Making Out in Vietnamese. Peter Constantine
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Revised Edition
PETER CONSTANTINE,
revised by TON-THAT QUYNH-DU
TUTTLE Publishing
Tokyo | Rutland, Vermont | Singapore
The Tuttle Story: "Books to Span the East and West"
Most people are surprised to learn that the world's largest publisher of books on Asia had its humble beginnings in the tiny American state of Vermont. The company's founder, Charles E. Tuttle, belonged to a New England family steeped in publishing. And his first love was naturally books— especially old and rare editions.
Immediately after WW II, serving in Tokyo under General Douglas MacArthur, Tuttle was tasked with reviving the Japanese publishing industry. He later founded the Charles E. Tuttle Publishing Company, which thrives today as one of the world's leading independent publishers.
Though a westerner, Tuttle was hugely instrumental in bringing a knowledge of Japan and Asia to a world hungry for information about the East. By the time of his death in 1993, Tuttle had published over 6,000 books on Asian culture, history and art—a legacy honored by the Japanese emperor with the "Order of the Sacred Treasure," the highest tribute Japan can bestow upon a non-Japanese.
With a backlist of over 1,500 titles, Tuttle Publishing is more active today than at any time in its past—inspired by Charles Tuttle's core mission to publish fine books to span the East and West and provide a greater understanding of each.
Published by Tuttle Publishing, an imprint of Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd.
Copyright © 1998 Peter Constantine
Copyright © 2004 Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior written permission from the publisher.
LCC Card No. 2009464795
ISBN: 978-1-4629-1360-2 (ebook)
16 15 14 13 12 9 8 7 6 5
1211CP
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Contents
1. What's Up?
6. I Like It
8. Party Talk
10. Lovers' Language
11. Farewell
12. The Other Side
Introduction
Making Out in Vietnamese is your guide to the trendy, upbeat, and colloquial Vietnamese spoken on the streets of Ho Chi Minh City.
In eleven easy chapters, this book will introduce you to the simple language you need to meet people, eat out, shop—even paint the town red or fall in love. There are no long-winded exercises, no complex rules, no verb drills! Whether you are a novice in Vietnamese or already have some working knowledge of the language, this book will put hundreds of handy expressions at your fingertips.
Making Out in Vietnamese goes a step beyond textbook Vietnamese. Besides teaching you what to say in your day-today dealings, it also tells you what expressions are too risqué to handle. This is the first book to candidly print some of the sharpest insults on the Vietnamese scene, insults that would easily throw a New York or London taxi driver.
As language lives, breathes, and changes with the times, it remains in every sense a mirror of a culture. Making Out in Vietnamese captures the living language of a country that is only now opening to the West: in Ho Chi Minh City you might take a sip of three-lizard liquor while listening to nhac rap— Vietnamese rap music. The words and phrases used by Vietnam's younger generation gives us a glimpse into the everyday life of an old, rich culture attuning itself to the modern world.
The standard southern dialect used throughout the book, although different from the Hanoi dialect, is readily understood throughout Vietnam.
Hanoi, for example, says bwít (bwéet) for "bus," while Ho Chi Minh City says béet.
Hanoi says chúk (chóok) "a little," Ho Chi Minh City says chút (chóot).