển việc. |
| Linh: Thế à? Giờ cậu đang làm ở đâu? |
| Nam: Tớ đang làm bên Viettel. Cậu thì thế nào? Khi nào kết hôn đấy? |
| Linh: Sắp rồi, chỉ không biết "sắp" là khi nào thôi. |
| Becky: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Nam: A lô, Linh à? Tớ Nam đây. |
| Linh: Ôi Nam à? Lâu quá không gặp. Cậu khỏe chứ? |
| Nam: Tớ vẫn khỏe. Vừa mới chuyển việc. |
| Linh: Thế à? Giờ cậu đang làm ở đâu? |
| Nam: Tớ đang làm bên Viettel. Cậu thì thế nào? Khi nào kết hôn đấy? |
| Linh: Sắp rồi, chỉ không biết "sắp" là khi nào thôi. |
| Becky: Listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| Nam: Hello Linh. It's Nam. |
| Linh: Oh, Nam? Long time no see. How are you? |
| Nam: I'm fine. I just changed my job. |
| Linh: Really? Where are you working now? |
| Nam: I'm working for Viettel. What about you? When are you gonna get married? |
| Linh: It's gonna be soon. I just don't know when "soon" is. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Becky: Huyen, what is the average marriage age in Vietnam? |
| Huyen: The average age of marriage in Vietnam used to be about 27 for men and 24 for women. |
| Becky: I think that's quite young when compared with more developed countries. |
| Huyen: That's true. Most people, especially women, think about getting married as soon as they graduate from university. |
| Becky: But recently it’s changed, right? |
| Huyen: That’s right. These days, there are more women who want to enjoy single life longer than before by spending more time doing what they like, like traveling, studying abroad, and so on. |
| Becky: So the average marriage age has also increased, right? |
| Huyen: It has. It's become around 28-29 for men and 26-27 for women. However, most people still suffer great pressure from their families if they are not married or thinking about marriage by their late 20s. |
| Becky: I see. Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Becky: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Huyen: A lô [natural native speed] |
| Becky: hello (to answer the phone) |
| Huyen: A lô[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Huyen: A lô [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Huyen: Lâu quá không gặp [natural native speed] |
| Becky: long time no see |
| Huyen: Lâu quá không gặp[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Huyen: Lâu quá không gặp [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Huyen: khỏe [natural native speed] |
| Becky: fine |
| Huyen: khỏe[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Huyen: khỏe [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Huyen: vừa mới [natural native speed] |
| Becky: just |
| Huyen: vừa mới[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Huyen: vừa mới [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Huyen: giờ [natural native speed] |
| Becky: now |
| Huyen: giờ[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Huyen: giờ [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Huyen: làm [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to do, to work |
| Huyen: làm[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Huyen: làm [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Huyen: ở đâu [natural native speed] |
| Becky: where |
| Huyen: ở đâu[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Huyen: ở đâu [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Huyen: kết hôn [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to get married |
| Huyen: kết hôn[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Huyen: kết hôn [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Huyen: sắp [natural native speed] |
| Becky: soon |
| Huyen: sắp[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Huyen: sắp [natural native speed] |
| Becky: And last.... |
| Huyen: khi nào [natural native speed] |
| Becky: when |
| Huyen: khi nào[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Huyen: khi nào [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Becky: Let's have a closer look at some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Huyen: khỏe |
| Becky: which means“fine.” You can use it to talk about a person's health or strength. |
| Huyen: We often use it with adverbs in such expressions as vẫn khỏe... |
| Becky: “still fine” |
| Huyen: Or as in rất khỏe |
| Becky: which means “very good, very strong.” |
| Huyen: Or, in a phrase, we also say Bạn có khỏe không? |
| Becky: It’s like "How are you?" in English but you can only use it when you meet someone for the very first time. Okay, what's the next word? |
| Huyen: vừa mới, |
| Becky: which means "just." You can use this adverb to express an action that happened just before the time of speaking. |
| Huyen: You can use vừa alone without saying mới. It still has the same meaning as vừa mới. |
| Becky: Huyen, can you give us an example using this word? |
| Huyen: Sure. Họ vừa mới chuyển đi nơi khác. |
| Becky: .. which means “They have just moved to another place.” Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
| Becky: In this lesson, you'll learn how to use the present continuous tense in Vietnamese. Unlike many languages, verbs in Vietnamese are not conjugated, which means they never alter their forms to make different tenses. |
| Huyen: Instead, we add extra words. These are called “helping verbs.” We put them in front of the main verbs to create their past, present, and future forms. |
| Becky: To understand it easily, you can think of saying “did eat” instead of “ate” in English. The verb doesn’t change, but you need to add “did” or “will” to mark it as future or past. And here’s a question, Huyen. How do you create the present continuous tense in Vietnamese? |
| Huyen: That's simple. Just add the verb đang, which means “in progress” or “in the process of,” in front of the main verb. It shows that the action is happening right now. |
| Becky: So we can add it between the subject and the main verb, right? |
| Huyen: Yes. The structure will be.. Subject...đang...main verb... object |
| Becky: Okay, Listeners, let's compare two sentences. First the simple present tense and then the present continuous tense. |
| Huyen: Here they are. Tôi xem ti vi and Tôi đang xem ti vi |
| Becky: “I watch TV” and “I’m watching TV.” |
| Huyen: The only difference between these two sentences is the đang placed after the subject. Tôi đang xem ti vi has the word đang and it makes the main verb in the present continuous tense. |
| Becky: That sounds easy! Huyen, can you give us more sample sentences? |
| Huyen: Sure. An đang đọc sách. |
| Becky: “An is reading a book.” |
| Huyen: If you say An đọc sách without đang, it means “An reads a book.” |
| Becky: Okay, then what about “someone is eating a cake”? |
| Huyen: In that case, you can say.. Bách đang ăn bánh. |
| Becky: “Bach is eating a cake.” |
| Huyen: Or, about studying, you can say.. Họ đang học về tài chính. |
| Becky: “They are studying finance.” |
| Huyen: You can also use đang before adjectives to describe the speaker’s current state or feeling. |
| Becky: For example… |
| Huyen: Cô ấy đang bận. |
| Becky: Literally, “She is being busy.” |
Outro |
| Becky: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Huyen: Cảm ơn các bạn. |
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