Whad'ya Say?

As you might guess, communication is the largest barrier that I face on a daily basis.  Luckily, many Vietnamese can speak some English.  Much of it is broken, but with the right body language, I can usually get what I want.  For example, I went into a nice restaurant the other night, but none of the waitresses could speak English.  Everything was written in Vietnamese - no English translations or picture menus.  It was a seafood restaurant, so I drew a picture of a shrimp on the napkin.  Good thing I used to play Pictionary.  It must have worked.  I only got 3 shrimp, but I wanted 6 (they were large).  Doubling my order was tricky. I think the waitresses were amused, but probably wish that I would not return - too much trouble. 

Of course, this would not be problem if I could speak Vietnamese.  I can.  Right now my vocabulary consists of about ten words / phrases.  Hey, stop laughing.  You have no idea how hard this is.  Vietnamese is a tonal language.  I can hardly get the sound right, no matter how hard I try.  The word "ma" has about six different meanings, depending on how it is pronounced.  See what I mean?  In my defense, I already speak two languages (English & Southern).  Perhaps this is part of the problem.   

My close friends will be shocked to learn that I am actually using a cell phone in Vietnam.  I still hate them, but it's necessary for survival - especially if I get lost.  So now I get the "pleasure" of responding to calls and text messages, just like a "normal" person would.  I think that a snail crawling across the keypad could text quicker than me.  It's no wonder that our spelling is getting worse.  Technology has a unique way to make us dumber, but at least we are more efficient.  Where's the simple life?  Not in Vietnam.