Sawasdee! Hello! Xin Chào! Another greeting word adding this year because we, Globish, have just expanded our journey to Vietnam! So, we must know something about them to talk to them right? The greeting is one of the common things to do when we first meet someone or starting the conversation. So, this content will be presenting some ideas in class with our new students. Shall we start? 

• It is fine to ask which part of Vietnam that the students are from? Many famous cities that are interesting to know in Vietnam such as:

- Hanoi, the capital city of Vietnam 

- Ho Chi Minh City, a tourist destination and center of business industry 

- Da Nang, a famous tourist destination

- Da Lat, also a famous tourism destination 

• They also get K-Pop influences such as music, TV-series, or fashion. Chinese TV-series. feel free to ask them
• Football 

Greeting words in Vietnamese!

Xin Chào means “hello”. Some might say it could be simply just “chào” but Vietnamese also have the level of language which is used in different situations. It can be used at any time of the day as morning or evening. For example, Xin chào Kate! means Hello, Kate and Smile - it is a universal ice-breaking. 

Bạn có khỏe không? means How are you? 

Tạm biệt means “Good bye”. 

Hẹn gặp lại! means See you later 

Cảm ơn means Thank you 

Rất vui được gặp lại bạn means Nice to see you again 

Thật tốt khi được gặp bạn means It is nice to meet you 

Không có gì means “You’re welcome” 

Tôi xin lỗi means Sorry 

Plus, here are some resources that might be interesting for greeting and conversation.

Learn Vietnamese in 30 minutes - ALL the Basics You Need

Vietnamese Number >> This one is quite catchy. I think one of their clips has been viral

Top 25 Vietnamese Verbs

These are only some of the simple words that the coach could use to start the conversation or ice-braking. You can also ask the student the pronunciation of the words for them and apply these in the class, or other interesting words.

Once Globish had been introduced to Vietnamese people, the Coach Management Team was also interested in Vietnamese people’s perspective towards English. So, besides the small greeting, we also had an interview with Miss Van Anh Nguyen, the Freelance Journalist in Vietnam, who shared with us about their perspective towards the English language, also for us, to get to know them a little bit more...

“English is important for Vietnamese, and they are very ambitious when it comes to the job. To have a better job, they want to prepare themselves for languages.” Van said when I asked about the Vietnamese people’s perspective towards English.  

Since Vietnam is one of the countries in ASEAN that many international and foreign company investing in, especially in the manufacturing or industrial unit. So, I also asked about this.

Van: The competition and demand are quite high. The company is looking for a freshman, and English currently is the must requirement. Once the company interviews, there will be basic questions. Sometimes, the certificate doesn’t mean that they can speak English. Especially young people, they do not really know how to speak English because education is not really good...

Van also added on “Big city, like Saigon, you have to communicate with international companies. It depends a lot on the company. The report for normal companies still works a lot on the English language such as writing to customers. So, it is also possible that the demand is to write more than speaking..”

Besides the employment and trend of using English in Vietnam, how about the tourism industry?  

Van: Because Vietnam is a tourist country, young people are now more interactive with tourism. They can speak very well in English.

Van also added on “At the same time, some people working with the foreigner, working for the international newspaper or guide, have to be fluent in English, I think they can write but they cannot speak well. People in Saigon, Hanoi, tend to speak English quite fluently..” 

Right now, it is quite interesting to know the tendency of employment in Vietnam. So Van mentioned to Banking and Marketing, a Vietnamese bank, a Chinese bank, Singapore bank, a British bank, as well as exporting and importing as foreign investors from China. 

Talk about China, so are there any influences toward employment in Vietnam? 

Van: Chinese speaking is also in high demand now. There are more and more people who want to study. The current situation is like speaking English and speaking a little bit of Chinese. Only some people, I think.

As we mentioned, the English language does affect employment in many countries such as in ASEAN, that is what Globish also sees the possibility there, and with our willingness to improve them is like a small cog in their big wheels! Let's do this together and 'til next time!

Enjoy Teaching!