Vietnam 5

Listen to Vietnam 5, a 53-year-old woman from Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City), Vietnam, who has spent most of her adult life in the United States. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 53

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 08/03/1967

PLACE OF BIRTH: Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City), Vietnam

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: Vietnamese

OCCUPATION: manicurist

EDUCATION: high school and beauty college

AREAS OF RESIDENCE OUTSIDE REPRESENTATIVE REGION FOR LONGER THAN SIX MONTHS:

At the time of this recording, the subject had been living in California, in the United States, for 31 years (since 1989).

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

The subject’s speech was mainly influenced by her education, but she also learned from other people throughout her life. Although she has lived in the United States for multiple decades, she still has a Vietnamese accent, as she still predominantly speaks Vietnamese.

The text used in our recordings of scripted speech can be found by clicking here.

RECORDED BY: Phi Tran

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 28/01/2021

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): N/A

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

Um, I’m Vietnamese. I was born in Saigon, March 8, 1967. That the — in Viet- — uh, International Women Day. So I have a nice family, um, two sister and two brother. So I came to America by 1989, and I live in California, and we started, uh, going to beauty college with sisters, and after that we take a license and work for somebody for one year, so we wanna open 1990 a shop for three of us. I have two sons and a nice family. Everyone we sharing and help each other, and then I’m happy for now.

[The subject reads a passage from a newspaper in Vietnamese]: Fresno — Một người đàn ông đang ở tạm tại nhà cha mẹ đã đốt trụi luôn cả ngôi nhà, sau khi anh ta dùng bình xịt lửa để đốt nhện. Lực lượng cứu hỏa đã nhận được tin báo cháy tại một ngôi nhà ở Fresno, California, vào tối thứ Ba. Người đàn ông trong ngôi nhà 2 tầng “đã ra quyết định sai lầm khi dùng lửa để giết nhện thay vì thuốc diệt côn trùng.

[English translation: Fresno — One man who stayed at his parents’ house for a while burned the whole house down after he attempted to use a blowtorch to kill spiders. The Fresno fire station had received a call regarding the incident, which took place in Fresno, California, on Tuesday evening. The man in the two-story house realized he had made the wrong decision using fire to kill the spiders instead of using bug spray.]

TRANSCRIBED BY: Phi Tran

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 29/01/2021

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): N/A

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY: N/A

COMMENTARY BY: N/A

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): N/A

The archive provides:

• Recordings of accent/dialect speakers from the region you select.

• Text of the speakers’ biographical details.

• Scholarly commentary and analysis in some cases.

• In most cases, an orthographic transcription of the speakers’ unscripted speech.  In a small number of cases, you will also find a narrow phonetic transcription of the sample (see Phonetic Transcriptions for a complete list).  The recordings average four minutes in length and feature both the reading of one of two standard passages, and some unscripted speech. The two passages are Comma Gets a Cure (currently our standard passage) and The Rainbow Passage (used in our earliest recordings).

For instructional materials or coaching in the accents and dialects represented here, please go to Other Dialect Services.