Anh/Chị có khoẻ không

(That means how are you?) Giving in to the reality that I wasn't going to get very far teaching myself the Vietnamese language (tiếng Việt) from a phrase book, I have sensibly enlisted the help of a Vietnamese teacher. My first meeting with Thu (pronounced Two) was a laid back affair in which we exchanged brief life stories and discussed what i hoped to learn from the lessons. It was nice to know that Thu was as keen to improve my non-existent language skills as she was to share cultural knowledge and local history tales. She said she was also happy to go out for coffee and dinner together whenever I had 'free-time' to help practice my new lingo! The easy thing about tiếng Việt is that there is very little grammar or rigid word order structure to follow, the bad thing is the range of pronunciation and the multiple meanings of identical words. It's hard as well because in English we use intonation to convey feeling, but here tones are extremely important for clearly defining which word you want to say. For example tôi means 'I' but tối (with a different accent and pronunciation) means 'dark'. I have to admit my attempts thus far have provoked many confused expressions. I'm hoping that what I do manage to say doesn't stray too far from what I intend and end up offending someone. It is really nice to be able to exchange pleasantries especially with my landlords. The other day I was so excited to be able to say 'pretty flower' at a bouquet my landlady was carrying in to the house! She had to correct my pronunciation but definitely appreciated my effort ha. In the meantime i am determined to keep at it, even if it is just to entertain the locals.