Life in the mountains of an American daughter-in-law who loves Vietnamese

Hanna Larsen lives with her husband and children in the mountains of South America. Every day, Hanna enjoys talking to her relatives in Vietnamese. The American girl innocently said that every time she hears Vietnamese, her “heart feels happier”.

Vietnamese is a unique language

Five years ago, Hanna Larsen (29 years old, American) decided to leave the US to live a slow life in Vietnam. Hanna is a vegetarian, eating only fruits and vegetables. Therefore, Vietnam, with its many fresh fruits and vegetables, is a suitable destination.

During her first year in Vietnam, Hanna spent a lot of time adjusting to the environment and culture. She tried to learn Vietnamese several times but failed. She felt that Vietnamese was too difficult and gave up many times.

Hanna Larsen and Luong Thanh Duc are living in the mountains of Ecuador.

In 2020, when she moved to Ho Chi Minh City, Hanna decided to seriously study Vietnamese . She studied very hard for the first 6 months. During those 6 months, Hanna did not speak English and limited her contact with foreigners.

Hanna said: “It took me about 2-3 years to speak Vietnamese. I am very grateful to my teacher named Thuy who taught me Vietnamese with all her heart. I lived in her house for several months just to learn Vietnamese.”

To this lovely girl, Vietnamese is a very unique language. Hanna commented that Vietnamese is beautiful, rich, each region has its own slang and jokes.

She feels closer to the people around her when communicating in Vietnamese, something she “rarely feels when speaking in English”.

Wherever she goes, whenever she hears Vietnamese, whether it's a song or a voice, Hanna feels her "heart happier".

Hanna confided that every memory in Vietnam was fun. The most interesting was when Hanna went to the market to buy fruit. The seller did not know that Hanna could speak Vietnamese so he did not use Vietnamese to communicate with her.

Hanna teaches her daughter English, and Duc teaches Vietnamese.

“When I asked for the price in Vietnamese, they were very surprised. They were even more surprised when I bought durian, my favorite food,” Hanna said, laughing.

Hanna can now read and write Vietnamese. She can write Vietnamese better than she can speak. She finds writing Vietnamese interesting, although writing accents was difficult when she first started learning.

Crying when daughter babbles Vietnamese

With a good command of Vietnamese, Hanna went to Da Nang and Binh Thuan to experience living with Vietnamese people in homestays.

While in Binh Thuan, Hanna coincidentally met Luong Thanh Duc - the man she first met in 2018.

At that time, she went to audition for a movie where Duc was an assistant producer. At that time, Hanna's Vietnamese was very limited. The two had to communicate with each other in English.

Hanna's family chooses a minimalist, nature-friendly life

At the second meeting, Hanna was impressed with the Vietnamese accent of the Nghe An guy. Duc was also surprised to hear the American girl speak Vietnamese fluently.

After the initial awkwardness, Hanna and Duc gradually became close, often meeting and chatting. Thanks to that, the two realized that they had many similar interests. Both liked a minimalist life, close to nature.

From simple things, Hanna and Duc got closer and developed feelings for each other. When they fell in love, Hanna had more opportunities to speak Vietnamese and learn new vocabulary.

“Hanna learned Vietnamese before she had a Vietnamese boyfriend. When she started dating, Hanna had more motivation to learn Vietnamese,” the American girl shared innocently.

After a few months together, Hanna became pregnant. At that time, the Covid-19 epidemic broke out everywhere. Hanna was confused, feeling that life was unpredictable. She shared with Duc her desire to go to the Loja region of Ecuador to give birth naturally.

Anh Duc nodded in agreement. The two planned to travel a long distance to a country in the mountainous region of South America.

After many difficulties, Duc and Hanna finally set foot in the land known as the village of longevity in South America.

During her pregnancy, Hanna chose to talk to her daughter in Vietnamese because she found speaking Vietnamese very cute.

However, when her daughter was born and started to speak, Hanna chose to converse in English with her daughter. She assigned the responsibility of teaching her daughter to speak Vietnamese to Duc.

“Hanna doesn’t speak Vietnamese to her baby. Hanna wants her baby to learn with her dad to speak correctly and accurately,” Hanna shared.

The first time she heard her daughter speak Vietnamese, Hanna was so moved that she wanted to cry. The first word she said was “dad”. Gradually, she was able to babble more Vietnamese words. She liked to call “mom” and say “car”, “slowly”…

Hanna's family has just welcomed a new baby. Hanna is happy and hopes that in the future her children will speak Vietnamese to each other.

To spread the interesting life in the mountains of South America, Duc and Hanna chose to share pictures and videos on social networks.

In those videos, Hanna speaks Vietnamese. Because she wants to communicate with more people in Vietnam. She improves her Vietnamese by reading the cute comments from Vietnamese viewers.

In a multicultural and multilingual land, Hanna's small family still chooses to love and spread Vietnamese through small actions.

Vietnamese was added to the language tree in Vilcabamba village last year.

In particular, in the village of Vilcabamba (Loja, Ecuador), where Hanna and her husband live, there is a language tree. Besides other languages, Vietnamese was added to this tree last year.

Every time they saw the language tree in the village, Duc and Hanna felt extremely proud. They smiled and continued to exchange sweet words in Vietnamese.

Vietnamnet.vn