Vietnam Festival

Vietnam Festival was held at Yoyogi Park for 3 days: 19-21 Sep. I was concerned about the typhoon but luckily it didn't arrive Tokyo.

I was planning to go on the last day when Lam Truong was supposed to be singing on stage. However suddenly I was offered a job for an ad of Int'l SMS service.

Unlike my thought, all the Vietnamese people I approached asked so many questions in a mixed language of Vietnamese & Japanese. Of course some of them spoke Japanese fluently but not all. I had to try really hard to remember all the Vietnamese words I learned a long ago, in order to catch their attention to the brochure. That was the reason I was tired after this whole day, not that I was standing all afternoon handing out the papers.

Several hours had passed when I realized myself laughing among a group of Vietnamse people saying Vietnamese jokes to each other. It was a very nice moment to remember the satisfied feeling of understanding each other by using a common language; even though, of course, language is not the only way to understand each other; but it helped to build a trust and a feeling of security or reassurance which then helped to develop a conversation after having givin each other's first impression in your mind.

Pity I missed Lam Truong but I earned something much deeper instead.

Hop Tac Xa ～ Vietnamese Slang

Railway Story is one of my favourite TV shows. The series last week was about Vietnam Railway; reportage throughout 40h trip from Sai Gon to Ha Noi.

Not to mention that the content was satisfying but I was rather paying attention to the staff members' list shown at the ending of the programme.

My eyes spotted at 'Hop Tac Xa ... Vietnam' which seemed a familiar name to me.

Hop Tac Xa = 合作社　(Hop=合 Tac=作 Xa=社)

The real meaning of the term is 'Corporative' where everything is shared and split evenly.

Then after a while I realized it was a slang in Vietnamese which means:

'to split the bill'.

If you stay in Vietnam for a certain time, you might realize at restaurants, that the bill is almost never shared among friends. It is usually payed by the most rich in the group or by someone who just had an income.

It is actually rude to share the bill, which can mean you won't accept the friendship in that group. So, you never 'Hop Tac Xa' with friends in Vietnam.

However if you are not comfortable with letting someone pay the bill, you　can just say:

'Hop Tac Xa di!'

A very casual and frank way to suggest, and would surprise your Vietnamese friends of using this term as an etranger!