Culture through English A: Most common names in Vietnam・ベトナムの一般的な名字

Hello!

How are you? Today, let's look at Vietnamese names!

You might notice an important point - that Vietnamese surnames (名字) match to kanji. 

Before the French came and colonized (植民した) Vietnam in the early 19th century, the Vietnamese language was written in Chinese hanzi - the Japanese version of which is kanji. Since then, however, the Vietnamese language is written in a version of romaji. 

In Vietnam, the most common surname is Nguyễn (阮「グエン」).  

Activity/homework
Watch this video about Vietnamese names. Watch it as many times as you want or need, and answer the questions below it in your notebooks. 

(If you cannot see the video here, go to this link, or go to YouTube and look for "Vietnamese Culture #2: Vietnamese Names" at https://youtu.be/dPeSxwvjiTc)

1. How many names do most Vietnamese people have?  

2. Where does the surname (family name) come in the naming order?

3. What percentage of the Vietnamese population uses Nguyễn as a family name?

4. What do women do with their own family names when they get married? 

    * What is one purpose of a woman’s family name when she gets married? 

5. What is the main purpose of a middle name in Vietnamese? 

    * What is another purpose of a middle name? 

6. Who usually decides the given names in Vietnamese culture? 

7. Where do given names come from in Vietnamese? 

8. What kinds of meanings do given names have in Vietnamese? 

I hope you find this interesting!

Image: By Hintha - Lê Trung Hoa (2005) Họ và tên người Việt Nam, Hà Nội, Việt Nam: NXB Khoa học Xã hội (Social Sciences Publishing House), CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21862789

Video uploaded from YouTube. I do not own the rights to the content. All rights reserved to the copyright holder(s). Uploaded for classroom use only. 

Culture through English B: Most common names in Vietnam・ベトナムの一般的な名字

Hello!

How are you? Today, let's look at Vietnamese names!

You might notice an important point - that Vietnamese surnames (名字) match to kanji. 

Before the French came and colonized (植民した) Vietnam in the early 19th century, the Vietnamese language was written in Chinese hanzi - the Japanese version of which is kanji. Since then, however, the Vietnamese language is written in a version of romaji. 

In Vietnam, the most common surname is Nguyễn (阮「グエン」).  

Activity/homework
Watch this video about Vietnamese names. Watch it as many times as you want or need, and answer the questions below it in your notebooks. 

(If you cannot see the video here, go to this link, or go to YouTube and look for "Vietnamese Culture #2: Vietnamese Names" at https://youtu.be/dPeSxwvjiTc)

1. How many names do most Vietnamese people have?  

2. Where does the surname (family name) come in the naming order?

3. What percentage of the Vietnamese population uses Nguyễn as a family name?

4. What do women do with their own family names when they get married? 

    * What is one purpose of a woman’s family name when she gets married? 

5. What is the main purpose of a middle name in Vietnamese? 

    * What is another purpose of a middle name? 

6. Who usually decides the given names in Vietnamese culture? 

7. Where do given names come from in Vietnamese? 

8. What kinds of meanings do given names have in Vietnamese? 

I hope you find this interesting. 

NEW! Here are the board notes for our first class on 9/18: 

See you next time!

Image: By Hintha - Lê Trung Hoa (2005) Họ và tên người Việt Nam, Hà Nội, Việt Nam: NXB Khoa học Xã hội (Social Sciences Publishing House), CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21862789

Video uploaded from YouTube. I do not own the rights to the content. All rights reserved to the copyright holder(s). Uploaded for classroom use only. 

Culture through English 2B: Most common names in Vietnam・ベトナムの一般的な名字

Hello!

How are you? Today, let's look at Vietnamese names!

You might notice an important point - that Vietnamese surnames match to kanji. 

Before the French came and colonized (植民した) Vietnam in the early 19th century, the Vietnamese language was written in Chinese hanzi - the Japanese version of which is kanji. Since then, however, the Vietnamese language is written in a version of romaji. 

In Vietnam, the most common surname is Nguyễn (阮「グエン」).  

Activity/homework
Watch this video about Vietnamese names. Watch it as many times as you want or need, and answer the questions below it in your notebooks. 

(If you cannot see the video here, go to this link, or go to YouTube and look for "Vietnamese Culture #2: Vietnamese Names" at https://youtu.be/dPeSxwvjiTc)
 

1. How many names do most Vietnamese people have?  

2. Where does the surname (family name) come in the naming order?

3. What percentage of the Vietnamese population uses Nguyễn as a family name?

4. What do women do with their own family names when they get married? 

    * What is one purpose of a woman’s family name when she gets married? 

5. What is the main purpose of a middle name in Vietnamese? 

    * What is another purpose of a middle name? 

6. Who usually decides the given names in Vietnamese culture? 

7. Where do given names come from in Vietnamese? 

8. What kinds of meanings do given names have in Vietnamese? 

I hope you find this interesting. See you next time!

Image: By Hintha - Lê Trung Hoa (2005) Họ và tên người Việt Nam, Hà Nội, Việt Nam: NXB Khoa học Xã hội (Social Sciences Publishing House), CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21862789

Video uploaded from YouTube. I do not own the rights to the content. All rights reserved to the copyright holder(s). Uploaded for classroom use only. 

Final writing project: writing about places review/場所・位置を書いてレビュー

Hello to all my students,

This is a review post on writing about places. If your final writing project is writing about places, then I hope seeing these pictures again will help you. 

Look at the picture above. What feelings do you get about the place in the picture? What adjectives (形容詞) do you think of when you see this place? 

Review activity (for groups writing about places)
You wrote about places in the spring semester. I know you can look at the paragraphs you wrote about, but you can also practice this activity again as a refresher with your group to help you write about places. 

Look at these pictures. Choose one, write a short paragraph of 4-5 sentences about it, and share it with your group members. Here is an example about the picture below - the ancient ruins of Delphi in Greece.

例えば：

The ancient ruins of Delphi have inspired many throughout history, and this is how it inspires me. When I see a site such as this, the past and the present come together, and I feel we are not only seeing history, but living it too. I have never been to Greece, but some day I want to go. When I do, this place will be on my list of things to see. 

You do not have to do any of these, but they might help you to refresh your writing about places. Try one with your group members! 

  

Have fun!

Photo credits (in order): "Gate in Silhouette" (personal image)/"Ancient Ruins In Delphi" (courtesy of thephotoholic)/"Great Wall Of China" (courtesy of cescassawin)/ "Shop" (courtesy of Dino De Luca)/"Sydney Opera House At Night" (courtesy of Susie B)/"New York Times" (courtesy of Antoine Henrich)/"Japanese Street Festival" (personal image)/All pictures except "Gate in Silhouette" and "Japanese Street Festival" from FreeDigitalPhotos.net 

Our summers (Part 4)

Hello to all my students,

Here is Part 4 in our series of summer paragraphs! Let's look at these:

I went to Hakodate with my family for seven days. I went to Mt Hakodate and mother’s parents house and I ate Chinese noodles, a lot of seafood and melons. I saw the beautiful view and sea from Mt. Hakodate. Hakodate is a very beautiful city, so I liked it, and the view, very much.

After my trip, I started a part-time job at a drug store. It is a hard job, but I also really enjoyed it. Even with this work, I really enjoyed the summer vacation.

Okay! Now let's look at this one:

I went to an amusement park in Yamanashi with my friend. We went there by train. There were many roller coasters and everyone screamed when they rode on them. It was very fun! During the summer vacation, I also worked a part-time job in a bar. Many customers came and I had many chances to communicate with them. My place of work was very fun.

I returned to my family home and went shopping with them, and met my sister’s son for the first time. When I brought my hand close to him, he grasped my finger. He was very cute!

I watched a movie called Armageddon. It was a man’s story, who was an oilman. I was very moved by it, and I listened to its theme song many times. 

I also read many novels written by Mitsuki Tsujimura. I’m a big fan of her work. Her novels made me feel sad and painful, but they are interesting, so I can be absorbed by them. 

Check this one out too!

I had a part-time job during almost the whole summer vacation. I worked at McDonald's. From working so much, my skills have developed much better. I can do a lot of things much more than before, so it was a good experience.

Not all was work, however. I went to Tokyo Summerland too, even though I hate water that so many  people like to play in. It has an amusement park, however, so as a result I could enjoy the day, even being afraid of the water!

How about this one:

I went to Niigata with my friend by shinkansen. We got driver’s licenses there. We went to a driving school, studied driver’s education, and practiced driving everyday. We went to the beach after school and ate some nice dinners every night, mainly Japanese or Chinese food. some of the dishes we had were things like tenshinhan, tonkatsu, and hiyashityuka. We shared a room with both Japanese and Chinese students. One Chinese student we got to know was very smart. He could speak Chinese, Japanese and English fluently. Overall, it was a great trip and great summer. 

Great! Now here's this one:

I went to Yamanashi with my teammates for one week. We joined a training camp. It was very hard, tired and long, but full of precious, happy memories. We did many things there, and tried some new things. For example, I ate a camembert cheese parfait. It was delicious!! Near there, we could enjoy Mt. Fuji. It was beautiful and large. I enjoyed this summer vacation.

These sound like great summer memories!

I'll see you all after the university festival. If you participate in it, good luck. If you go there, have a great time!

See you later!