I was waiting for the driver to pick me up at the Dinh Cau Temple. In the open area outside the Dinh Cau Temple, I saw some snack vendors and I was curious. Besides that they were apparently sweet snacks, I had no idea what they were. I decided to get one.

This is the fifth time that I visit Vietnam and by now I have learned the names of my favorite foods, so I can order with ease. Other than that, I do not have much Vietnamese besides “hi” and “thank you.” But whenever I learn some new words I am quite eager to put it to use. So at that little street vendor, I asked, “how much?” in Vietnamese:

Me (pointing at snack): bao nhieu? (how much)

The vendor looked at me and I noticed he paused for a distinct moment, seemingly thinking.

Vendor: muoi lam nghin (15,000).

Only at that moment did I realize what silliness this is. I could ask “how much” but whatever the answer, I wasn’t going to understand. I have no Vietnamese numbers in my system.

So I proceeded to show him my phone on the calculator mode, and he ignored my gesture. He simply took out 15K and showed me how much it was (wasn’t this how it was always done before the phone age?)

I then figured, when I said “how much” in Vietnamese, his pause was likley that he was thinking, “OK, this lady clearly doesn’t speak Vietnamese, so do I reply in Vietnamese or just show her the money.” He took a leap of faith with me and said the price in Vietnamese.

And I failed to impress, obviously.

More Vietnamese Learning at Ice Cream

After this sweet treat, I went to another vendor, who was selling ice cream.  Her ice cream comes with one cone and two scoops. I was intrigued by the tropical flavors. So I pointed at durian and mango.

My intention must have been lost in the shuffles of eager business objective and inadequate customer service. She handed me a cone with two scoops and before I could stop her, she gave me another cone with two more scoops. She had to have understood that I meant one scoop of mango and one scoop of durian in one cone, but she gave me two cones of one flavor each.

She saw the surprise on my face, but I gladly took over two cones and joked with the American man, who was approaching with curiosity, that the ice cream is so good that having two cones is a good idea. The lady gave me an extra cone (without ice cream) as a way to show that she was “sorry” about the “misunderstanding.” I gladly took over that cone as well.

That evening, I took out my Duolingo and started learning Vietnamese. I must know enough in the language to order my ice cream right.