10 reasons to start learning Vietnamese

Ever thought of learning one of those amazing sounding Asian languages? What pops into the mind of most people at the beginning (including myself) is of course Chinese, Japanese and Korean. But how about one of those beautiful languages which are not thought of frequently? Such as Tagalog, Thai or Vietnamese? Imagine studying one of these languages and blowing people away by doing something totally different. Surprising them with your newly achieved skills and introducing them to a language which is so unique.

Vietnam is an amazing country and Vietnamese is an amazing language. For both beginning and advanced language learners, Vietnamese is a perfect language to study. According to the graphic below its difficulty is rated as 'medium' meaning it's significantly different from English but can be learned with some devoted studying. Since Vietnamese is not a common language being studied it's also perfect for the aspiring polyglots among us.
Now let's get to my 10 reasons to convince you even more!

1 - Vietnamese is spoken by 75 million people. which means they have more speakers worldwide than Korean!

2 -  There are large communities of Vietnamese speakers in Australia, the United States and other countries. In the US it's even the sixth most spoken language and in France it's the most spoken Asian language.

3 - Vietnamese is heavily influenced by other languages. Major influences in the early days from Chinese, later by French (through colonialism) and English (trough globalization).
Which makes it easier for you learning Vietnamese if you already speak one of these languages.

4 -  Vietnamese uses a Latin alphabet with accent markings
So that means no difficult memorizing like Chinese or Japanese.

5 - Vietnamese is a challenging language for (aspiring) polyglots, since it's probably something completely different than you're used to. However perfectly doable for beginners since it's a language of medium difficulty.

6 - There are only three accents in Vietnamese language (Northern, Southern & Central)
unlike for example Chinese which has a different accent for almost every part of the country (Yue, Wu, Min, Hakka etc.)

7 - There are only six tones in Northern Vietnamese and even fewer in the other dialects.

8 - Vietnamese, like many other Asian languages is an isolating language, which means it does not use different marking for tense, gender, number and so on.

9 - Also like many other languages (such as Japanese) it uses the SVO (subject-verb-object) word order for their sentences.

10 - And last but not least; Vietnam is a beautiful country, with great history, delicious food, and kind people who will be impressed by you speaking or even trying to speak Vietnamese.

I hoped this sparked your interest for this beautiful language.
If you want to start with Vietnamese I suggest reading my post learning Vietnamese Northern or Southern accent.

Thank you for reading!

~ mei mei

#Asianguestguide 2 - How to deal with Chinese guests - China's booming tourism industry

Chinese tourism industry
We all can't deny the fast growing industries in China and some even call it the country of prosperity and welfare. Welfare equals money, and if there is money, the hard-working Chinese can go on a holiday. The domestic tourism of China has continuously increased with 10% each year over the last decade and increases every year.
If  those facts of China's domestic tourism already leaves your mouth open, you will be surprised by hearing nearly one in ten international tourists worldwide is Chinese, which around half are leisure guests. And on top of that they spend the most in total (129 $ billion, followed by the Americans 86$ billion in 2013)!!
As I live in Europe myself, I can say that the Chinese love Europe! And here in the Netherlands they are trying to profit from the boom of Chinese tourists with new measures. From Amsterdam Schiphol Airport there are direct flights to seven Chinese cities, they hand out presents during Chinese New Year and even all luxury shops accept Chinese currency. By 2020 it is estimated that 200 million (!) Chinese will go overseas, double the number that did so last year. So the Chinese tourists DO matter.

The golden rule
So after reading this you will understand that if you work in the hospitality industry, you are very likely to get in contact with Chinese travelers. Whether they are on a business or leisure trip, you are the one that can make their stay in your country memorable.
But how can you satisfy a Chinese guest?  The golden rule is actually very simple; if you can, give them what they want. it sounds really cheesy but it's true. Even the major companies do it! If you think I'm kidding I will share a true situation which recognized the guest's need and then used this golden rule;
Emirates Airlines, the fourth-largest airline in the world, has won over the retail-crazy Chinese by simply boosting their baggage allowance.They recognized when Chinese travelers go abroad, they come home with more then when they left. So just by making a small change they won tremendous market share of the Chinese consumer.
So how can we apply this in our situation? Imagine this; you work at the front-desk and just checked in a Chinese guest (without talking too much, because he does not speak your language), the guest comes back and is obviously upset. So what now? The first rule of trying to solve an issue, is acknowledging the issue itself. When you help a guest and cannot speak their language, it's obvious that the guest has many questions because of the lack of information. To prevent this you can have a translator make simple information sheets in the language of the guest. So if you work in a hotel and have many Chinese guests while nobody speaks Chinese, a simple sheet with breakfast times, opening hours, rules and other crucial information can make the guest feel at ease. And not to mention yourself too, I know it can be quite frustrating to send a guest off without really helping them out. At least now you have some information ready and you can point things out more easily.

After the golden rule
So after you tried to help them by using the golden rule, also make note of these pointers given by the China Outbound Tourism Research Institute.

 Family name comes first, normally only one syllable (Xi Jinping)
 Status comes before gender. No 'ladies first' in China.
 66% of Chinese search the web before making a travel decision.
 It is appreciated a lot when a non-Chinese person tries to speak Chinese.
 Numbers 4 and 44 are pronounced the same way as the word for 'death'  and are therefore unlucky. They should be avoided. The number 8 has a positive connotation.


In the end it is all about trying to help your customers and respecting their culture and heritage. If you encounter many Chinese in your job, try to learn more about their culture and learn some easy phrases to connect better with them and make them feel at ease. It will cost you some time after work, but can make a huge difference in the next encounter!

I hope you enjoyed this post full of facts and pointers, next part is coming up soon. Please let me know if you would like me to cover a certain subject!

~Mei mei

#Asianguestsguide 1 - Introduction; dealing with Asian guests in the hospitality industry

I am pleased to tell you I am starting with a new blog series called 'Asian Guest Guide'. In every post I will review a particular type of guest, or guests from a specific part of Asia. For everyone working in the hospitality industry I want this to be a little guide on how you can manage with foreign guests in certain situations in this industry.

Why did I come up with this guide?
I am working as a front desk agent myself and have to deal with guests from every part of Asia on a daily basis. I worked for quite a while in a major Japanese hotel as well, which equals even more Asian guests. My family has been in the hospitality industry for many years and had their own restaurants and hotels. Even though I love the diversity of guests I see every day, I see my colleagues struggling trying to deal with the 'oh-so-difficult' Asian guests on a daily basis.
In this series I am going to simplify these situations, analyse guest profiles and share my own experiences in general.

If you have any specific situations you would like me to cover in this series, or if you have difficulties with understanding some type of guest, please let me know and I will try to analyze the situation and cover the outcome in this series.

Part one will be up soon!

~ Mei mei