Speaking Vietnamese

Yesterday, I went out in my neighborhood to buy some vegetables for salad and a new broom because our house is in dire need of sweeping and our last broom has been relegated to the porch due it's sorry condition. When I got to our vegetable lady's stand, the younger of the two women (it is run by an elderly woman and her adult daughter), greeted me with a warm smile and a "you haven't been here for a long time," or "it's been a long time since we've seen you" or something to that effect - I only understand the Vietnamese phrase for "long time." I just smiled and wished I could say, "It's only been four days!" but my rudimentary Vietnamese doesn't include the word only, although I can say four days.


As I was picking out our vegetables, she started up a chatty conversation with me, something she's begun in the past few weeks since she learned that 1) I am pregnant and 2) I can speak a few words of Vietnamese. The first thing she asked me had something to do with exercise - I know that word. I had just come back from the track and was in my running clothes, so I guessed she was asking if I had just come from exercising. I repeated the phrase for exercise, nodding and pointing in the direction of the track. She then made a circling motion with her hand and asked how many - as in how many laps, I presumed. I managed to say, "One day - 10, one day 12." "It depends on the day and how I feel and whether or not Steven is there to motivate me," was outside of my range of vocabulary.

While I waited for her to weigh my vegetables, another woman walked up and started talking to her about me (something I guess based on the fact that they were both looking at me as they talked). The vegetable woman held up my vegetables and said something about Vietnamese or American, so I presumed that they were asking if I cooked Vietnamese food or American food, but not knowing how to say, "salad," I just said "American," but I wasn't exactly sure what I was answering to. They continued to talk to me and finally I had to say that I didn't understand. They continued the conversation with each other and my vegetable lady handed me my bag. She told me 12,000, and I handed her a 20,000, but stopped her saying that, I had a 2,000 for her as well because I know how much they hate to give up their small change. The woman who had come up to the stand smiled approvingly at my meager Vietnamese, but I left wishing that I could have a conversation beyond the price of my purchases.

I walked down the alley, through a little cross alley and into 18B, an alley adjacent to our main alley, that also leads back to our house. I went to the shop where we regularly buy fry staples like toilet paper, rice and laundry detergent and pointed at a broom, asking how much. The woman told me 28,000 and I handed her 30,000. As she handed me my change, I thanked her and she smiled, saying in Vietnamese, "You speak Vietnamese!" and I gave my usual reply, "just a little."

Walking home with my bag of vegetables and my new broom over my arm, I thought how pathetic my meager Vietnamese vocabulary is after a year and a half and how much richer this experience would be if I could actually really communicate with the people around me. Previously, I had been proud that I had enough to get around and accomplish basic transactions, but now I realize that survival Vietnamese is simply that. It allows you to survive, but not to really participate in life. I need to start studying again.