July 22nd, 2017
😂😂😂language issues?
On the way to Halong Bay with our guide Dai (he said we could call him Dave if we want- but I am going to try to call him by his real name). He asked us a few questions. He wanted to know about dietary restrictions. When Troy booked the tour he told them no seafood or fish for me and no fish for him. Honestly I don’t mean to be rude, but if you saw the water here, you wouldn’t eat things from the sea either. Anyway, some other people in the back of the van said “oh we eat everything” seeming eager to be amenable. Dai said “in Vietnam, don’t ever say you eat everything-Say you eat MOST things or maybe say 90%” hahahaha. This is very funny. Good solid advice.
Then he asked if we had tried Pho. Everyone nodded. He was telling us about the language and that are 6 dialects. So the word pho means noodle soup. Nod, yes. Then he said it you say it again a slightly different way it means street, and if you say it the third way, it means prostitute. The three ways he pronounced sounded exactly the same to my untrained ear. BUT this explains why we had so much trouble explaining to a restaurant in Sa Pa on the first day that we wanted pho. We must have been asking for a street prostitute. We had to open a menu and point to get our message through. Even then it was still “no”; maybe he was disgusted with us by then. In my opinion, if someone that looks like me walks up to you and asks for pho, no matter how i am saying it, they surely MUST know I mean noodle soup? Not “I want to eat on the street with a prostitute?” 🙄
This one was for you mom 😘
