Questions about Vietnamese consonant sounds

[tireatwork]

Hi All,

My native tongue is Vietnamese and I'm contemplating about learning Mandarin. I would appreciate if any native Vietnamese speakers can help me identify if the below Mandarin consonant sounds have an equivalent to Vietnamese consonants.

zh sounds like tr ?
ch sounds like th ?

Does Vietnamese have the equivalents of j and q of Mandarin ? These two sound like "ch" in Northern Vietnamese ?

[Pangu]

My native tongue is Vietnamese and I'm contemplating about learning Mandarin. I would appreciate if any native Vietnamese speakers can help me identify if the below Mandarin consonant sounds have an equivalent to Vietnamese consonants.

Interesting, I'm just the opposite. Mandarin being my native language and learning Vietnamese.

zh sounds like tr ?
ch sounds like th ?

From my personal experience, neither of those pairs are equivalents.

Does Vietnamese have the equivalents of j and q of Mandarin ? These two sound like "ch" in Northern Vietnamese ?

J in Mandarin is close to "chi" in Vietnamese as in "chi" (older sister). Q in Mandarin is more like "ch" in English, as in "cheese", there is no equivalent in Vietnamese.

[JackFrost]

You can say Mandarin <zh> is like Vietnamese <tr> if you speak the Southern dialect (Saigon) since the Northern dialect (Hanoi) don't have that sound (it's merged with the <ch> sound). Mandarin <t> is like the Vietnamese <th>. And yes, Mandarin <j> would be the Vietnamese <ch>, yet Vietnamese doesn't have an equivalent for Mandarin <q>. It's like the Vietnamese <ch>, but with an aspiration (just like the Vietnamese <th>).

I hope you're following me ok. If not, do you know the IPA? If yes, why don't you use the Wiki on Vietnamese and Mandarin phonology so you can compare which sounds that both languages share and do not share.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandarin_Chinese#Phonology
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnamese_phonology

Well, I'm hoping the Wiki isn't failing me since I hardly know anything about the Mandarin sounds.