"Hiking"

Language learners soon notice that foreign languages distinguish certain things more finely than their mother's tongue. For example, in English you might find "noodle soup" to envelope: phở, ramen, spaghetti, etc. You find these words being used in casual conversations as if they're native English but they originated elsewhere, and that's just how languages are. Once a thing is picked up by a culture, its name will soon enter that culture's language.

a thing → culture
its name → the culture's language

I never hiked before until I moved to the Pacific Northwest. Having lived mostly in the city back in Vietnam, hiking was simply not a thing. Now, I hike occasionally enough that it warrants a word, at least to myself.

I haven't done empirical research but I suspect the natural speakers adopted "đi hiking" or "đi hike" for "hiking". Of the two, I judge that "hiking" is a more natural adoption for the language since "haic" is not a Vietnamese sound but "hai kinh" is closer. (Compare this with English "hack" which could be simply transcribed as "hắc".) But this [naturalness] does not matter, because the language speakers will adopt whatever they want to adopt. People will opt to say "phở", "ramen", "sake", "soju" over "rice noodle" and "rice wine". Similarly, they will choose "đi hike" over "đi bộ đường dài" (which is the Vietnamese Wikipedia article's name for hiking.)

I looked up the Vietnamese word for "hiking" while preparing for a lesson but was disappointed by what I found on the internet. The proposed translations range from "wandering" to "walk a long way" to "climbing a mountain".

I think the issue could be simply resolved with "đi núi" (literally "go" + "mountain"), or "đi đồi" ** (go + hill) or "đi rừng" (go + forest). Vietnamese use "đi biển" already to mean "go to the beach" so I see these as quite natural choices – if they're not already in use. One consequence is that "the abstractness of a hike" (a long walk that could be through a mountain, a forest, a desert or a hill) is removed, and the specificity of where the hiker goes is required.

đi núi - go (up the) mountain
đi rừng - go (through the) forest
đi biển - go (to the) beach
đi đồi - go (up the) hill [** I believe this is uncommon]

If one distinguishes "mountaineering" and "hiking", perhaps "đi leo núi" versus "đi núi" can serve the purpose. "Leo" literally means "climb" but in certain contexts, when hearing "leo núi" you need not have an image of rock climbing and harnesses in mind (both in English or Vietnamese).

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If one requires "the abstractness of a hike", I propose a novel Vietnamese word which I still feel odd saying it out: đi trường.

trường – Sino-Vietnamese for "long" "lengthy" (Wiktionary)

which can form: đi trường núi, đi trường rừng, đi trường đồi, v.v.
perhaps similar to: đi tắm biển, đi tắm hồ, đi tắm sông.

I believe the awkward feeling stems from the fact that "trường" acts mostly like an adjective, whereas "tắm", "leo" are verbs. However, for "đi bộ" people don't think of "bộ" as its own word, so I am curious if propagating this novel word "đi trường" would eventually create a new normal.

Eventually we might have this set:

• đi bộ - going on a walk
• đi dạo - going on a stroll
• đi trường - going on a hike

By the way, "ăn chay" is "eating vegetarian" while "ăn chay trường" is "being a commited vegetarian".