The man who could not find his pants

The next great adventure is but one day away. On Wednesday I fly to Ho Chi Minh City to spend a month in Vietnam. Months ago I decided to try to learn some Vietnamese, more out of cultural respect than with any great expectations, given what a devishly difficult language it is for most Westerners.

On August 20th I logged into Duolingo and took my first lesson, and continued every day without fail for the next 104 days. I'm now only marginally more learned in Vietnamese than I was when I started, but at the same time I am rather pleased with my efforts. I may be no great linguist but I am tenacious.

I have, however, certainly learned enough to order beer and coffee and to decipher most of a menu, and I picked up a small number of other useful phrases besides. Here are some of my favourites.











This seems like a story worth following to the end. The same cannot be said for this one:









I was asked some rather intrusive questions...







(Answer: use The Turd Remover, of course!)

... And some deeply philosophical ones:


















I learned how to stand up for myself:







(Lest it seem as though I am taking the piss out of the wonderful program that is Duolingo, there is a great deal of value to be taken from repeating unusual phrases: am I more likely to remember the words "mature" and "bear" by learning them in a dry and unexciting vocab list, or in an amusing and memorable phrase?)

I also learned to be direct about what I want:






I enjoyed some gentle satire:













(I am the bigliest and the humblest.)

Although Duolingo did get a bit mean at times:



















But in the end it reminded me that learning a language is about so much more than simply increasing one's vocabulary (warning: stale clichés ahead):












And finally, it taught me the greatest life truth of all:






I will be blogging as I travel, so I will let you know how my Vietnamese helps or hinders my progress! For now, though:


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