Dear friends, Vietnam, 25th of December 2008.
It has been fourteen months now that our community lives in Saigon. When I go out, for any reason, such as having a walk, going to celebrate the mass, meeting a family,…, and I start a conversation in vietnameese, the usual question is: “Cha hoïc tieáng vieät bao laâu roài?” “Cha hoïc tieáng vieät moät naêm röôøi roài.” “Uûa! Cha noùi tieáng vieät giôûi laém!” [For how long have you been learning vietnameese? One year and a half. Oh! You speak vietnameese very well!] This answer makes me smiling. What does it actually mean to speak well vietnameese? If it is to be able to introduce me and to go by myself to eat a “phôû” [vietnameese soup], well then, one can say that I speak rather good vietnameese! But all the Vietnameese who are living abroad are well aware that there is a huge diference between coping with daily life and being able to master a foreign language. For sure, I can talk to someone in vietnameese for thirty minutes about my origins, my work in Vietnam, etc… but to read the newspaper, to understand Vietnameese talking to each others, to understand the preaching of the priest during the mass, those things are still out of my reach. After eighteen months, I could feel a bit discouraged. Actually, I am not! I feel linked with any foreigner in the world making the same experience as mine. And I am aware that I am much more privilegied that most of them, since I have oportunity to study full time the language during the two or even three first years of my stay in Vietnam. Most of the migrants have to find immediately a job to sustain their family and do not have either time or money for language lessons.
Communication is not necessarily a question of words...
It is common between us, the missionaries, to say that learning a new language is a way to be already envolved in the missionary work. I believe it is true. At times, some people thank me for learning vietnameese. They say by doing so I create links between Vietnam and the rest of the world. As missionaries, we are a kind of channel that links the vietnameese church and society to the universal church and to the country we are coming from. The better we master the language, the more efficient we become. On a spiritual point of view, the priest is someone who helps people to discover God in their lives. He does it through his example but also through his words. How could I teach catechism if I can barely read the Bible in vietnameese?
As you can see, the challenge of learning Vietnameese is a huge one, tough but very exciting. You only need patience and assiduity to cope with that challenge. And thank God, you progressively see you are making progress. Confident that every month spent in Vietnam is a way to understand and speak better vietnameese, I conclude with these words: “Cha hy voïng laàn tôùi gaëp baïn seõ noùi chuyeån baèng tieáng vieät thoûai maùi. Gaëp laïi!”. [I hope next time we will meet, we will be talking in vietnameese easily. See you!]
Cha Hoøa (Father Freùdeùric)
