You live a new life for every new language you speak. (a Czech proverb) Language and culture have fascinated me since the age of 6 when I used to listen to foreign languages on a shortwave radio (around 1962). My fascination led to a passion for learning over 30 languages during the past 5 decades and discovering new cultures along with their unique worldviews in 99 countries around the globe. As a professor of cross-cultural management at Japanese, US, Chinese (Shanghai and Taipei), and Thai universities for 32 years I have written extensively on foreign language acquisition and cultural adaptation. The goal of this RU-vid channel is to share that knowledge with all who love diverse languages and cultures.
Please subscribe to our channel and embark on this exciting adventure together. Let Polyglot Dreams be your source of inspiration as we explore the power of languages and the richness of cultures that make our world truly extraordinary. 有難う御座います
I am Vietnamese 🇻🇳 What are you nationality? Are you love Vietnam ? I hope you have an idea how much you enjoy traveling in Vietnam the most in the world
I list all pronouns here and when to use it and how to use it properly in case you guys need it or to figure out how confusing it is () 1st note: Every pronouns have to use according to your genders and genders of the person you are talking to. We have pronouns to call other people and to refer to yourself but in this note i would list all pronouns you use when speaking Vietnamese or at least Vietnamese in the North - Use Chị/Cô/Dì/Mợ/Thím/Bà (Female) - Use Anh/Thầy/Chú/Ông (Male) - Unisex pronouns: Mày, Tao, Tớ, Cậu, Bạn, Mình, Bác, Cụ I. A person who is younger than you: + Cháu: When that person is so much younger than, you for example you are 20 and he/she is 5 years old =>Pronouns you use to refer to yourself: 1. Chú, Cô, Dì, Thím -In case you seem to be younger or as old as his/her parents- 2. Bác -In case you are seem to be older than his parents Note: Chú/Bác - Cô/Bác/Dì/Thím can be flexible Ông, Bà - in case you are little younger/as old as/older than his/her grandfather/mother Cụ - in case you older than his grandfather/mother or as old as his/her great grandfather/mother *In reverse if you are that younger person then you have to use pronoun "Cháu" to refer to yourself and all below pronouns to refer to the person you are talking to + Em/Mày (Insulting or when you are close to that person): When that person is younger than you but not too younger and you definitely can tell him/her is younger => Pronouns you use to refer to you: Anh, Chị, Tao (Insulting or only when you are very close to that person) * When you use Mày to call him/her you can use Anh/Chị/Tao to refer to you but when you use Em to call him/her you can only use Anh/Chị to refer to yourself *In reverse if you are that younger person you have to use Em to refer to yourself and use Anh/Chị to call the person you are talking to. () 2nd note: Never use Tao/Mày except when you guys are very close and that older one feel comfortable being like that. But this is really rare when that one is older than you II. A person who is in or around your age + Bạn/Cậu/Mày (same age), Anh/Chị (Not knowing if youger/as old/older and want to respect) *Note: When you use pronoun Mày to call that person you have to use pronoun Tao to refer to you, only when you guys are close => Pronouns to refer to you: 1. Tôi and call him/her Bạn 2. Em and call him/her Anh/Chị 3. Mình and call him/her Cậu 4. Tao and call him/her Mày III. In studying ( school/college/university ) + Use pronouns Thầy, Cô to call your teacher => Use Em to refer to yourself Above is the standard way to use pronouns in society in the North and enough to speak Vietnamese. Different regions comes with different pronouns, just cant know all. In family, pronouns get more confusing but basically still those pronouns, just different in way using it. Even Vietnamese got lost and sometime members in family argue how to call each other 😁
Dziękuję for your inspiring videos! Every time I think of quitting to learn "po polsku", because I cannot wrap my brain around it as a German, I watch one of your videos and keep on. The start is easy, then grammar almost kills you, but once you start speaking it gets better.
Hello Mr. Thank you for compare and contrast the language/tone/accent in different region of vn. The Vietnamese language and vocabularies are much different before the 1975 compare to now. Nowadays a lot of nonsense/ignorant vocabularies that the communist regime added to the Vietnamese language in the last 20-30 years. Great video, yes the Vietnamese language is very difficult….. thank you
Many languages are similar but come on you need to learn thousands of words it takes hundreds to thousands of hours of consuming content in the given language. Grammar is easy in these languages (compared to for example russian (extreme example) and even german languages as there are so many exceptions)
I felt sorry for learners of Japanese language by looking at this video espacially on keigo, kenjogo and sonkei go .. our language should be super annoying..
I am a native Japanese speaker and I also speak Chinese and some Korean. Between Chinese and Japanese, Chinese is much easier to learn. This is because Chinese has no verb conjugations, so you can construct sentences like arranging dominoes. On the other hand, Japanese has significant changes in word order and verb conjugations. Korean and Japanese are similar, but I think Korean is easier to study because it has fewer variations in characters.
I’m a native Polish speaker and I have never formally studied Russian. However, I watch some Russian RU-vidrs and I can understand most of what is being said without subtitles. Of course sometimes there are words I have to look up but I suppose that is to be expected.
Wow, this was a very thorough analysis. As a learner of Vietnamese and a teacher of English, I appreciate how accurately you framed everything. Especially pronouns and vowels. My wife's family are from Quảng Nam in central Vietnam and it's almost like having to learn the entire IPA vowel chart to learn each dialect of Vietnamese.
Now Ukrainian reality is from me. In Ukraine, more than 75% of people speak Russian in everyday life, with some insertions of Ukrainian words. This language is called Surzhik. Ukrainian is used only on TV and as a political language. 100% of Ukrainians understand Russian. Even residents of western Ukraine. Ukrainian is used in everyday life by no more than 25% of Ukrainians. Although this figure is most likely less. Recently, because of the war, people specifically speak Ukrainian, but it’s more like a flash mob that is gradually passing. Even the most notorious Ukrainian nationalists speak Russian at home. This is very funny. If you ask Ukrainians what their native language is, they will answer Ukrainian. This answer will be given even by those who have spoken only Russian all their lives. Therefore, all these Ukrainian polls mean nothing in reality. Moreover, if you find yourself among Ukrainian refugees in any country, you will be convinced that outside the cells they will also speak only Russian. Russian and Ukrainian are two branches of the Old Russian language.
My first foreign language i was forced to learn german. I am comfortable in speaking german, and can understand when someone speaks fast. After that i started learning Spanish, 3 months later i can have not so fluent but long conversations with spanish speakers. after 6 months or more i will hop on to portuguese while still learning spanish. I cannot express how joyful it is to learn new language. How i learn spanish is simple. I am busy person, so i walk to work everyday and listen to audio course on spanish. This way i get my both physical and mental workout
You’ve spent so many years studying Slavic languages, and you have not managed to learn that Ukraine has no article THE, that its capital is Kyiv, not Kiev, and that the language of Belarus is Belarusian, not belorussian ? Wow! Such a scholar!
As China is going to be more aggressive, the relationship with most of democracy countries is getting worse everyday, and their economy is also getting worse everyday, I don't think learning Chinese is a good idea nowadays. When I want to learn a new language, the most important thing is, I really need to learn this language or I want to learn this language to find more opportunity.
Thank so much Over thousands of years, many writing styles have changed, Chinese characters, variations of Chinese characters, Latin characters, but Vietnamese voice has not changed at all. For example, in the past, we held documents in Chinese but copied and read them in Vietnamese. Now we use Latin but the voice has not changed, Vietnamese is an important part that helps us preserve our identity and maintain our independence.
The tonal variations between Northern, Central and Southern Vietnamese accents, I like to compare them to the UK English - "proper" British (Northern), Irish (Southern) vs Scottish / Welsh (Central). The Central dialect is difficult, in the same way most English speakers have a hard time understanding Welsh or Scottish "English". There's also accented variants - like Bac 54 (North 54) - those who fled North Vietnam to the South in 1954, when Vietnam was divided. You'll find a lot of the Vietnamese diaspora (refugee / migrant communities) in Western countries - like US, Europe, Australia etc, speak mostly this Bac 54 accent - it's also considered the most "correct" pronunciation of the Vietnamese language - because Northerners often don't pronounce properly the "r" and have a z pronunciation for r, "d" (there are 2 d's in the Vietnamese alphabet) and "gi" - while the South tend to not pronounce their Vs properly (instead it sounds like a y sound) and pronounce their n and nh as the English ng Examples: in Southern Vietnamese pronunciations, Thien (sky/heaven) sounds like Thieng, Anh (big brother) sounds like the English "Ang" and Viet Nam is spoken as Yiet Nam, or vui (happy) sounds like youi.
I was surprise when i knew students have to learn a lot of grammars and vocabulary many years in their school in USA. We learn spelling Vietnamese language and basic grammars such as question phase, negative sentence, comma, period. all those just for basic not dive deep, Correct writing is emphasized gather than pronunciation in school. After 2nd grade we are no longer learn grammars and vocabulary. We have main subject in school is literature which learn everyday. reading essays and the teacher guides how to write essays and then correct it. We have to do it for the remaining 10 years of school. That how we learn to know to describe and say things logical. I just say we don't have gramma technically as long as we say and write it logical, make sense and enough information. Concepts such as present continuous, past perfect, ect ... those are very new to us. I don't know how about other languages.
As a Czech....have you seen the grammar of slavic languages....Like almost all of us have weird rules. Still I hate that these two: i, y have the same pronunciation and you have to remember all the rules. 😑
The pronoun system is very complicated. Not every family adopts the same system. The North and the South got their own systems and sub-systems. I have to face a bigger challenge than most Vietnamese for being half-Chinese 😂 The relatives on the Chinese side, the relatives on Vietnamese side 😂
Whatever anyone says the mother language of all slavic languages is old Bulgarian or the so called "Church Slavonic ". But Bulgarian has evolved alot over time and now russian sounds more old Bulgarian that regular nowadays Bulgarian does. Respect Bulgaria, the mother of all slavic languages 🇧🇬♥️♥️♥️
