do people in vietnam speak Chinese?

10 Comments

1. l d says:

   October 8, 2009 at 2:48 pm

   I have run into a couple of students / former students who had studied Chinese, but it is not a second language. English is the second language

   I have actually met girls from Sapa, a popular tourist destination in VN, who speak English better than they speak Vietnamese, but I have yet to meet any of the (no doubt) many people who are comfortable in Chinese.
2. anw122 says:

   October 8, 2009 at 2:48 pm

   http://www.asianinfo.org/asianinfo/vietnam/pro-languages.htm

   Try that
3. Somebody else says:

   October 8, 2009 at 2:48 pm

   Generally no, they mostly speak Vietnamese. Obviously there are Chinese minorities in Vietnam, mainly Hmong and Yue (Cantonese), but there must be a few Mandarin-speakers as well as some who can speak it as a second language.
4. bryan_q says:

   October 8, 2009 at 2:48 pm

   If they’re Vietnamese, NO
   If they’re Chinese, YES.

   There are those who speak Cantonese [reason: most of them immigrated from Kwangchow / Canton/ Guangzhou to Vietnam when the Communist took over China in the 1950's.] In recent years, there are people from Taiwan and abroad who go there to invest.
5. chi khanh nguyen says:

   October 8, 2009 at 2:48 pm

   No, we speak vietnamese every day.

   even it not a second language , i think it is English

   there re many vietnamese people study chinese now , but maybe for the job.
6. Annie says:

   October 8, 2009 at 2:48 pm

   I don’t think so – many of them learn Chinese but I think the popular second language is English. I’m half Vietnamese and I think other Vietnamese people think English will help more with their lifes.
7. heavenbtl_2000 says:

   October 8, 2009 at 2:48 pm

   Yes, some people in Vietnam do speak Chinese..if they’re Chinese. Some of my friends are chinese who were born in Vietnam and they speak both Chinese and Vietnamese. Generally, Vietnamese do not speak Chinese.
8. whoa_shiz says:

   October 8, 2009 at 2:48 pm

   Rarely would you see a vietnamese person speaking chinese fluently.
   But there are some…for example, my one cousin’s friend is vietnamese, but he speaks cantonese pretty well. :]

   I mean, there’s not that many viets speaking chinese, but i’m pretty sure almost every chinese person living there is fluent in viet (well, it makes sense, right?). my parents and sisters are chinese, but they came from vietnam. and now they’re all fluent in cantonese, vietnamese, AND mandarin (because they’ve taken classes when they were younger, living in vietnam). and english. ;]
9. danharley says:

   October 8, 2009 at 2:48 pm

   Many don’t realize the Cho Lon District of Ho Chi Minh City is probably the largest Chinese community outside of China, Taiwan or Singapore. Bryan_Q almost hit the nail on the head as for the reason. Many thousands of Chinese fled from China to Vietnam when the communists took over China. They continued further South to Saigon and settled predominantly in Cho Lon when the communists took over North Vietnam. The Cho Lon District is influenced so much by the Chinese that Chinese (Cantonese) is the language typically spoken there and not Vietnamese. In fact – I have a friend who was born in Saigon, raised in Cho Lon and couldn’t speak a word of Vietnamese to save her life.

   As for the rest of Vietnam, English is the predominant second language. However, Chinese is becoming more popular as the relationship between the two countries have been more friendly compared to the last millennium.
10. <OiO> says:

    October 8, 2009 at 2:48 pm

    Vietnamese language is unique, the people still retain their traditions and language dispite the fact that the Chinese ruled Vietnam for 1,000 years they tried to convert Vietnamese language into Chinese unsuccessfully. However, Vietnamese adapted some of the Chinese vocabulary and writing they called it "Chu Han".

    In early 1900’s Latin alphabet, known as "quoc ngu" introduced considering that Vietnam has been an independent nation for a thousand years, quoc ngu has a surprisingly brief history. The system was developed by Portuguese Jesuit missionaries in the 17th century. The earliest extant dictionary using quoc ngu was the Dictionarium Annamiticum Lusitanum et Latinum, published by Alexandre de Rhodes in 1651. Rhodes, who was French, relied heavily on earlier Portuguese dictionaries in compiling his work.

    Quoc ngu was largely neglected until the 19th century when it was taken up by the French colonial government as a means of breaking the grip of Chinese culture and fostering Western ways of thinking. Despite its colonial background, the simplicity and ease of use of quoc ngu resulted in its gradual spread until it was finally chosen as the official Vietnamese script in the 20th century.

    In the early 1900’s, French was a second language until around 1960 English became a second language due to the present of U.S army.

    As far as Chinese/Manddarin/Cantonese "people" from all countries can speak these languages because China towns are everywhere