The Mini-Hanoi

 
 
 
 

Vocabulary

 

guy	show (2)	agreement
bubble	sufficient	self-sufficient
place	order (3)	find/found/found
own	bizarre	run/ran/run (2)
meal	ingrain	feel/felt/felt (3)
wait	paradise	I can’t wait
ethnic	minority	eat/ate/eaten
entire	whopping	large/larger/largest
fill	stadium	complete (2)
insane	period (2)	come/came/come
decide	come over	fascinating
intend	what’s up	make/made/made
settle	collapse	home country
remain	bilateral	return back
mart	open up	sugar cane
full (2)	wonder	know/knew/known
attend	block (3)	say/said/said
cuisine	generation	good/better/best
tasty	try/tried	spend/spent/spent
taste	as part of	see/saw/seen
cane	trade (2)	make/made/made
exact	trust (2)	drive/drove/driven (2)
mile	believe (2)	sell/sold/sold
spice	spicy (2)	neighborhood
mix	guess (2)	ends of the world
	thing (2)

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Video

 

 
 
 
 

Transcript

What’s up guys Drew Pinsky here. And today I’m going to show you how Vietnamese is Prague.

So behind me you have this place called Sapa which is like a self-sufficient Vietnamese town and inside you could find a restaurant, shops, bars and bubble tea places which are all Vietnamese owned and run.

So we just ordered a Number Seven, which I don’t really know what it is. But it’s a complete meal. I feel like I’m in Vietnam right now. This is insane; I can’t wait to eat it.

Duke, this is like paradise.

.     .     .     .     .     .     .     .

 
The Vietnamese are the third largest ethnic minority in the Czech Republic, behind only the Slovak and the Ukrainians. They make up a whopping 1 percent of the entire population, which is enough people to fill up this entire stadium.

That is bizarre.

If you’re wondering how this happened, the Vietnamese came over during the Communist period of Czechoslovakia to either work or study as part of a bilateral agreement made by the two communist nations.

The Vietnamese immigrants intended to return back to their home country but then communism collapsed and they decided to remain in the Czech Republic, mostly settling in Prague.

The first generation of immigrants were well known by opening up mini marts and small shops.

But now the second and third generations have come — and the Vietnamese Czechs are totally ingrained into Czech society.

.     .     .     .     .     .     .     .

 
Presenter: “Do you feel more Czech or more Vietnamese?
Waitress: “It’s difficult, and it’s going to be different for every Czech-Vietnamese person here. But I feel more, I’ll call it European; but I still won’t ever say that I’m Czech, but I don’t feel fully Vietnamese.

I’ll say that I am: I’ll always say I’m Vietnamese but from the Czech Republic.”

Presenter: “Where are you from?”
Pupil, One: “I’m from Vietnam, but I was born in the Czech Republic.
Presenter: “And do you speak better Czech or better Vietnamese?”
Pupil: “I speak better Czech, because at home I speak Vietnamese, and I also attend school, where I spend more time than I do at home.”

.     .     .     .     .     .     .     .

 
You cannot walk more than a block in Prague without seeing a Vietnamese owned mini-mart or Vietnamese restaurant selling pho or banh mi or bun cha. And trust me: after living in Hanoi for five months, I can say that it’s as tasty as anything I’ve tried in Vietnam. “Yeah that’s it; that’s the taste.”

Presenter: “Hello. How are you?”

Okay sugar cane one. This is that just like in Hanoi in my old neighborhood, they made the same exact sugar cane juice. Sugar cane juice.

.     .     .     .     .     .     .     .

 
And then if you drive 20 minutes south of Prague, you’ll enter a mini-Hanoi. And then everything is in Vietnamese. You can find traders selling clothes, Asian fruits, vegetables and spices and traditional Vietnamese cuisine.

I actually can’t believe that this is a Czech Republic and not Vietnam. I’m just fascinated by how these two completely different cultures from completely different ends of the world have mixed together in Prague.

But I guess it’s just one more thing to love about this city.

*     *     *     *     *     *     *

 

Questions

Food Stall, Food Stand. This video was about a Vietnamese community in Los Angeles, California, US. True or false?

Cafe, Bar. Are there only Vietnamese restaurants in Prague?

Fast-Food Restaurant. What are the demographics of the Czech Republic?

Cafeteria. Did Vietnamese immigrants begin coming to the Czech Republic in the 1990s?

Restaurant, Deluxe Restaurant. Do the Vietnamese-Czechs work mostly in agriculture, mining, fishing and forestry? What sort of occupations do the Vietnamese- Czechs have?

Shop, Store. Are the Vietnamese-Czechs monolingual, bilingual or trilingual? Are they totally assimilated, partially assimilated, half-assimilated or complete segregated from mainstream Czech society? Do they feel completely Czech, completely Vietnamese, both, neither or in the middle?

Convenience Store. According to the presenter, is Vietnamese cuisine in Prague authentic or has it been modified and adapted?

Boutique. Vietnamese-Czechs only live and work in Prague. Is this right or wrong?
 
 
 
Mini Supermarket, Mini Market. Are there Vietnamese or other ethnic or foreign restaurants, shops and stores in your city or country?

Market, Marketplace, Bazaar. What are the demographics of your country? Are there (many) immigrants or different ethnic groups?

Department Store. Do different ethnic groups retain their language and culture? To what extent have they integrated or assimilated?

Discount Store, $1 Store. Different ethnic groups perform different jobs. Different ethnic groups dominate certain industries and trades. Yes or no?

Hypermarket. Has your nation emigrated to other countries? What are some popular destinations?

Shopping Mall, Shopping Center. What might happen in the future?