I have a passport, but aside from some half-remembered Spanish courses from high school, I'm completely monolingual.
Sadly, the US prohibits travel to Cuba for vacations, otherwise I'd gladly put some money into their economy.
I have a passport, but aside from some half-remembered Spanish courses from high school, I'm completely monolingual.
Sadly, the US prohibits travel to Cuba for vacations, otherwise I'd gladly put some money into their economy.
In tourist areas you'll be fine but if you're off the beaten path then it's going to be harder. It also depends on who you want to communicate with - bartender? They probably speak some English. Street vendor? Depends if they are in a touristy area or if they are in any area less frequented by tourists. Person on the streeet? Maybe, especially if they are younger, but maybe not.
Vietnamese is hard because it's a tonal language and it uses a mostly-Latin writing system but it can be quite deceptive as to how to pronounce words (e.g. the last name Nguyen), so it's better not to assume that you can't say the word just because you can read the letters. Vietnamese people are generally very friendly and accommodating, so you could absolutely ask a person on the street to help you with translating and you've got a good chance of them saying yes. Also they tend to be very patient so it's unlikely that you'll get a rude response by doing things like pointing at a menu and holding up one finger to indicate an order.
Do you have any dietary requirements? I'd recommend learning the words for those if you do. Otherwise a few phrases will be enough to get you by such as "Xin chào" for hello (Sin Jow - as in the word jowl minus the l), "Cảm ơn" or "Cảm ơn nhiều" for thank you/thank you very much ("Gam/Gum ehh-n new"). Note that the letters are recognisable but if you tried to pronounce these words phonetically as a native english speaker it will be utterly incomprehensible to a Vietnamese person. It's not the most English-friendly country in SE Asia that I've ever been to but it's not that hard either.
This is good info, thanks!
Okay, so you're definitely going to need:
Tôi ăn thuần chay (Toy uhn tw-one jai) tw-one as if you were halfway to saying two before changing to the word one very quickly, and jai rhyming with sly. This means "I am vegan".
Xin một [insert food/drink] thuần chay, e.g. "xin một bánh mì thuần chay" (Sin mop bahn mee tw-one jai) - "mop" is said with a stop on p sound. You know when we say words like hot or heat how we don't usually breathe into the T at the end but we just come to a sort of stop, where it's almost a T and a D mixed but we have no emphasis on the last bit; we don't breathe into the T and say "hea-tuhh" like people speaking with upperclass British accents do? That's how you should say "Mop". The P should be basically silent instead of "Mop-puh", if that makes sense. No air should escape your mouth when you say the P.
Anyway, that's how you say "Please, one [dish] (made) vegan". So if you go into a restaurant and say that you're vegan they will probably understand. Then say "xin một [food dish] thuần chay" and they'll understand because you're priming them with information. You can also point at the menu or a picture instead of saying the food name. I'd confirm with an "Okay?" to get them to confirm. If they say no then you can try again or negotiate with them from there.
But please make sure that you listen to them when they repeat the order back you because "chay" just means vegetarian. So if you hear "Bánh Xèo Chay", make sure to correct them with "Bánh Xèo Thuần Chay".
Nice, thanks! Even if I don't end up going to Vietnam, I learned something cool today.