My first day at school

Today is Monday 13 November 2006, and I have been to school.
I left home this morning at seven O’clock in good time to catch the No 19 bus. As I turned the corner, there was the bus, pulling out! In five seconds more I could have caught it! So I waited for another, feeling a little bit of concern. Very soon it came, only to sail on by, too full to stop! I was getting decidedly anxious by now, but a surprise third bus appeared in five minutes and I was somehow able to squeeze on board. It was really tight. A young man stood up and offered me his seat, and I gladly accepted. The folks at home don’t see that every day. The next stop was in front of a large bus station for suburban and country buses, and many people got off, so that the rest of the 25 minute trip was completed with no more squeeze. Crossing the street in front of the University I faced a torrent of motor cycles and other traffic. I remembered being told that nobody runs over pedestrians deliberately. Just wait for a slight break, and get in there at a steady pace, do not hesitate, do not rush or jump around; just keep going (and it’s OK to say your prayers as you do, it might help!). They will go around you, definitely. Of course I was on a pedestrian crossing. People try especially hard to miss you on pedestrian crossings, but not by much.
Inside the University grounds, every inch of level space was taken up with parked motor cycles, and a lesser number of bicycles. I waded through this lot to reach the very small office building for Vietnamese language for foreigners. It was filling up with new students like myself. A secretary started calling out names, and soon one group marched off with their teacher. The rest of us were told to follow another teacher. Our classroom is on the second floor, and is just big enough for the ten students and the teacher. The teacher introduced himself as Mr Truoc (I will spare you the accents).
Losing no time, Mr Truoc had introductions all round. Then he taught us the alphabet, the tones and a little vocabulary, so that we could practice an elementary conversation.
The Vietnamese are very proud of their national language and of their writing system. Two thousand years ago their ancestors had to learn Chinese in order to read and write. Finally, around the seventh century, Vietnamese scholars contrived a script of their own, known as chu nom. It was used until modern times, but it was cumbersome and did not really catch on. Finally, about 400 years ago, Christian missionaries, Jesuits no less, began writing the language in the Roman alphabet, or the Portuguese form of the Roman alphabet, adding special marks to indicate different sounds and tones. There is no f, j, w or z in Vietnamese, and a few of the letters are pronounced differently, for instance x is more like s, and s is more like sh. They still manage to have 29 letters by counting some vowels two or three times for the different sounds they have, indicated by a special mark, so that you always know the correct pronunciation. (In English we have more vowel sounds than they do, but we never indicate this with a mark.)
Altogether, not bad for two hours. Of course, the big catch is to remember it all tomorrow; that I dread. I am doing the standard course, which has six parts, and at ten hours a week would take years. Nobody pretends that Vietnamese is easy. So wish me luck!
Why would a 73 year old “retiree” want to take on a project like this? I could say that it fills up the days. But I really have plenty to fill them up already. I have decided to live here, and there is no short cut to life in this country at a meaningful level without confronting the language. It is not everything, there is much else to learn and understand, much else to do, but the language is the central piece in the culture, and the key to meaningful participation. I have been around the place for the past year on a part time basis, commuting to Europe and countries on all continents. It has been especially hectic and pressured these past few months. Two weeks ago I arrived here to stay. That international life is behind me now, and Vietnam is it.
Chào
Peace
Jeff