U.S. vet posts Vietnamese lessons on YouTube
A Vietnam War veteran who wanted to rekindle his relationship with the Vietnamese language has been racking up fans for the language classes and tips he posted on YouTube.
Two years ago, Bud Brown began with the first of the “Learn Vietnamese” clips because he could not find anything else available online. Today more than 10,000 people have tuned into his 21 volume library.
The Californian admits that his Vietnamese is a little rusty, but as a retired teacher he still feels the need to educate and help people.
“I think more and more Americans and foreigners are visiting Vietnam and they really want to learn Vietnamese by video clips with from Westerner’s view,” he said.
Brown says he was surprised by the positive response he received from the first post. That’s no easy feat, considering he hadn’t spoken the language since he was here during the war in 1972.
Serving as an interpreter in the Marines between 1971 and 1972, he first learnt the language at a defense language school in Monterey, California. Brown, who was also posted to central Danang for a 12 month spell, usually tapes his clips in his car while he waits for his wife to finish shopping.
Clips usually last only a few minutes and are sprinkled with simple and useful phrases.
According to Brown one third of his viewers are Vietnamese, one third are Vietnamese Americans and one third are Americans who are planning to visit Vietnam or who are in Vietnam already.
A pleasant surprise for Brown has been the number of Vietnamese-American youngsters who say his posts help them break the language barrier with their parents or grandparents.
Perhaps spurred on by his popularity, some Vietnamese people have begun posting lessons of their own.
“I think they are more qualified for teaching Vietnamese than I am because they are natives,” he said.
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