Learn to talk about money
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Hello and welcome to Southern Vietnamese Survival Phrases brought to you by VietnamesePod101.com. This course is designed to equip you with the language skills and knowledge to enable you to get the most out of your visit to Southern Vietnam. You’ll be surprised at how far a little Vietnamese will go. Now, before we jump in, remember to stop by VietnamesePod101.com. There, you’ll find the accompanying PDF lesson notes and additional info in the post. If you stop by, be sure to leave us a comment. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Southern Vietnamese Survival Phrases lesson 19 - Currency in Southern Vietnamese. |
| In Vietnam, the currency is called đồng. Đồng is said in the gradually falling tone. Đồng means copper in Vietnamese. The thing is, centuries ago, coin money, which was the major type of money in Vietnam, used to be made of copper and that is why it has become the name of Vietnam's currency. |
| The foreign exchange rate goes up and down every day, but let’s use this rough equation: 1 US dollar equals 16000 đồng. So if you change $100 into Vietnamese đồng, you’re going to get like 1.6 million đồng. Wow! Hey, big spender! Now, you’re a millionaire in Vietnam, right? Well not so easy. Actually, even with this huge sum of money, you can only buy a bicycle or something like that. But the good thing is, you can buy 100 bowls of phở – the popular Vietnamese rice noodles, which means they’re about a dollar per bowl or 16000 đồng. |
| Okay, back to the money story. There are a lot of denominations of đồng. In terms of paper money, there are 11 types of bills, 100, 200, 500, 1,000, 2,000, 5,000, 10,000, 20,000, 50,000, 100,000, and 500,000 đồng. There are also five types of coins; 200, 500, 1,000, and 5,000. |
| Now, the interesting thing about Vietnamese bills is they have different colors and designs, but all of them have Ho Chi Minh on one side. I know it's tricky at first but everything has some rules and as long as you know them, it won’t be difficult anymore. I bet you will be great at shopping in Vietnam if you master this lesson. |
| In Vietnam, maybe the cheapest thing now starts at around 1000. For example, to park a motorcycle or your bike, you have to pay 1,000 or 2,000. Thousand is nghìn and falls gradually. |
| nghìn |
| nghìn |
| By simply combining a number from 1 to 9 and a thousand, you can say from 1,000 to 9,000. |
| For example: 1,000 is một nghìn. |
| một nghìn |
| 7000 - bảy nghìn |
| bảy nghìn |
| With all the rules above, you can easily say from 1001 to 9999. For example, 2345 is hai nghìn ba trăm bốn mươi lăm. |
| hai nghìn ba trăm bốn mươi lăm |
| But probably when you’re shopping, you will only have to say a number in the thousands. |
| Let’s go over them quickly. |
| 1,000 - một ngàn |
| 2,000 - hai ngàn |
| 3,000 - ba ngàn |
| 4,000 - bốn ngàn |
| 5,000 - năm ngàn |
| 6,000 - sáu ngàn |
| 7,000 - bảy ngàn |
| 8,000 - tám ngàn |
| 9,000 - chín ngàn |
| Or something in between like 5,500 - năm ngàn năm trăm. |
| The reason is 1 đồng or 10 đồng or 100 đồng buys you almost nothing. |
| So to say 10,000 or 100,000, the same rules apply. |
| 10,000 is mười ngàn. |
| 100,000 is một trăm ngàn. |
| A million is triệu. |
| So, 9 million will be chín triệu. |
| You need at least this much to buy a Honda. |
| In America, when you have a million, you’re a millionaire, you’re a king. |
Outro |
| Okay, to close out today’s lesson, we'd like for you to practice what you've just learned. I'll provide you with the English equivalent of the phrase and you're responsible for shouting it out loud. You’ll have a few seconds before I give you the answer, so, chúc may mắn, this means “good luck” in Vietnamese. |
| Okay, here we go! |
| Vietnamese currency - đồng |
| đồng |
| đồng |
| 10,000 - mười ngàn (nghìn) |
| mười ngàn (nghìn) |
| mười ngàn (nghìn) |
| 5,000 - năm ngàn (nghìn) |
| năm ngàn (nghìn) |
| năm ngàn (nghìn) |
| 7,000 - bảy ngàn (nghìn) |
| bảy ngàn (nghìn) |
| bảy ngàn (nghìn) |
| All right, that's going to do it for this lesson. Remember to stop by VietnamesePod101.com and pick up the accompanying PDF lesson notes. If you stop by, be sure to leave us a comment. Bye! |
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