Scrabble’s Two Letter Words – Xu & Ya

Xu

Xu – One-hundredth of a dong. Even before I wrote this article series, this was my favorite two-letter word definition. A xu is one-hundredth of a dong. So, like a baby boomer bachelorette party, let’s talk about dongs.

Xu is a Vietnamese currency no longer in use due to hyperinflation. The Vietnamese đồng is the third lowest valued currency in the world, behind the Venezuelan bolivar and the Iranian rial. A 10,000 dong note is worth about 40 cents American. It’s understandable why the Vietnamese have no interest in minting coins that require a person to gather 25,000 of them to equal the value of a single penny. You’d need to collect twenty-five million xu to buy something at the dollar store. If a xu weighed as much as a penny, then you’d be driving the max capacity of a dump truck full of coins (over thirteen thousand pounds or six thousand kilograms) for that bottle of off-brand canned cheese substitute.

Back in the 19th century, Vietnam was using the Indochinese piastre as its currency. When North Vietnam revolted against French occupying forces, it established a new currency called the dong in 1946. By 1953, a South Vietnamese dong was introduced as well. When the nation united, the South dongs were absorbed into the North’s economy at a rate of eight ‘liberation dongs’ to ten ‘first dongs’. By this point, the war left a major dent in the economy. In 1953, the largest denomination liberty dong printed was the 200 note. By 1975, a 10,000 dong liberty note was printed, but not issued due to the fall of Saigon.

One, two, and five xu coins were minted from aluminum after the war. By 1985, the Vietnamese government was working to strengthen the economy, and introduced a new dong that was worth ten times the value of the old dong. Like New Coke, it was an idea born out of what a committee thought people would respond positively to, with no grounding in the perceptions of everyday consumers. Faith in Vietnamese currency crashed hard, wiping out family savings, and ballooning inflation to 774.7% in 1986. Agricultural products cost twenty times what they did a decade ago. This was coupled with the decision to eliminate all non-state internal trade, since that was thought to be contrary to the principles of communism. You could not purchase a neighbor’s eggs if they had a surplus. You could only pay the exorbitant cost for eggs at your local market, while your neighbor’s eggs rotted. The dong stabilized in the 90s and 00s, but the damage was already done.

Modern Vietnamese economists have asked themselves a seemingly reasonable question. If the dong is this bad in a post-Internet gig economy, what is even the point of having physical currency? Why not move all transactions online and eliminate paper money altogether? With a goal to reduce transactions involving paper down to ten percent, combined with giving people the ability to make electronic transfers and pay utilities at local markets, or via motorbike in remote regions, Vietnam took massive steps to strengthen its economy straight through a global pandemic as other nations flagged behind.

Currently, Vietnam is the 26th largest e-commerce market, with a compound annual growth of 12.8%. Obviously, many citizens are skeptical of moving away from a cash economy—especially those who are old enough to remember what happened when the government monkeyed with the money in the 80s. But this time is different. The people aren’t forced to do things the government’s way. They are instead incentivized due to government initiatives designed to give them options. Classic Coca-Cola isn’t getting replaced, but wouldn’t you like to try this New Coke that so many other people are enjoying? We’ll even leave a New Coke soda fountain right outside your door. The choice is yours.

Ya

Ya – An informal way to say ‘you’. Used with considerable frequency by Busta Rhymes in his song Woo-ha! (Got You All In Check).

Ya – A letter of the Cyrillic alphabet (Я я). Pronounced like the ya in yarn, except when it is preceded by a soft consonant, in which case the y part of the sound is dropped. Sometimes used by cheeky English authors to infeя theяe is peяson speaking with Яussian accent.

Ya – A shout one makes while attacking or exercising, especially with martial arts. One of many ways to shout a ‘kiai’. Wikipedia offers six reasons why a martial arts practitioner might yell a kiai while executing strikes. They are:

• To startle the opposition
• As a means of intimidation
• To encourage breathing, especially among new students
• To express confidence
• To express victory
• To tighten the core muscles and prevent abdominal damage while engaging

I’ve read from martial artist online who insist that ‘real masters of the martial arts don’t yell when punching; that’s a Westernized Hollywood myth.’ But the judges of kendo tournaments do not accept a hit unless it is accompanied by ‘a sufficiently strong and convincing kiai.’ You are not allowed to accidentally win a kendo match. Feel free to practice your kata however you want, but plenty of ‘real martial artists’ definitely strike with a kiai.

Wikipedia doesn’t seem interested in the metaphysical applications of kiai. But a lot of practitioners insist that shouting kiai empowers the spirit and enhances one’s aura. It probably does too, in of the fact that regularly shouting makes you feel like a warrior. And if you feel like a warrior, you are more likely to feel brave and move with confidence.

Likewise, yelling while punching might really make your punches more powerful. A study from Iowa State University found that hand grip strength, measured by squeezing a dynamometer, increased by seven percent when test subjects were asked to kiai while doing it, regardless of whether or not they knew martial arts. Seven percent may not be a noticeable difference on observation but it’s a sizeable difference on impact. It could be the difference between knocking someone out with four punches instead of five—especially if five punches from your opponent would knock you out.