Why? Just because you don't like it?

Please try to stay on topic, no need to incite a flame war.

@Telal, everyone is free to express their own opinions. However, next time it would be wise to include why it is such that you think what it is that you think.

Back to the topic.

When trying to translate certain phrases into English, some people will prefer to use a dictionary. Unfortunately, Vietnamese is limited to 6616 distinct syllables (only half or so is used) and as such there are bound to be homophones. Take for example these rather light hearted mistakes:

Bạn tôi sắp trên đường.
[My friend is about to go on the sugar]
instead of: My friend is about to go on the road (to go on his way)

Tôi yêu cầu họ xây cầu nhanh lẹ.
[I love toilet that they will build the toilet quickly.]
instead of: I requested that they build the bridge quickly

Ngươi có ăn vịt lộn hay là vú sữa không?
[Do you eat wrong duck or breast milk?]
instead of: Do you eat balut duckling or milkfruit?

Con chim nó bay tung tăng
The penis flies freely
instead of: The bird flies freely
note: the bird is a euphemism for genitals.

Ai mới địt vậy?
Who just f****d?
instead of: Who just farted?
note: the verb địt primarily means the f word in the northern dialect, whereas it means to fart mostly in the southern and central dialects.

yêu cầu looks like 要求... Is it that?

You are correct!

This is why I think Vietnamese should be written with at least some sort of Chinese-derived writing system. (Okay, maybe not Chu Nom because it's crazy.)

I always wondered what handwritten Vietnamese looked like. There are tons of tiny words and a diarrhoea of accents. Looks hard to write. Do people just ignore the accents in everyday life?

It really doesn't look bad handwritten. Most (okay, actually all) Vietnamese I know write it really neatly, although my friends mom writes it in cursive, and that's when things start getting confusing.

I think a Chu Nom revival would be awesome!


I've seen many people type without accents in online forums & message boards.

A Vietnamese guy from Unilang said that Viets usually write SMS without any accents (just like Spanish speakers!), even though they make huge differences in the language.

Yeah, they do. And they are very confusing to learners...Usually natives can tell words apart from context, but I can't.