Beer Ahoy?

Anyone who spends a good deal of time in Vietnam cannot avoid the Bia Hoi, cornerstone of Vietnamese male social life.

A bia hoi (literally 'fresh beer') is for all intents and purposes a beer hall. In fact, the Vietnamese apparently got the idea from the Czechs. Within, on the usual plastic chairs and aluminum tables, one can find a 90% male clientele cheerfully consuming large quantities of very cheap, light beer and having the best time.

One thing about Vietnamese drinking: there are alot of toasts. People frequently clink their glasses with cries of 'Yo!' and, if someone yells '100%!' they will drain their glasses to the bottom.

Beyond this, most bia hois have expansive menus spanning much of the animal kingdom - the usual beef, chicken, pork and shrimp but also frog, snake, various other birds, squid, and other things to offend the squeamish.

In short, they're wonderful.

There are Some Moments of Hilarity (for me, anyway)

Two in one day, sometimes.

Lesser:

During a game of Taboo, in which the player tries to make his teammates guess a word without actually saying it, one of the words was 'wife'. My student began by saying 'It's the woman, who is in love, and she marry -" another student burst out with 'Lesbian!'

Greater:

One of my favorite students turned in a short paper about his trip to the aquarium. The title/ "I Go to the Museum of the Fish". I laughed my ass off for about five minutes. In this business, you take what you can get.

Learning Tieng Viet

Anyone who has ever tried to explain the English language to a non-native speaker knows what a frustrating experience it can be. The grammar is confusing, there are a ton of irregular verbs, the spelling makes no sense and the pronunciation is a nightmare.

BUT, at least, even if your pronunciation isn't perfect, you can still be understood fairly well. The sheer volume of accents present in English attests to that.

Vietnamese is not like that. Very vowel and consonant has to come out exactly right or the words is different or unintelligible. It's terribly frustrating, though rewarding in its own way.

What A Country!

The complete Woody Allen ouvre for $10. I wonder why people are always badmouthing media pirates.

Crossing the Line Into Parody (Literally)

I was out grocery shopping the other day when I heard a vaguely familiar song come over the intercom. It sounded kind of like Madonna's 'Like a Virgin', but I something about it was off; it was man singing, instead of her. There were some odd sound effects in the background, almost like a saw. Then I realized the lyrics were wrong too. And finally, when it reached the chorus, it wasn't 'Like a Virgin' but 'Like a Surgeon', the parody by Weird Al Yankovic.

I don't think I've ever heard a Weird Al Yankovic parody played as background music before. Do they just not know it's a parody because it's in English? Do they not care because it has the same music?

Obviously this isn't too important. Just a small nugget of culture shock.