[tomcat007]

Originally Posted by bonbonbebe

If bro can speak Mandarin, so what troubles with tieng Viet tones? Any bro here can use Mandarin, so for sure that u bros will speak TV 地道, with the Northern accent. If u bro can speak Cantonese or Hokkien, Southern accent and HCMC accent is not any problem here!

Sis,

This is from my Hanoi girl... Is it true that Northern TV is understood throughout Viet Nam whereas HCMC TV is only understood in HCMC only?

Personally I find having to learn the 29 alphabets, 6 tones a bit difficult. Granted, I believe if I put in effort, I'm sure learning to speak TV fluently is achievable.

One more thing I want to ask is... (since you're quite educated and don't think those long hair dictionary roaming the streets will know the answer)..

When I started going Viet pubs, my friends all tell me TV very funny one. A lot of time, it's spoken the other way around. For eg. "my sister" in English becomes "sister my" in TV. "Phone number" in English becomes "number phone" in TV. Was listening to this song "Mother's Love" (TV name: Tinh Me), again other way round. Again, as TET is around the corner, "New Spring" becomes "Spring new" in TV.

This somehow presents another type of difficulty when trying to compose a proper TV sentence without causing the reader to suffer from stomach cramp (from laughing, obviously).

Is there any reason (culturally or otherwise) why sentences / phrases is being structured in this manner? I'm asking you since you're one of the more education VB that I've encountered.

Look forward to your advice.