Friday, August 27, 2004

Word for today II: Lặp Lại

Lặp lại simply means "repeat". That word has been so invaluable as of late. I'm taking a xe ôm from my office. The drivers are pretty chatty lot, and they know I've been learning Vetnamese. So they are chatting away in the ol' Tiếng Việt, while I try to parse what they are saying. I want to be polite, but I only understand 20% of what they are saying.

Lặp lại" comes to the rescue. On the second utterance, now I understand 30% of what they are saying. On some good days, I understand 40%.

Alas, I am yet to learn the word for "slowly".