Learn how to ask for help and call the police
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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 49 - Asking for Help! in Southern Vietnamese. |
| In today’s lesson, we’ll introduce you to some phrases that hopefully you won’t have to use. When traveling to Vietnam, while the threat of physical violence is not prevalent, one should always be careful. In addition, this phrase is not limited to threatening situations, but can also be used in the unfortunate event that you or someone around you is in the need of immediate assistance. Today, we'll learn how to call for help. |
| In Vietnamese "Help!" is Cứu tôi với. |
| Cứu tôi với. |
| Let’s break this down by syllable: Cứu tôi với. |
| Once again, Cứu tôi với. |
| The first word, cứu, means "help." |
| Cứu is rising. |
| cứu |
| cứu |
| This is followed by tôi, which we know means “I” or “me” and is flat. |
| tôi |
| tôi |
| The last word, với, với is rising. This word normally means "with." In this case, it is used for “help me with.” |
| So once again, với. |
| với |
| All together, we have Cứu tôi với. Literally this means "Help me!" |
| Another useful phrase for emergencies is “Call the police!” which is Gọi công an. |
| Let’s break this down by syllable: Gọi công an. |
| Once again, Gọi công an. |
| The first word, gọi, means "call" in Vietnamese. |
| gọi |
| Gọi is the sharp-falling tone. |
| gọi |
| gọi |
| This is followed by công an. |
| công an |
| Both words are flat. A fun little fact is that both words are actually borrowed from the Chinese. The first part, công, means "public." |
| công |
| công |
| This is followed by an, an which means “safety” or “security.” |
| an |
| an |
| So, công and an together means "public security," or “police.” |
| công an |
| công an |
| So all together, Gọi công an. Literally, this means "call the police." |
| By the way, the phone number for the police in Vietnam is 113. |
| If you need help, you can just say cứu, cứu, only if you can pronounce this perfectly. If you say cứu the wrong way, it can be interpreted as “penis” so the longer phrase probably works better than just saying one word. |
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! |
| “Help me!” - Cứu tôi với. |
| Cứu tôi với. |
| Cứu tôi với. |
| “Call the police.” - Gọi công an. |
| Gọi công an. |
| Gọi công an. |
| 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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