Talk:Vietnam/Archive 1

message: I think this article should be listed under Viet Nam, instead of Vietnam. The latter is a Western mispelling; there is no "Vietnam" any more than there is a "Greatbritain" or a "Unitedstatesofamerica".
I realize that the wrong spelling will attract most of the traffic, but a simple redirect will take care of that, just as it does when (the way it is now) people search for "Viet Nam". - Yossarian4010
:The general consensus seems to be that articles should be named by the most common English usage, and "Vietnam" (rightly or wrongly) is the standard English usage. You could argue that there is no Hungary, just Magyarország, or that there is no Finland, just Suomi, but we still call the articles Hungary and Finland. Moreover, achieving the correct Vietnamese spelling of the name isn't actually possible - to be fully correct, we'd need to put in the accent and tone mark (giving Việt Nam), which I don't think we can do in page titles without breaking things. I would recommend that the English Wikipedia continues to use the standard English name for Vietnam, just as the Vietnamese Wikipedia uses Anh instead of England. -- Vardion 02:49, 1 Jul 2004 (UTC)
thread_title:  Wrong Spelling 

message: ===> Issue: I took the page at Vietnam, and copied it to Viet Nam, since the latter name is more proper. Once I did that, I made "Vietnam" a redirect to "Viet Nam." What is the problem with this? It is perfectly legitimate and proper since:
#"Viet Nam" is the prefered and proper nomenclature, and
#The more common spelling will simply redirect to the proper spelling.
No harm done, and the integrity of their name is kept. If we used the "more common name" as the rule, then "Côte d'Ivoire" would redirect to "Ivory Coast", not vice versa. To make "Viet Nam" (the proper name) redirect to "Vietnam" (the common name), while "Ivory Coast" (the common name) redirects to "Côte d'Ivoire" (the proper name) is inconsistent, and mildly disrespectful. It would be equivalent to making "Thailand" redirect to "Siam" rather than vice-versa, the "Vietnam" spelling is not used by the native population: we know better, so we should act better. If I did, in fact, break any rules by copying/redirecting the pages, I apologize, but this seems the most rational and respectful solution. Correct me if I'm wrong. Justin (koavf) 19:17, Mar 8, 2005 (UTC)
:I can't speak for whoever worked out the Ivory Coast title, but I'm afraid that unless there's a majority in favour of making an exception, policy is to use the most common name in English, and that's "Vietnam" (whether it should be or not). If you disagree with this policy, I suggest taking it up at the appropriate policy page (Wikipedia:Naming conventions (use English), perhaps?). If the policy is changed, or if you can convince people to make an exception here, the page can be moved, but without such a mandate, general policy favours the most common English name.
:The reason for this, I suppose, is the question of who decides what is "correct". Some cases may be simple, but there can be very large arguments over the "proper" name for places — witness the arguement over Danzig/Gdansk, for example. The "most common name" rule provides a clear guideline without getting into debate about what is correct. There would be plenty of people who agree with you, and support "Viet Nam", but there would also be plenty of people who disagree, and say that "Vietnam" is established and correct in English. Without the most common name rule, there would be constant dispute as to what the "proper" title should be.
:(I also respectfully disagree that using "Vietnam" is disrespectful — the Vietnamese call the United States "danh từ", not the "United States", so should Americans be offended?) 
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Pardon me, but something is wrong with your vietnamese, "danh từ"," means noun, and we call the US Hoa Ky` or My~
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:(And also, if you do want to move the page again, please don't just copy-and-paste it into the other article — that messes up the page history, making it harder for people to see who wrote what. It's better to use the "Move" function, although you'd need an Administrator to do that if there's something already present at the intended destination.)
:-- Vardion 21:58, 8 Mar 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Vietnam vs. Viet Nam 

message: Hey, I was wondering what Vietnam Exported relating to Agriculture?
:According to the CIA World Fact Book, the exports are "crude oil, marine products, rice, coffee, rubber, tea, garments, shoes." -- Randy 15:48, 23 Apr 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: Silk. VietGrant 09:08, 15 November 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Exports 

message: Regarding the discussion on whether the name of the country in the article should be Vietnam or Viet Nam, just go to any English-language website originated from Vietnam itself (such as the official newspaper Nhan Dan) and you will see it's spelled Vietnam. Same is true in the website from the Vietnamese Embassy in Washington.
Those who insist on spelling the country name as "Viet Nam" in an English-language document are trying to out-Vietnamese the Vietnamese. I'm a Vietnamese-American and I always use the spelling "Vietnam" when I write in English or French. 
Tom Tran
from Texas
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Vietnamese refer to Viet Nam as Vietnam when they write in English doesn't mean that is the correct way. It just means that it is more commonly used. English is a second language to most Vietnamese, when they learn English, every single piece of writing they found refer to Viet Nam as Vietnam, so they think it is the "English translation" of Vie^.t Nam, gradually, it became a habit. Proof: The same thing happen to any big city in Vietnam, Saigon, Hanoi, Danang,... But NOT for Ho Chi Minh City, Ia Drang, Hai Phong,... Somehow, English speakers decided that Vietnamese shouldn't have space when referring to a location. lt2hieu2004--lt2hieu2004 15:12, 21 May 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Don't Out-Vietnamese the Real Vietnamese