Learn some common Vietnamese idioms
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Intro |
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| Michael: What are some common Vietnamese idioms? |
| Nguyet: And how are they used? |
| Michael: At VietnamesePod101.com, we hear these questions often. In the following situation, Karen Lee hears an idiom she's not familiar with. She asks Duc Do: |
| "What does "Ten people, ten opinions" mean?" |
| Karen Lee: "Mười người mười ý" có nghĩa là gì? |
| Dialogue |
| Karen Lee: "Mười người mười ý" có nghĩa là gì? |
| Đức Đỗ: Nó có nghĩa là "tất cả mọi người đều có chính kiến riêng của họ." |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Karen Lee: "Mười người mười ý" có nghĩa là gì? |
| Michael: "What does "Ten people, ten opinions" mean?" |
| Đức Đỗ: Nó có nghĩa là "tất cả mọi người đều có chính kiến riêng của họ." |
| Michael: "It means "everybody has their own tastes."" |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: In this lesson, we'll talk about idiomatic expressions, or |
| Nguyet: Thành ngữ |
| Michael: Idiomatic expressions, or idioms for short, are expressions with a meaning that's very different from the individual words that compose them. We use idioms if we want to convey what would be a long message using as few words as possible. A good example for this is the English "a piece of cake," meaning that something is very easy. It's important to learn idioms when studying a new language like Vietnamese, as they provide a window into better understanding a culture and its people. |
| [Recall 1] |
| Michael: Let's take a closer look at the dialogue. |
| Do you remember how Karen Lee said "What does "Ten people, ten opinions" mean?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Nguyet: "Mười người mười ý" có nghĩa là gì? |
| [Recall 2] |
| Michael: Now let's take a look at our second sentence. |
| Do you remember how Duc Do says "It means "everybody has their own tastes?"" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Nguyet: Nó có nghĩa là "tất cả mọi người đều có chính kiến riêng của họ." |
| Michael: This is a common idiom that you might find in other cultures other than Vietnamese. What it means to convey is that you have to be careful who you listen to when it comes to important matters. This is one saying you should seriously consider or you might end up like |
| Nguyet: Cá nằm trên thớt |
| Michael: or "Fish on the chopping board." This is another common Vietnamese idiom. It describes a hopeless situation, a situation like that of a fish ready to be chopped into pieces. |
| [Summary] |
| Michael: In this lesson, you've learned that idiomatic expressions, or |
| Nguyet: Thành ngữ, |
| Michael: are expressions with a figurative meaning used to help the speaker get their message across better. |
| Expansion/Contrast |
| Michael: So far, we have covered a couple of idiomatic expressions that are commonly used in Vietnamese. But, don't worry, because we have more examples for you. Here's the first one: |
| Nguyet: Lời nói là bạc, im lặng là vàng. |
| Michael: It means, "Speech is silver, silence is golden." This idiom is sometimes shortened to |
| Nguyet: Im lặng là vàng. |
| Michael: or "Silence is golden." Both mean that, while words are important like silver, it is often better to stay silent and say nothing at all. This reminds us of a proverb that goes, "When words are many, sin is not absent." You can impress people with many words, but you can never go wrong by keeping quiet when you have nothing too valuable to say. A similar idiom would be |
| Nguyet: Uốn lưỡi bảy lần trước khi nói. |
| Michael: which means, "Curl your tongue seven times before speaking." Here's another common Vietnamese idiom: |
| Nguyet: Đứng núi này, trông núi nọ |
| Michael: This literally translates as "Standing on this mountain but looking over the other one." This idiom stands for when someone is not satisfied with what he or she has, and thinks that other people's situations are better. The English equivalent to this idiom would be "the grass is always greener on the other side." |
| Our next idiom is |
| Nguyet: Vụng chèo khéo chống |
| Michael: This one means, "Bad at rowing the boat but good at pushing it." In life, there are things that we are really good at, and there are things that, well, we're not supposed to be doing. This is what this idiom is all about. This may sound encouraging, but what the idiom really conveys is that there are people who are bad at doing what they're supposed to do but are good at distracting people and making excuses. Now, onto our next idiom: |
| Nguyet: đều như vắt tranh |
| Michael: This means, "consistent as squeezing grass into bunches." Grass here refers to raw materials that Vietnamese people used to build roofs in the past. They would use a type of grass called |
| Nguyet: cỏ tranh |
| Michael: and tie it as tightly and as consistently as possible to avoid water getting through. Speaking of water, here's our final Vietnamese idiom: |
| Nguyet: Vắt cổ chày ra nước. |
| Michael: This one is literally, "Water can be wrung from a wooden pounder." Obviously, you can't squeeze water out of a wooden pounder. What this idiom means is that someone is being so stingy that one would expect to squeeze water from an unlikely source than for that stingy person to lend money or extend help. |
| Cultural Insight/Expansion |
| Michael: Vietnamese people are among the most patriotic people in Southeast Asia. They are very proud of their heritage too, and would do their best to protect their nation. One idiom that we can think of in relation to this is |
| Nguyet: Mèo khen mèo dài đuôi, |
| Michael: which means "Cat praises cat's tail for being long." This idiom points out that people have a natural tendency to think about themselves or to have a preference for those who belong to their family, region, or country. The idiom itself may have a negative connotation, but when used to describe the nationalism of the Vietnamese people, it's clear that it can have a positive application after all. |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We're here to answer them! |
| Nguyet: Tạm biệt! |
| Michael: See you soon! |
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