“Chen.”
“Chen.”
“No, you’ve to pronounce it like this: ‘Chi-un, but in one go. Chen.”
“But that’s what I said!”
“No, the tone isn’t right.”
I sighed and leaned further against the escalator, wondering why Vietnamese names had to sound so differently from the way they were spelled. Tran, Chen. Tran, Chen.
I have spent nearly five months living in the midst of people coming from places I have only seen on printed paper, or big digital screens. And the journey will probably carry on long after this first semester, with more experiences and discoveries to snapshot and file away in the recesses of my mind. This article takes a look at one very important aspect of that journey so far, the people, with two conclusions.
