Xin Chao--Hello
Cam on---Txs
Khong co chi---you're welcome
Tam Biet---Good bye
Hen Gap lai---See you later
Xin loi---Excuse me/sorry
Loudspeakers boom at odd hours of each day and broadcast cheery music and inspirational government messages.A couple in another room of our hotel tells us their room radio unexpectedly came to life at 9.30am with the same messaging and music. Not quite under the pillow while you are asleep the way Orwell had imagined it but unsettlingly close to that.
Vietnamese seem eager to talk with you since most are now learning English. (They all went off to learn Russian during the Cold War). 65% of the 85million here are below 30 years old. There are no English street or shop signs here but Vietnamese is written in a Latin based phonetic alphabet (quoc ngu) so at least you can recognize the letters even if you can't say or understand the words. This was introduced by the Portuguese missionary, de Rhodes, in about 1630 as a way of simplifying the language and driving literacy. It worked: today Vietnam has a very high literacy rate. Ho Chi Minh kept this script after the 1975 revolution as a way of reducing the chances of further hegemony from China. (I am told "look at the situation Taiwan faces today"). China invaded and then ruled Vietnam for the first 1,000 years AD and they don't want them back.
Well dressed in Western Clothes and so we miss the color of the Indian clothing. Hanoi has its share of big, expensive designer stores and shopping malls. The Hammer and Sickle are everywhere but Vietnam has only 2m registered communists. 2% Buddhist, 10% Catholic and both are increasing but our guide tells us that he thinks most of the young people are too intent on getting ahead financially and are atheists.
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