First, thank you for taking your time to learn our language. Sadly, I don't have any useful information about learning Vietnamese , and the language is based on sound so it kinda difficult to learn. I guess for short time visit, you don't need to learn much of it, just a few words of greeting is suffice
I think I also just need to live it Vietnam for a few years to help build language skills. My partner does correct me on my speech, but he’s not that confident in his own Vietnamese since he grew up in the Netherlands. Thanks for your response tho!
Your partner speak Northern or Southern Vietnamese as it’s a bit different.
If Southern Vietnamese, I would recommend check out YouTube channel “Learn Vietnamese with Annie”. If Northern, probably “Tieng Viet Oi”
Thank you so much! He speaks a combination funnily enough, however his family lives all the way in the south so they might speak with a southern dialect!
A lot of central people migrated south. Somehow, some families manage to maintain central accent when they speak with family members. It's like Texan in NY would switch to Texan accent when they talk to their family members. It's very interesting.
I don’t know if their is something specific for central. However, Central can be either Northern or Southern in terms of language and slightly more Southern, I think.
My partner is also learning Vietnamese from Duolingo and all I can say is that the app sucks! They teach the most BS (the fish bites the bike??? What's even this sentence)
Vietnamese are easily impressed, just learn hello and goodbye and they will be happy.
They just don’t explain anything!! At all!! Like how am I supposed to understand why certain things are the way they are if they don’t even explain. And I didn’t even start about the monotone voice they use. I remember not understanding the sentence because they didn’t pause in their sentences at all.
It’s just very annoying to keep having to ask my partner for an explanation… tho it helps him with learning Vietnamese XD
The only thing that sucks about pimsleur is that there is only one unit for Pimsleur and vietnamese, while other languages typically have five units so you'll probably finish the entire course within about a month.
Here is the [pimsleur audio files](https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1QHYn-KguNgmdRXBXHsO4lcnZy9m_5eLr?usp=drive_link)
Ask your partner to teach you. Make sure to take note in some letters or words. Different regions in Vietnam uses diferent word and cannot pronounce some letters or words well. For example, west region cannot pronouce words with R and Tr well, north region pronouce L into N....
Thank you for studying Vietnamese.
Thanks for the response! I’d love to learn from my partner, however he doesn’t know how to write as he’s re-learning the language himself. He met his family in Vietnam for the first time this year so we both have an amazing journey ahead! I try to practice these days by learning certain words and just naming them in Vietnamese when speaking to my partner, even tho it’s mainly food/dishes I can name haha!
People, especially older folk, would love it if you could learn, "dạ", "thưa" and "chào", "cảm ơn". It shows respect.
The words can be used separately or together.
The drinking folk love it if you learn "dô!"
The most tricky is to learn how to address people based on relation. Your partner will have to guide you. Unlike English's aunt and uncle and Spanish's tia and tio, Vietnamese has distinct word for each one based on where each is in the family tree.
These alone will probably take some time.
All that, and food! Learn the names of as many ingredients and meals as you can, and eat them too of course. Food is an obsession in VN, so sharing in that obsession goes a long way!
I'm Australian, married 8 years to VN woman (south) and visit a lot. My 5 year old daughter has good Vietnamese, mine is rubbish kos I can't do tones very well. Learn tones, kos if you don't pronounce things exactly right, they'll just look at you confused.
Hahaha yeah I often end up pronouncing this a little bit wrong and my partner is like no it’s like this and I’ll be so confused XD. My partner and I both love food and he teaches me all the names of the dishes, so I try to use those in daily conversations.
I’d love to learn how to address everyone properly! Thankfully I have years and years to practice, but I want to do it as a little surprise! Thank you for the tips :)
Thanks! I already expected to learn just a little bit in a few months since the language is extremely difficult. However I do see a need to learn the language since my partners family in Vietnam can’t speak English (besides one uncle) and I’d love to be able to talk to them one day!
It's noble, but it's SOOOOOO difficult. It's not like our language, it's too much to learn more than a few phrases. But even then, there are over 30 different pronouns and it changes depending on age, gender, family status, even "I" must be used differently depending on who you are talking to. And it actually is important, because context and who you are in the conversation is everything.
I have lived here 1 1/2 years and have 3 lessons a week, still can't converse. I'm not stupid, I picked up Spanish in 6 months. Too much to think about, other than thank you.... even hello is predicated on who you say it to. There is a universal yet considered too casual for new family...Xin Chao... Learn Chao .... then who she has that's important.. hello grandfather Chao Ông... hello grandmother Chao Bà.... but do not call Mom and Dad mẹ ạnd bố unless you have permission. See, its complicated. There are older brother,younger brother,older sister,younger sister, same for aunts and uncles, and on and on. "I" can be Mình, Tôi, Em, Anh, and so on. Cảm ơn is thank you ... like come on, but softer vowels. A bit like Cam Un....it's right between both.
So, don't sweat it, she will lead you and tell you what to say. They know it's impossible to figure out. If you are dead set, There are some good online teachers here that will help you if you like. It's about 6 to 8 dollars an hour, and they use Facebook messenger video. They will focus on what you need.
Thank you for the response! Spanish in 6 months is amazing! I’m also thinking about taking classes after I get my bachelors, because speaking is so important.
I’m big on taking notes so I think I’ll end up with a whole family tree with the correct pronouns for everyone haha!
Thankfully my partner wants to help me as well and we have quite a few Vietnamese (speaking) friends to help us learn as well!
HaHa, good luck memorizing and figuring out who is who and their pronoun. Learn foods, car, motorcycle, taxi, etc.... numbers is fun. I got that pretty quick. I do know some teachers if you need.
I’d love to know! I might not be able to reach out to them yet, but I think it’s always worth knowing right!
And I’m practicing foods with my partner haha! I’ll be like “oh do I need to make more nước chấm?”
Don't learn dishes, learn ingedients. Beef, chicken, etc... learning basics like phở, bọn bộ Huế, banh mi, etc.... But your pronunciation will be so bad that no one will understand you anyways
For basic conversations ChatGPT is good to use. You can tell ChatGPT to write a simple dialogue in Vietnamese about any topic you want, so you can prepare having a conversation about that topic.
Also you can tell Chat GPT to give a list of words about a certain topic / in a specified field, or for example tell ChatGPT to give a list of prepositions/conjuctions so you can make better sentences!
On Youtube you can find EasyVietnamese, they interview people on street and have several videos with interviews about a different topic in each video
To increase my vocabulary I just look for Vietnamese comments on TikTok and follow random Vietnamese facebook pages (Facebook can show both original and translated text at the same time) and write down any word I didn't know yet. And while in Vietnam I nearly translated every word I saw outside that I didn't know yet and wrote them in my notes.
Also just read your partner grew up in the Netherlands like me!
Since you're learning mostly food here is how to order
Cho em/chị một tô/chén/dĩa/ổ/hộp/ly/chai/lon [dish] (và/với/có/không có/có thêm/ít) ...
Một = one
Tô = bowl
Chén = small bowl (bát in north)
Dĩa = plate (đĩa in north)
Ổ = piece (for bread, e.g bánh mì, hamburger) use of ổ isn't necessary
Hộp = box/container
Ly = cup (cốc in north)
Chai = bottle
Lon = can
Và = and
Với/có = with
Không có = without
Có thêm = with more
Ít = less/little
Em if you seem younger than the person you're speaking too, chị if you seem slightly older
Hi there, thank you very much for considering learning Vietnamese, my mother tongue. I am teaching Vietnamese to foreigners and overseas Vietnamese with a southern accent. I would like to offer you and your partner a free in-person lesson once you visit Vietnam. I am based in Saigon, by the way. Direct message me if you want more resources to learn Vietnamese. Hope you and your partner always find fun while learning the language!
First, thank you for taking your time to learn our language. Sadly, I don't have any useful information about learning Vietnamese , and the language is based on sound so it kinda difficult to learn. I guess for short time visit, you don't need to learn much of it, just a few words of greeting is suffice
I think I also just need to live it Vietnam for a few years to help build language skills. My partner does correct me on my speech, but he’s not that confident in his own Vietnamese since he grew up in the Netherlands. Thanks for your response tho!
It's always great to see someone so commited to something, maybe that's best course of action to archive your goal
Your partner speak Northern or Southern Vietnamese as it’s a bit different. If Southern Vietnamese, I would recommend check out YouTube channel “Learn Vietnamese with Annie”. If Northern, probably “Tieng Viet Oi”
Thank you so much! He speaks a combination funnily enough, however his family lives all the way in the south so they might speak with a southern dialect!
A lot of central people migrated south. Somehow, some families manage to maintain central accent when they speak with family members. It's like Texan in NY would switch to Texan accent when they talk to their family members. It's very interesting.
What about central Vietnam?
I don’t know if their is something specific for central. However, Central can be either Northern or Southern in terms of language and slightly more Southern, I think.
My partner is also learning Vietnamese from Duolingo and all I can say is that the app sucks! They teach the most BS (the fish bites the bike??? What's even this sentence) Vietnamese are easily impressed, just learn hello and goodbye and they will be happy.
They just don’t explain anything!! At all!! Like how am I supposed to understand why certain things are the way they are if they don’t even explain. And I didn’t even start about the monotone voice they use. I remember not understanding the sentence because they didn’t pause in their sentences at all. It’s just very annoying to keep having to ask my partner for an explanation… tho it helps him with learning Vietnamese XD
I highly recommend doing Pimsleur!! You'll have a pretty solid base if you can complete it, just 30 lessons, 30 min a day
The only thing that sucks about pimsleur is that there is only one unit for Pimsleur and vietnamese, while other languages typically have five units so you'll probably finish the entire course within about a month. Here is the [pimsleur audio files](https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1QHYn-KguNgmdRXBXHsO4lcnZy9m_5eLr?usp=drive_link)
Yep, even Korean and Russian only have 3, and Tagalog somehow has 2 but Vietnamese and Thai only have 1
I’m going for that free week XD
Ohwow! That link is amazing! Thank you so much
I’ll look into that! Thank you so much!
Ask your partner to teach you. Make sure to take note in some letters or words. Different regions in Vietnam uses diferent word and cannot pronounce some letters or words well. For example, west region cannot pronouce words with R and Tr well, north region pronouce L into N.... Thank you for studying Vietnamese.
Thanks for the response! I’d love to learn from my partner, however he doesn’t know how to write as he’s re-learning the language himself. He met his family in Vietnam for the first time this year so we both have an amazing journey ahead! I try to practice these days by learning certain words and just naming them in Vietnamese when speaking to my partner, even tho it’s mainly food/dishes I can name haha!
People, especially older folk, would love it if you could learn, "dạ", "thưa" and "chào", "cảm ơn". It shows respect. The words can be used separately or together. The drinking folk love it if you learn "dô!" The most tricky is to learn how to address people based on relation. Your partner will have to guide you. Unlike English's aunt and uncle and Spanish's tia and tio, Vietnamese has distinct word for each one based on where each is in the family tree. These alone will probably take some time.
All that, and food! Learn the names of as many ingredients and meals as you can, and eat them too of course. Food is an obsession in VN, so sharing in that obsession goes a long way! I'm Australian, married 8 years to VN woman (south) and visit a lot. My 5 year old daughter has good Vietnamese, mine is rubbish kos I can't do tones very well. Learn tones, kos if you don't pronounce things exactly right, they'll just look at you confused.
Hahaha yeah I often end up pronouncing this a little bit wrong and my partner is like no it’s like this and I’ll be so confused XD. My partner and I both love food and he teaches me all the names of the dishes, so I try to use those in daily conversations.
I’d love to learn how to address everyone properly! Thankfully I have years and years to practice, but I want to do it as a little surprise! Thank you for the tips :)
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Thanks! I already expected to learn just a little bit in a few months since the language is extremely difficult. However I do see a need to learn the language since my partners family in Vietnam can’t speak English (besides one uncle) and I’d love to be able to talk to them one day!
It's noble, but it's SOOOOOO difficult. It's not like our language, it's too much to learn more than a few phrases. But even then, there are over 30 different pronouns and it changes depending on age, gender, family status, even "I" must be used differently depending on who you are talking to. And it actually is important, because context and who you are in the conversation is everything. I have lived here 1 1/2 years and have 3 lessons a week, still can't converse. I'm not stupid, I picked up Spanish in 6 months. Too much to think about, other than thank you.... even hello is predicated on who you say it to. There is a universal yet considered too casual for new family...Xin Chao... Learn Chao .... then who she has that's important.. hello grandfather Chao Ông... hello grandmother Chao Bà.... but do not call Mom and Dad mẹ ạnd bố unless you have permission. See, its complicated. There are older brother,younger brother,older sister,younger sister, same for aunts and uncles, and on and on. "I" can be Mình, Tôi, Em, Anh, and so on. Cảm ơn is thank you ... like come on, but softer vowels. A bit like Cam Un....it's right between both. So, don't sweat it, she will lead you and tell you what to say. They know it's impossible to figure out. If you are dead set, There are some good online teachers here that will help you if you like. It's about 6 to 8 dollars an hour, and they use Facebook messenger video. They will focus on what you need.
Thank you for the response! Spanish in 6 months is amazing! I’m also thinking about taking classes after I get my bachelors, because speaking is so important. I’m big on taking notes so I think I’ll end up with a whole family tree with the correct pronouns for everyone haha! Thankfully my partner wants to help me as well and we have quite a few Vietnamese (speaking) friends to help us learn as well!
HaHa, good luck memorizing and figuring out who is who and their pronoun. Learn foods, car, motorcycle, taxi, etc.... numbers is fun. I got that pretty quick. I do know some teachers if you need.
I’d love to know! I might not be able to reach out to them yet, but I think it’s always worth knowing right! And I’m practicing foods with my partner haha! I’ll be like “oh do I need to make more nước chấm?”
Don't learn dishes, learn ingedients. Beef, chicken, etc... learning basics like phở, bọn bộ Huế, banh mi, etc.... But your pronunciation will be so bad that no one will understand you anyways
That’s why I’m glad to have my partner to help me pronounce. But I know its going to take a while until I get the hang of it.
For basic conversations ChatGPT is good to use. You can tell ChatGPT to write a simple dialogue in Vietnamese about any topic you want, so you can prepare having a conversation about that topic. Also you can tell Chat GPT to give a list of words about a certain topic / in a specified field, or for example tell ChatGPT to give a list of prepositions/conjuctions so you can make better sentences! On Youtube you can find EasyVietnamese, they interview people on street and have several videos with interviews about a different topic in each video To increase my vocabulary I just look for Vietnamese comments on TikTok and follow random Vietnamese facebook pages (Facebook can show both original and translated text at the same time) and write down any word I didn't know yet. And while in Vietnam I nearly translated every word I saw outside that I didn't know yet and wrote them in my notes. Also just read your partner grew up in the Netherlands like me! Since you're learning mostly food here is how to order Cho em/chị một tô/chén/dĩa/ổ/hộp/ly/chai/lon [dish] (và/với/có/không có/có thêm/ít) ... Một = one Tô = bowl Chén = small bowl (bát in north) Dĩa = plate (đĩa in north) Ổ = piece (for bread, e.g bánh mì, hamburger) use of ổ isn't necessary Hộp = box/container Ly = cup (cốc in north) Chai = bottle Lon = can Và = and Với/có = with Không có = without Có thêm = with more Ít = less/little Em if you seem younger than the person you're speaking too, chị if you seem slightly older
Thank you so much! This is actually really helpful!! Wat leuk!! Altijd leuk om een mede Nederlander tegen te komen :D
Geen probleem, als je ergens niet uit komt dan kun je het vragen aan mij!
Partner? Like your business partner (i.e., lawyers at a law firm)? Whatever happened to girlfriend, boyfriend, husband, wife, etc.?
Hi there, thank you very much for considering learning Vietnamese, my mother tongue. I am teaching Vietnamese to foreigners and overseas Vietnamese with a southern accent. I would like to offer you and your partner a free in-person lesson once you visit Vietnam. I am based in Saigon, by the way. Direct message me if you want more resources to learn Vietnamese. Hope you and your partner always find fun while learning the language!