The French Culture

France, the second largest country in Europe is today the melting pot of diverse cultures. However, it still retains its own unique appeal when it comes to ethnicity, geography and the French language. France has the English Channel to its north and the Mediterranean Sea and the Bay of Biscay to its south. The country is hexagonal in shape and is surrounded by Italy, Spain, Belgium, Andorra and Switzerland. France has contributed in the development of cultures of other nations in the areas of fashion, modern art and cinema.

Language
French is the official and most widely spoken language of France. People of France consider French as the most important part of their cultural identity. It also possesses 75 different regional languages like Flemish, Italian, Basque, Breton, Catalan, Occitan dialects, etc. The Constitution of France recognizes all these regional languages and are even taught in schools as a second language, in the areas where they are spoken.

Arts and Literature
France is considered as the hub of arts and literature. The artistic side of the French can be seen in paintings of the ancient as well as modern times. Every century has gifted France with invaluable painters and artists who have contributed tremendously to the artistic culture of France. It is said to be the home of many renowned artists like Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste, etc. The artistic richness of France is exhibited in various museums of France like Louvre, Picasso and Osray Museum.

Architecture
France is renowned for its beautiful and extraordinary monuments. Every age has contributed to the development of exquisite churches and palaces that are a pride of this country. France has monuments influenced by Roman, Gothic and Italian architecture. Some of the monuments that are the main attraction, for tourists who visit France, are the Eiffel Tower, Palace of Versailles, etc.

Cuisine
The people of France are known for their love for food and French cheese, and wines are popular all over the world. The dishes and style of cooking are different in different parts of the country. The French love good food, and are very particular about preparation and also about the dining etiquette. Cheese and wine are vital components of French food. Entrées with preplated appeal, inclusive of croissants and fruit yogurt are distinctive to French meals. France produces some of the finest wines in the world. Bordeaux, Champagne and Bourgogne French wines are essential components of French culture. 

Fashion
Paris is the 'Fashion Capital of the World'. The presence of dedicated couturier houses, fashion shows and dedicated media like 'Elle' dominate the fashion industry. France's very own designers like Yves Saint Laurent, Claude Montana, Pierre Cardin, Sonia Rykiel, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Paco Rabanne and Christian Lacroix are world renowned fashion designers. 

The Vietnamese Language

Vietnamese is the official language of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. It is the first language of Vietnamese people and a second language of some ethic minorities in Vietnam. It is practiced in the Vietic group, Mon-Khmer branch and Austroasiatic language family.

Vietnamese is an analytical language, and its grammar relies heavily on word order and sentence structure. It is known to be one of the toughest languages, even the Vietnamese themselves find it hard to learn when they are younger.

During the period from the 1st-2nd and 9th – 10th centuries Vietnam was ruled by the Chinese; proto-Vietic was influenced and borrowed much vocabulary from Han, Tai-Kadai and Nam-Dao languages and then became ancient Vietic, a monosyllabic language. From the 10th to 14th century, with the end of Chinese domination, Vietnam established an independent feudal regime. As the result of Vietic being used as a mother-tongue by common people and Han being used as an official language, Sino-Vietnamese (Han-Viet) words were formed by borrowing from Han. Although almost 50% of words were borrowed from Han but most of them were changed, so Vietnamese did not lose its own characteristic. For example, Chinese has 4 different tones but Vietnamese has 6 - mid level, low falling, high rising, mid dipping-rising, high breaking-rising, low falling constricted.

Let's learn some basic Vietnamese together, shall we? Who knows it might be a little of help when you travel to Vietnam! Here we go!

Basic Phrases

Hello	Xin chào
Hi	Chào
How are you?	Bạn có khỏe không?
Fine. And you?	Khỏe. Còn bạn thì sao?
I am happy	Tôi vui
I am sick	Tôi bệnh
I am tired	Tôi mệt
What's your name?	Bạn tên gì?
My name's David	Tôi tên là David
It's lovely to meet you	Rất vui được gặp bạn.
Where are you from?	Bạn từ đâu đến?
How much / how many	Bao Nhiêu
How old are you?	Em/Anh/Chị bao nhiêu tuổi?
I am 23 years old	Tôi là hai mươi ba tuổi
Excuse me	Xin Lỗi
Help me	Gíup tôi với
I am sorry	Xin lỗi
No problem.	Không sao
Thank You	Cám ơn
What is this?	Cái này là cái gì?
Goodbye	Tạm biệt
See you later	Hẹn gặp lại
Goodnight	Chúc ngủ ngon

Singlish

Singlish is commonly regarded with low prestige in Singapore. For this reason, Singlish is not used in formal communication. Standard Singapore English is preferred by many educated Singaporeans.
Due to its origins, Singlish shares many similarities with pidgin varieties of English, and can easily give the impression of "broken English" or "bad English" to a speaker of some other, less divergent variety of English. In addition, the profusion of Singlish features, especially loanwords from Asian languages, mood particles, and topic-prominent structure, can easily make Singlish incomprehensible to a speaker of Standard English. As a result, the use of Singlish is greatly frowned on by the Singapore government, and two former prime ministers, Lee Kuan Yew and Goh Chok Tong, have publicly declared that Singlish is a substandard English that handicaps Singaporeans, presents an obstacle to learning proper English, and renders the speaker incomprehensible to everyone except another Singlish speaker.
Current Singapore Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong has also said that Singlish should not be part of Singapore's identity.  In the interests of promoting equality and better communication with the rest of the world, in 2000 the government launched the Speak Good English Movement to eradicate it, at least from formal usage. The Media Development Authority's free-to-air TV code states that the use of Singlish "should not be encouraged and can only be permitted in interviews, where the interviewee speaks only Singlish." In spite of this, in recent years the use of Singlish on television and radio has proliferated as localised Singlish continues to be popular among Singaporeans, especially in comedies.
In most workplaces, Singlish is avoided in formal settings, especially at job interviews, meetings with clients, presentations or meetings. Standard Singapore English is preferred. Nevertheless, select Singlish phrases are sometimes injected into discussions to build rapport or for a humorous effect, especially when the audience consists mainly of locals.

Japanese Language

Japanese is believed to be linked to the Altaic language family, which includes Turkish, Mongolian and other languages, but also shows similarities to Austronesian languages like Polynesian. 

Writing:
The Japanese writing system consists of three different character sets, including Kanji (several thousands of Chinese characters) and Hiragana and Katakana (two syllabaries of 46 characters each together called Kana). Japanese texts can be written in two ways, that are, In Western style, such as in horizontal rows from the top to the bottom of the page, or in traditional Japanese style

Grammar:
Basic Japanese grammar is relatively simple. Complicating factors such as gender articles and distinctions between plural and singular are missing almost completely. Conjugation rules for verbs and adjectives are simple and almost free of exceptions. 

Pronunciation:
In comparison with other languages, Japanese knows relatively few sounds, and pronunciation poses little problems to most learners. The biggest difficulty are accents, which do exist, but to a much lower extent than in the Chinese language. In addition, there are relatively many homonyms, i.e. words that are pronounced the same way, but have different meanings.