Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Hello! My name is Phước.

Nice to meet you.

I went to my first Vietnamese lesson today. The professor is really nice. She was telling us how she used to be a teacher in Vietnam, and how very different the school system is from the one in the United States. I guess today we learned more about culture than of the actual Vietnamese language (we learned some greetings and stuff), but I found it to be very interesting so it's all good. Finally, I should mention that there's a very cute Vietnamese girl in the class. Yep.

After class, I was still in the Vietnamese "mood" so of course I went for Vietnamese food. The owner of the restaurant I frequent the most is a very nice guy (I will call him Mr. An from now on) - I guess he's gotten to know me a bit over time since I go to his place so much, and has even let me borrow some of his Vietnamese DVD's because he knows I enjoy watching them at the restaurant. Anyway, I told him that I had taken my first Vietnamese lesson today, and that the Vietnamese name that was given to me by the professor was Phước (which supposedly means "blessing". Pretty sweet, huh?). He laughed, but then he said that I should work for him on the weekends, and that way I'd pick up the language very quickly. He seemed serious about it too. I just told him I'd consider it once I learned more Vietnamese - it definitely sounds like a good idea, at least in my head. I can't help but entertain the thought of what the Vietnamese customers will think when they walk in there and see a Puerto Rican guy take their order - in Vietnamese.

(I don't know Vietnamese yet, so please imagine the following conversation is not in English)

Me: May I take your order?
Customer: *blinking* Uhh, yeah. Small bowl of Pho Tai, please.
Me: Sure thing.
Customer: Hey, are you Vietnamese?
Me: ... ^_^


...Yeah, it would be too good.

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