Vietnamese?.... merci bien

I have to share my experience over the phone with a Vietnamese guy. I called the Ministry of Finance of Vietnam regarding the information that I required for a world bank report. I was surprised they actually responded and gave me the cell number of the person in charge for Finance. The first call was to the receptionist (invariably a lady) who seemed to understand my accent. She couldn’t understand the word mutual and asked me to explain the meaning. Imagine – explaining the word mutual to a Vietnamese in Indian English. Thankfully she realized she was the wrong person and directed me to another guy. This time she had to spell out numbers and hence the job wasn’t very difficult. But took her ten minutes to make me understand how to dial this number and what codes to use. Nevertheless was not a bad encounter.

Now comes the most hilarious phone call in my lifetime. This guy called Kiem (khhhhaaayyyiieem .. they pronounce it. Initially I felt he was sneezing at me) picks up the phone. He was pleased to be talking to an Indian (which took me 5 mins to convey). I never tried to make him understand my name. He somehow conveyed to me that he was out of office and wanted me to send him a mail with the required data points. He said “hwaaangteeeekhyaaam@ mooov. Gooof.vveeyen” ..@#!$@$%#$%#$ Wished outlook had sound recognition system to type in mail IDs. Then I resorted to the Hari Saadhu style.

H for hongkong

O for ok

Aaai for iiishiahds (thought he said “I”)

M for member (it was actually N for number)

G for juuuuddd (he was happy with G for God finally)

T for Tea (t for t.. I kept asking t for.. t for… not realizing t for tea)

I for India

E for egg

T for T

K for kong in the hongkong

I for India

E for egg

M for money @mof.gov.vn

Now that was his name. 30 mins exactly on my watch. And 10 pairs of eyes staring at me in the floor.

After all this I had to call him once again as this was a wrong ID. Huh. He was damn kind and laughed out loud in the end. The third letter AAAI was actually A.

Huh, our cross cultural mgt classes should’ve had such sessions. Then I broke my head whether to write Dear Mr.Kiem / Hi Mr.Kiem/ Mr.Kiem/ Mr Haongtietkiem..

Now if I don’t get a reply from him… God save me.