Off to Hanoi

Ok, it's 6:00 pm in Hue and we leave for the airport at 7:30 pm to go to Hanoi.

So that accents here is Hue have been very, very hard to understand. It's like trying to listen to a person with a very heavy Scottish accent. Anyhow off the Hanoi for more language challenges!

Here's the story behind my fear of the Northern accent...

When I was about 11 or 12 years old, I remember my mom took me to a friends place for a dinner get together. Of course, being a little kid, little old Vietnamese ladies love kids! I was the fortunate one seated next to this 70 year old lady from North Vietnam. She talked to me all through dinner. It seemed like hours of torture to me. I hardly said a word to her because I had no idea what she was saying. I just kept nodding my head smiling and saying yes to her. I had no idea what I had agreed to. Well I guess I wasn't until she asked me a question I could not respond with a simple yes or nod. She asked me the same questions again and I responded with nothing but a nod. I could see she was frustrated. Of course, my mom comes by now and sees that this little old lady is upset with me. My mom scolded me and told me I was being so rude ignoring this lady. My mom kept asking me why I was refusing to talk to her. My mom kept pressuring me to respond to her. I couldn't talk the spectacle anymore and I finally came out with it and told everyone at the dinner table that I had no idea what she had been talking about for the past hour because of her accent! How embarrassing. Thank god most of the adults just laughed. I was mortified. I still live with this fear today that I'm going to make an ass of myself. Gulp. Off to the North I go to face my language fear. :)