Walking into a fancy restaurant or cooking a new recipe at home can be exciting. It can also turn awkward fast when you’re ...

I would like to share my personal story about encountering the people from Vietnam who settled in New Orleans after the fall of Saigon. In 1987, I was working at Oakwood Mall on the west bank as the ...

If a Vietnamese teacher of English cannot pronounce English correctly, she should not be teaching English. I also believe that for political and financial reasons, foreigners should not be stepping ...

A reader recently sent me a question that got me thinking. She asked, “What are the guidelines that inform The Oregonian’s decision to help readers pronounce an unfamiliar name, or not?” I confessed I ...

Like Chinese, the Vietnamese language is tonal; that is, the meaning of words is changed by inflection. Vietnam used the Chinese writing system and Nom, a Vietnamese script derived from the Chinese ...

To the pre-teen girl selling ducks on the side of the road in Bien Hoa, I see you. You are sitting there in your too-small dress with your stepfather, the only father you have really known. You spent ...

Turns out, Americans tend to mispronounce the name of the food above. One of the perks of traveling and sight-seeing-or of eating out in a big city or a food festival-is the opportunity to try dishes ...