VNU Jounal of Foreign Studies, Vol. 29, No. 2 (2013) 76-83 76 Vietnamese and Korean: more alike than different Lâm Quang ông* University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi    Street,  , Hanoi, Vietnam Received 20 June 2012 Revised 17 May 2013; accepted 10 June 2013 Abstract: Through a number of idiomatic expressions in Korean and Vietnamese, and based on the author’s knowledge and experience as an English speaker and teacher, the paper shares the author’s preliminary findings of the linguistic and cultura l similarities of the two peoples, and gives additional support to the status of Konglish (Korean English) and Vinglish or Vietlish (Vietnamese English) as part of the Asian Englishes – the prideworthy varieties of the World’s Englishes to date. Keywords: idioms, proverbs, Konglish, Vinglish/ Vietlish, Asian Englishes. 1. Introduction * Recalling a discussion at the 8th Asian TEFL conference hosted by our University of Languages and International Studies (ULIS), VNU in 2010, I heard an English teacher raise such questions as “Can we speak English the Asian ways?”, “Can we use Asian idioms like te are jst pots ad pas, o ca’t be bot the soccer player and the referee at the same time instead of the American they are just Coke and Pepsi or the British o ca’t be bot te judge and the jury at the same time respectively?” “Can we make ourselves understood when speaking Asian English?” “What should we teach our students in this _______ * Tel.: +84-913323447 E-mail: volamthudong@gmail.com regard?” etc. These have been controversial topics of numerous debates among Asian English teachers to date, and I tend to agree with many of them that Asian English, or rather Asian Englishes have all the rights to be recognized as varieties of the English language (and they have truly been), and inter-cultural communication via the medium of English is always possible because we human beings are in fact more alike than different, as evidenced in the Vietnamese and Korean idiomatic expressions I have been able to find with my still very limited knowledge of the language. In this paper, I would like to share my preliminary findings of the linguistic and cultural similarities between Vietnamese and Korean peoples before giving additional support to the status of Konglish (Korean