Expressing sentences in line with the communication habits and culture of Vietnamese people

Paying attention to how Vietnamese people habitually express themselves, we can easily see that sentence grammar has some striking features in the order of sentence elements and in sentence structure. According to a survey by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Hoang Kim Ngoc, Vietnamese sentences use many verbs and few nouns.

In sentences, the words “sự” and “việc” (nominalising words, roughly “the act of”) rarely appear in what Vietnamese people say. For example, Vietnamese people usually say “Chạy là một hoạt động thể thao rất tốt cho sức khỏe.” (“Running is a sporting activity that is very good for your health.”) rather than “Hoạt động chạy rất tốt cho sức khỏe.” (“The activity of running is very good for your health.”) This habit goes hand in hand with the active sentence structure, which Vietnamese people always prefer in spoken and written communication. For example, when telling about going for a haircut, a Vietnamese person will say “Tôi đi cắt tóc ở tiệm Phong Lan” (“I went to get my hair cut at the Phong Lan salon”) rather than “Mái tóc của tôi được cắt ở tiệm Phong Lan” (“My hair was cut at the Phong Lan salon”). Furthermore, in practice, cause-and-effect structures are used very frequently in sentences. The part of the sentence carrying the reason is presented first, and the content of the result is usually mentioned afterwards. These two pieces of information can appear together in one sentence in the form of a compound sentence, with or without a pair of conjunctions expressing the cause–effect relation. Or, put another way, the cause–effect relation still exists across two consecutive simple sentences, and the order in which the information appears is the same as the order of the two clauses in a compound sentence expressing cause and effect. For example, when Vietnamese people at the market buy more of something because it is cheap, they will usually say “X này rẻ nhỉ, cho tôi lấy thêm nhé!” (“This X is cheap, isn’t it? Let me take some more!”) rather than “Cho tôi lấy thêm X vì nó rẻ quá!” (“Let me take more X because it’s so cheap!”). Next, looking further at the sentence structures Vietnamese people often use, we can see that when expressing a hypothesis and conclusion, the usual order of the sentence is “If A then B”; the case “B if A” is rarely seen. For example, in a situation where the school nurse speaks to a student with a stomach ache lying in the school sick room, she says: “Nếu cơn đau bụng không giảm đi thì cô sẽ đưa em đi viện nhé!” (“If the stomach ache doesn’t ease, I’ll take you to the hospital, OK?”). One more example: instead of saying “Có phiền cậu không nếu tớ bật quạt mạnh hơn?” (“Would it bother you if I turned the fan up?”), a student will ask “Nếu tớ bật quạt mạnh hơn có phiền cậu không?” (“If I turn the fan up, will it bother you?”).

Furthermore, because of the need for speed in conveying information when communicating, Vietnamese people prefer simple, concise expression, leaving out unnecessary words when forming sentences. Students usually say “Hơn mười năm xa trường, tôi vẫn nhớ những kỉ niệm thời đi học.” (“More than ten years away from school, I still remember my school-day memories.”) rather than “Kể từ lúc xa trường cũng đã hơn mười năm, những kỉ niệm vẫn in sâu trong tâm trí tôi.” (“Since leaving school it has been more than ten years, yet the memories remain deeply imprinted in my mind.”). It can be seen that the difference between how sentences are used in writing and in speech is quite large. Accordingly, the sentence exercise system needs to create situations in which learners practise expressing Vietnamese sentences following the thinking and usage habits of Vietnamese people.

However, looking at the process of communication, everyone intends to emphasise some content in what they say. Expressing oneself appropriately to the situation and achieving one’s purpose are always given attention, so Vietnamese people also adjust sentence structure to suit their needs and wishes. It is changed to highlight the main idea or to increase cohesion, making the expression tight and coherent. Mostly, by means of word order, the speaker places at the beginning of the sentence the key information they want the listener to grasp and notice. For example, a teacher often reminds students to study hard by advising: “Nếu các con học tập chăm ngoan, thầy cô nhất định sẽ tạo điều kiện cho con!” (“If you study diligently and behave well, your teachers will certainly support you!”). In this utterance, the teacher has emphasised the idea of “studying diligently and behaving well”.

Finally, when talking about forming sentences in Vietnamese communication, we cannot fail to mention the habit of using idioms and proverbs flexibly in expressing sentences. For a long time, Vietnamese people have regarded using idioms and proverbs as a figurative way of speaking that draws attention and adds emphasis. According to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Hoang Kim Ngoc, using idioms and proverbs creatively, by adapting them in some way, has helped increase the effectiveness of communication…. If we know how to apply idioms and proverbs appropriately to the event, the writing will become unique, concise and more valuable than using ordinary combinations. This way of using sentences appears very often in everyday communication. A shopkeeper says to a customer who is a student: Sao cháu ngồi lửng lơ con cá vàng thế! (“Why are you sitting there dangling like a goldfish!”), implying both a criticism of the way the student is sitting in the middle of the aisle and a reminder to sit more tidily. In this way, an utterance using an idiom is more effective in communication, because it catches the listener’s attention while also remaining polite and saving the listener’s face. The Vietnamese communicative culture of using many idioms and proverbs has also set a requirement for us when building exercises that train the skill of using sentences according to the communicative approach for foreign students. It can be said that idioms and proverbs appearing in sentence exercises will help students understand more about the cultural life and people of Vietnam through their meanings. Thus, practising forming sentences with idioms and proverbs is a meaningful activity that both strengthens the ability to communicate like a native speaker and builds a Vietnamese way of thinking for foreigners learning Vietnamese.