Essential Vietnamese phrases

Where / there / how / like that — the four words that mark the central Quảng dialect. They replace đâu, kia, sao and thế and are the reason Vietnamese from elsewhere say they cannot understand Da Nang.

'What's that?' or 'What's up?' — the local version of 'cái gì thế?'. Using it once will get you a delighted reaction from anyone over forty.

Temporary residence. Your landlord must declare you to the ward police within 12 hours of move-in; the stamped confirmation goes into your residence card, bank and renewal files.

Work permit. Employer-sponsored and a prerequisite for the residence card — but Da Nang's financial centre and tech sectors fall inside several of the exemption categories, so ask before assuming.

Temporary residence card. It ends visa runs and cannot outlast your work permit or your passport.

Typhoon. Numbered by the season, not named — 'bão số 10' is the tenth of the year. When one is announced, shops board up and the city genuinely stops.

Flooded. The word you want when asking a landlord about the street in October — 'đường này có ngập không?' is a normal, expected question here.

'How much?' Worth learning properly here, because the price for a foreigner asking in English and the price for the same thing asked in Vietnamese are routinely different numbers.

The regional dish: wide turmeric noodles under just enough broth to coat them, with peanuts, herbs and a shard of rice cracker. Eaten for breakfast and never soupy.

Salt coffee — invented in Huế up the road and now everywhere in central Vietnam. Salted cream over condensed-milk coffee, and better than it sounds.

Police, fire, ambulance. Vietnamese-language only. For anything serious, most foreign residents call a private clinic's own line and think hard about whether they need Hue, Saigon or Bangkok.