Would g smell just as sweet? Perhaps if I dab on a 'vile' [sic] full of Cool Water like back in high school. You know you still have some Cool Water left. Don't lie!
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Sep 12, 2009
Google 'Tri Nguyen' and you'll find an attractive actor (Johnny Tri Nguyen), a graphic designer with a micro-blog, a bunch of docs, a few architects, and mish mash of others. Search on Facebook and you'll find 20 or so folks with the name, and most with question marks where their faces should be. We're a distrusting bunch. Neither of these searches will find me, as I am set on super private because of all you creepy stalkers that I'll get once I become rich and famous, even more so than Johnny Tri Nguyen.
A quick history about why half of Viet people have the last name Nguyen (and a third have the last name Tran). We're all related. We lie when we say we don't know that other 'Nguyen' who goes to school with your younger brother. It's all a large conspiracy, and we don't want to be jailed for committing incest. My mom's maiden name is Nguyen, and it partly explains why I'm strange (and why I never use the security question 'What's your mother's maiden name' in case you wanted to identity-thieve me).
Joking of course. Though some incest has been committed in the past, I'm sure it's no more frequent than what you would see in the South. Truth is we're all cowards. When the Nguyen dynasty came and conquered the landmass which is geographically smaller than Texas, all the common folk switched their names to 'Nguyen' to escape retribution. When the Tran's did it, people switched to Tran. And then they switched back to Nguyen, because we all know that Nguyen's are 'Nguyen-ers.' (Nguyen is pronounced like 'win' or 'nuwin.')
Last names mean nothing in our culture for all intents and purposes. People are identified by their relation to each other. I would be the youngest son of the oldest son of Mr. Tu (notice it's the first name and not the last name). It didn't really matter what my name was--what was important was my pedigree. And Viet culture dictates using pronouns which relate your position to the person you are speaking of instead of first names. In the old country, I couldn't call my uncle by his first name but by the pronoun that designates that he's my maternal uncle who's younger than my mother. And I would refer to myself as 'nephew' instead of of the pronoun 'I.' Don't marry into Viet culture; it's not worth the trouble for all the pho and spring rolls in Vietnam.
Lesson over. So it doesn't bother most Viet people that there are many others who share their name, because we're defined by our families. Would Romeo be just as sweet if he wasn't Romeo-called? In Vietnam, yes, he'd be just as sweet since no one would call him Romeo anyway. In America, no, because a name is something very personal. I won't ever change my name. 'Minh Tri' (we say our names backwards) means 'Bright Mind.' It's also the name of a popular jewelry store in Houston; Mama says she got the idea from there, 'but it's still a pretty name.'
How is it really pronounced? 'Nguyen' sounds like 'win' or 'nuwin' if you want to be fancy. Most people can't sound the 'ng' properly so we don't bother. There's also an accent mark, but that's just asking too much. 'Minh' is easy. In my dialect, I say it like 'ming,' but the more common dialect pronounces it like 'min' without the 'g.'
And 'Tri'? In my head, it sounds a lot like 'dree' with the 'dr' slurred as much as possible so it sounds like a hard 'ch' or a 'g.' At work, I go by 'try' because I don't care to go into a long explanation to different customers every day.
'So it's spelled T-R-I, but it's pronounced like the letter "g"? What?'
'Yes, now take your drugs and leave.'
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Bonus extra material on the 2-disc Widescreen version:
I've turned off super-secret lock. Feel free to add me on Facebook if you want. You won't be privy to any incriminating photos or anything.
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