Dialogue

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Vocabulary (Review)

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Lesson Notes

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Lesson Transcript

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 41 - Buying Phone Cards in Southern Vietnam.
While most people wouldn’t or couldn’t step outside without their cell phones, when visiting another country, sometimes, it’s a little too far for your local carrier. In recent years, you can rent a cell phone when you get to Vietnam and we’ll cover this in another lesson, but the good old payphone is still an option when you’re travelling in Vietnam.
Public phones in Vietnam take phone cards. You can buy phonecards ranging from 30,000 đồng to 150,000 đồng. Today, we’ll work on asking for them. You can purchase the phone cards at street kiosks, convenience stores, book stores, and post offices.
Now before asking for a card, you may want to find out if they have the cards. So in Vietnamese, "Do you have phone cards?" is Có bán thẻ điện thoại không?
Có bán thẻ điện thoại không?
Let’s break this down by syllable: Có bán thẻ điện thoại không?
Once again, Có bán thẻ điện thoại không?
The first word and the last word, có - không, có - không should be a review and are a pair used to ask a yes or no question.
có - không
có - không
Có is rising and không is flat.
The word after có is thẻ, thẻ which is the Vietnamese word for "card."
Thẻ is rising-falling.
thẻ
thẻ
This is followed by điện thoại, điện thoại, which means "phone."
Điện thoại are both the low tone.
điện thoại
điện thoại
So all together, we have Có bán thẻ điện thoại không?
Có bán thẻ điện thoại không?
Literally this means "Do you have public phone cards?"
The answer to this will be either "yes" có or "no" không.
In the case that they have the cards, you want to ask for one of the denominations we talked about. Let’s start with the 30,000 đồng card. In Vietnamese, “A 30,000 dong card, please” is Cho tôi một thẻ ba mươi ngàn (nghìn).
Cho tôi một thẻ ba mươi ngàn (nghìn).
Let’s break this down by syllable: Cho tôi một thẻ ba mươi ngàn (nghìn).
Once again, Cho tôi một thẻ ba mươi ngàn (nghìn).
The first word, cho, means "give."
cho
cho
This is followed by tôi, tôi, which is Vietnamese for "I, me or myself."
The next word một, một means "one."
This is followed by thẻ, thẻ, which we already know means "card."
Ba mươi nghìn
Ba mươi nghìn
Ba mươi nghìn simply means "30,000."
So all together we have - Cho tôi một thẻ ba mươi nghìn.
Cho tôi một thẻ ba mươi nghìn.
Literally, this means "Give me a 30,000 dong card" or in other words "A 30,000 dong telephone card, please."
Let’s take a look at the other denominations.
50,000 = năm mươi nghìn
năm mươi nghìn
năm mươi nghìn
100,000 = một trăm nghìn
một trăm nghìn
một trăm nghìn
150,000 = một trăm năm mươi nghìn
một trăm năm mươi nghìn
một trăm năm mươi nghìn
So for example: “A 50,000 dong card, please.” Cho tôi một thẻ năm mươi nghìn.
Cho tôi một thẻ năm mươi nghìn.
Cho tôi một thẻ năm mươi nghìn.

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!
“Do you have phonecards?” - Có bán thẻ điện thoại không?
Có bán thẻ điện thoại không?
Có bán thẻ điện thoại không?
“A 30,000 dong card, please.” - Cho tôi một thẻ ba mươi ngàn (nghìn)
Cho tôi một thẻ ba mươi ngàn (nghìn).
Cho tôi một thẻ ba mươi 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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