I'm white. Therefore I must not speak Viet and everything that comes out of my mouth is any language other than Viet. So it's really hard to convince someone that I'm speaking her language if we're not in the context of some familiar conversation. However, a familiar conversation like a customer/shopkeeper dialogue is enough context so that my Vietnamese can be understood as language.
When I say something she expects to hear, like "how much does it cost?" she can understand my Vietnamese and will respond with some quick numbers that I repeat immediately so she knows I heard her, but it takes me several seconds after I've repeated them before I compute what I've just said and the readout of the numbers appears in my head. I'm not talking about calculating the cost in USD (which is to divide by 22,000 whatever number they gave me)...just computing the verbal sounds so that they make numbers for me in my head with the right number of zeros and commas.
So I say, in my best Da Nang din Viet, "how much?" while pointing to something I don't want. Preferably something that I already know a rough price for, so I can see whether she's going to want to gouge me or is fair-priced. She says the answer, leaving off the last three zeros. So if it costs 500,000, she says it costs 500. The smallest bill in my wallet is 1,000 Dong.
I repeat 500, keeping my facial expression from revealing that I don't yet know what I'm repeating. I hope. Finally it dawns on me that I've just repeated the words for 500, and I point to the bookshelf that I was really wanting to buy in the first place and ask again, how much? Since I now know what ballpark we're going to be in, her response makes a lot more sense to me, and I can usually know what number she says even as she's saying it. I purse my lips and look knowledgeable (I hope) and move on. Later I'll come back and ask again, but since a) I don't yet know how to say "can you go any cheaper?" and since b) bargaining doesn't really seem to be the way things are done outside of the tourist zones of the city, I don't bargain. I just pay up or walk away.
Most of my Viet so far consists of numbers and streets and trying to say the name of my foreign language college. I still get giggles on that one. Last night we had some Viet friends over (4 recent grads that we met at Vision Cafe) and they wanted to know where I bought something. I told them the name of the street: Hung Vuong. It's a pretty major street in central Da Nang, but they looked at each other confusedly. I described where it was; still confusion. Finally, and I'm not sure what tipped her off, but one of them exclaimed "Ah! Hùng Vương!" And they all repeated the exact words I'd been saying, chattering away as if they'd discovered some secret. Giggling. I often think of a quote from Mr. Bennet in Pride and Prejudice: "Ah well, what do we live for but to make sport for our neighbors, and laugh at them, in our turn." I do more providing sport for neighbors than the other way 'round, of course...
At outdoor restaurants an independent vendor of fruits and snacks often walks by, hoping to sell to the diners an appetizer or dessert to supplement their meal. I bought a leaf-wrapped packet, expecting a sticky rice of some kind inside. It turned out to be mystery meat. Pickled mystery meat.
We are learning things every day, and we are able to apply each lesson to the next experience. That same evening we were at someone's house for dinner, and the pickled mystery meat appeared again. The whole family had been watching my facial expression from the first experience and didn't need to independently verify whether they'd like it or not, and we were all able to discreetly avoid the pink, gelatinous substance while exclaiming exuberantly about the other foods on the table.
In other news, we ate frog last night.
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