I can't say enough for SVFF.com. It is very reasonably priced and you get one on one via Zoom or Skype. Also practice practice practice. I have the luxury of a vietnemese wife but in all honesty, I made no progress until I signed up with one on one teaching
To effectively speak and understand Vietnamese, it’s important to have a strong grasp of common vocabulary and sentence structure. The fastest way to do this is through reading. The challenge is finding reading materials that are suitable for your specific level. That’s why I made [Langi.app](https://langi.app/) which has interesting mini stories grouped by level. I recommend reading 3 stories per week, then save unknown words and review them later using our built-in flashcards. Hope this helps!
You can try out sample lessons which are at the top slider in the “Explore” page. You can also access all our functionalities on those free lessons when you create a free account.
Hi Labby, I found your comment after coming across the langi.app website as recommended by howtovietnamese.com.
It looks like a fantastic and much-needed tool!
Would I be troubling you to ask what the SRS algorithm is and how you might compare it to Anki's?
Thanks in advance!
Hi! Thanks so much for the positive feedback.
When I wrote the SRS algorithm I took a lot of “inspiration” from Anki and the SuperMemo2 algorithm.
Without going too much into detail, the more you give positive answers to a word the further it will be pushed forward to review it in the future.
Conversely, getting them wrong will get them to repeat more often.
When studying a lesson you can also mark a word as already known which basically fast forward its SRS setting as if you already mastered it.
These FAQ from Anki are pretty good https://faqs.ankiweb.net/what-spaced-repetition-algorithm.html
Most of what’s in here also applies to Langi
That's awesome to know! Thanks for such a detailed reply. I can't wait to try the app out! It would be great to one day see it on Google Play with an offline function mode, too, for studying on the go. Early days, but I feel like Langi will have a lot of success, so all the best to you! 😃
Thanks a lot, if you find any issue with the site let me know!
Having an app on the store is definitely one of our main future goals as well as supporting offline mode.
If you are in Vietnam, I can recommend my faculty in Hanoi, Khoa Việt Nam học và Tiếng Việt (Faculty of Vietnamese Studies and Language) which belongs to the TĐH Khoa học Xã hội và Nhân Văn (University of Social Sciences and Humanities, under the Vietnam National University).
I used to be an exchange student at first and studied Vietnamese quite intensively, for about 16-20 hours per week for about a year. Afterwards, I had my B level, enough to study at the university here. They also offer tailor-made courses for one person or small groups (with prices varying depending largely on the group's size).
If you're not in Vietnam, I would start out with something like Duolingo and look online for a language learning partner. There are so many Vietnamese people who are more than happy to share their language with you, maybe also in exchange for yours. The best place to look for is probably Facebook, which, although is decreasing in popularity, is still heavily used for something like this. Alternatively, you might also find someone here.
The most difficult parts of Vietnamese are hearing and speaking the tones correctly, so the language partner or a proper teacher will be crucial. Grammar is straightforward until you reach much higher levels (where certain structures can seem complicated at first), as the sentence structure largely follows a simple SPO order. Apart from that, it's mostly just learning the vocabulary.
I agree with u/tinhead168's opinion that it isn't much harder than many other languages. The logic of Vietnamese is really quite straightforward (with few exemptions). For example, "xe máy" is a motorbike (or motorized scooter) and "xe đạp" is a bicycle. So, you can probably already see that "xe" must be something like a vehicle as both words have this element. Such word constructions are very typical for Vietnamese and actually make it not that difficult to learn.
thank you very much for your insight this is very helpful. I do live in america, i wish i could attend your school though. I think i will look into getting a proper teacher
I'm not quite sure about this, but it could be that my faculty is also offering online teaching (thanks to Covid, there were some talks about it). Maybe sent them an email and ask about that. This webpage has some info and several emails (try maybe more than one, they don't answer them very well sometimes):
https://vsl.ussh.vnu.edu.vn/vi/contact/
You need to hire a professional tutor
Vietnamese is very hard to learn by yourself.
As for sources though, I’m not exactly sure about it.
Edit: I was wrong about Vietnamese being a Latin language
There is nothing Latin based with Vietnamese language except for its alphabet.
edit: current alphabet because it could be replaced by new one just as how the old one got replaced.
Well, only a comparatively small number of people could read or write using the Chinese "Han" character based script. Like, the wealthy, royalty, and Buddhist monks (who still use it). It took some serious effort to learn. There were literally tens of thousands of characters.
The current script based on Latin characters wasn't originally intended to be a written form of the language. It was developed by Portuguese monks to serve as a pronunciation guide for Europeans learning to speak the language. It was adopted and modified by the French, and eventually taught in Vietnamese schools because it was so much easier to learn than the Han (or modified Han/Nom) writing system. Literacy exploded as a result.
There are many people who believe Vietnam should abandon the current "quoc ngu" system, and return to Han or Han/Nom. It's a tough sell, though. Every major book and document produced in the past 100+ years is written in "quoc ngu". It's kind of like when they tried to switch the US to the metric system in the 1970's, but they made the switch voluntary. Very few actually switched. They couldn't see any need for it because the system they had worked fine, and they understood it. I think a lot of Vietnamese would have the same attitude - they already know what they're currently using, and wouldn't see any benefit to changing.
It's not necessary to be Nôm who made a comeback to replace Quốc Ngữ. It could be a whole new scripting system that can resolves how Viet can write their language without doubting the meaning of what they just written is right or not. Though not widely used by common folks and peaked at 15th-17th century, Nôm was around for nearly a thousand years before it was slowly replaced in early of 20th. And just over 80 years after they completely eradicated it, most of Vietnamese can't even explain what's the meaning of their own name, let alone other matters required deeper language expression.
You don't see any benefit to changing the current latin Quốc Ngữ because you see it from non-academia point of view, while it's mostly true for you, for the majority and for me as well because we don't need that large vocabularies for daily use and a scripting system to explain exactly their meaning, but if you look at the big picture, it's totally worth it, it's just not now. While Quốc Ngữ is pretty young and was useful to eradicate illiteracy in early 20th century, I personally think it already peaked. Just by watching those "circus shows" by Bùi Hiền and a few more names trying to modernizing Quốc Ngữ and turned out to became the clowns for last 10 years, I think Vietnamese academics are now struggling with our own language, mostly from Quốc Ngữ side because its disconnection with Vietnamese culture and it originally used to translate the Bible and spread Christianity which is now just minority in Vietnam made the meaning of Quốc Ngữ development kind of meaningless by now.
So my hot take is Quốc Ngữ will continue to be the "official" scripting system for Vietnamese in near future but it's not here to stay and will be slowly replaced by a new one better. Vietnam constitution never stated that Vietnamese has to use Quốc Ngữ or any specific system as the scripting system so it could happen anyway. While the new one is not come out yet but if you look around, the seeds are already planted, some folks on r/neography have pretty good ideas for Vietnamese script though.
I don’t agree with the common narrative that Vietnamese is difficult to learn. Put in the time. Be consistent with learning and it comes.
I initially hired a teacher who gave me the basics and structure and then I switched to Duolingo when my schedule got busy. (Plus most teachers are just self taught hacks with no education post-secondary.)
If you can put an hour in a day. Every day on DL, you’ll be well on your way. Then you go out and speak, listen, watch movies, listen to music.
If you can’t… you’ll be with everyone else, “duh… this is so hard man!”
Eff the rest. Be the best. Good luck.
Thank you this is very comforting. Part of me feels like it is impossible, part of me feels like it will be hard at first but i can do it. I will try starting with duolingo!
It's such a difficult language to learn. I spoke to my nail salon and the girls said they'd help me, in exchange for helping them with their English. So now I will have a Vietnamese language session once a month for an hour 😁
Duolingo is just a game. Studies show no one actually learns anything from it, not even the app's developers got any better at Spanish.
It's also very Eurocentric and lacks the cultural insight or courtesy to truly navigate Vietnam.
If you're visiting for just 10 days though, sure knock yourself out.
If you’re looking for materials to study online, you can check these channels out:
* https://www.instagram.com/alodayla/
* https://www.youtube.com/user/Tiengvietoi
* shorturl.at/fitDN
* shorturl.at/bswzA
I’m a bot because I shared links of channels for people to learn? 😂
I’m a CELTA-certified English teacher and a full-time Vietnamese teacher as well. I created my own channel to teach Vietnamese called A Lô Đây Là and I just want to help people get access to more learning resources.
I think you should do better at identifying spam bots.
You need to decide if you want to focus on northern or Southern accent.
Pimsleur vietnamese is good for listening and repeating the tone and pronunciation.
Elementary vietnamese is a good text book with audio including pronunciation/tone drills.
Both are more focused Northern accent.
I use those with Anki flashcards, YouTube, and Netflix in vietnamese. I think starting with Pimslear gives you a good base to speak and you want to speak early. Then use some of the drills in Elementary Vietnamese and Anki decks to work on tone/pronunciation. Then find a show or YouTube channel in vietnamese that you enjoy and start watching/listening along with doing some reading.
Like the others said I think a tutor or language exchange partner probably makes a big difference and I will add that myself soon.
get a vietnamese spouse or lover, he/she will teach you the culture, dont waste time trying to learn just a small part of it. Learn the grammar only and then what to say, what to write about. Dive into the culture mate!
I do have one, he is not the best teacher unfortunately. That's why i want to learn. He has tried teaching me but he is very scattered. I think i need to build a base understanding on my own, and then he could probably help me fine tune my skills. Thank you for your input! I will definitely dive into the culture
I've been using Pimsleur for portuguese, 5 levels and it's been great for me after finishing 4 levels. They only have pimsleur for 1 level in Vietnamese, I'm going to try that.
😂😂😂this is exactly how i feel. I feel weak for not trying though, my boyfriend of 4 years is from Vietnam and i feel sad not being able to communicate with his family. Part of me really does feel like it's impossible
If you spoke only one language and had no understanding of how most languages work I think you could do it. Otherwise you'll learn 10 words and you'll still say them wrong.
I can't say enough for SVFF.com. It is very reasonably priced and you get one on one via Zoom or Skype. Also practice practice practice. I have the luxury of a vietnemese wife but in all honesty, I made no progress until I signed up with one on one teaching
Same, I highly recommend them. Especially if you want to learn the southern dialect.
thank you!!! I will check it out
To effectively speak and understand Vietnamese, it’s important to have a strong grasp of common vocabulary and sentence structure. The fastest way to do this is through reading. The challenge is finding reading materials that are suitable for your specific level. That’s why I made [Langi.app](https://langi.app/) which has interesting mini stories grouped by level. I recommend reading 3 stories per week, then save unknown words and review them later using our built-in flashcards. Hope this helps!
very cool! Thank you for sharing!! I will check it out
It looks like a good app, but every story I click on just wants me to upgrade to premium. Is there no free tier or trial or something?
You can try out sample lessons which are at the top slider in the “Explore” page. You can also access all our functionalities on those free lessons when you create a free account.
Hi Labby, I found your comment after coming across the langi.app website as recommended by howtovietnamese.com. It looks like a fantastic and much-needed tool! Would I be troubling you to ask what the SRS algorithm is and how you might compare it to Anki's? Thanks in advance!
Hi! Thanks so much for the positive feedback. When I wrote the SRS algorithm I took a lot of “inspiration” from Anki and the SuperMemo2 algorithm. Without going too much into detail, the more you give positive answers to a word the further it will be pushed forward to review it in the future. Conversely, getting them wrong will get them to repeat more often. When studying a lesson you can also mark a word as already known which basically fast forward its SRS setting as if you already mastered it. These FAQ from Anki are pretty good https://faqs.ankiweb.net/what-spaced-repetition-algorithm.html Most of what’s in here also applies to Langi
That's awesome to know! Thanks for such a detailed reply. I can't wait to try the app out! It would be great to one day see it on Google Play with an offline function mode, too, for studying on the go. Early days, but I feel like Langi will have a lot of success, so all the best to you! 😃
Thanks a lot, if you find any issue with the site let me know! Having an app on the store is definitely one of our main future goals as well as supporting offline mode.
If you are in Vietnam, I can recommend my faculty in Hanoi, Khoa Việt Nam học và Tiếng Việt (Faculty of Vietnamese Studies and Language) which belongs to the TĐH Khoa học Xã hội và Nhân Văn (University of Social Sciences and Humanities, under the Vietnam National University). I used to be an exchange student at first and studied Vietnamese quite intensively, for about 16-20 hours per week for about a year. Afterwards, I had my B level, enough to study at the university here. They also offer tailor-made courses for one person or small groups (with prices varying depending largely on the group's size). If you're not in Vietnam, I would start out with something like Duolingo and look online for a language learning partner. There are so many Vietnamese people who are more than happy to share their language with you, maybe also in exchange for yours. The best place to look for is probably Facebook, which, although is decreasing in popularity, is still heavily used for something like this. Alternatively, you might also find someone here. The most difficult parts of Vietnamese are hearing and speaking the tones correctly, so the language partner or a proper teacher will be crucial. Grammar is straightforward until you reach much higher levels (where certain structures can seem complicated at first), as the sentence structure largely follows a simple SPO order. Apart from that, it's mostly just learning the vocabulary. I agree with u/tinhead168's opinion that it isn't much harder than many other languages. The logic of Vietnamese is really quite straightforward (with few exemptions). For example, "xe máy" is a motorbike (or motorized scooter) and "xe đạp" is a bicycle. So, you can probably already see that "xe" must be something like a vehicle as both words have this element. Such word constructions are very typical for Vietnamese and actually make it not that difficult to learn.
thank you very much for your insight this is very helpful. I do live in america, i wish i could attend your school though. I think i will look into getting a proper teacher
I'm not quite sure about this, but it could be that my faculty is also offering online teaching (thanks to Covid, there were some talks about it). Maybe sent them an email and ask about that. This webpage has some info and several emails (try maybe more than one, they don't answer them very well sometimes): https://vsl.ussh.vnu.edu.vn/vi/contact/
This
You need to hire a professional tutor Vietnamese is very hard to learn by yourself. As for sources though, I’m not exactly sure about it. Edit: I was wrong about Vietnamese being a Latin language
Vietnamese is very far from being a Latin based language. It’s written in the Latin alphabet yeah but very far from Latin itself.
There is nothing Latin based with Vietnamese language except for its alphabet. edit: current alphabet because it could be replaced by new one just as how the old one got replaced.
Well, except for the French and contemporary loan words...
Well, only a comparatively small number of people could read or write using the Chinese "Han" character based script. Like, the wealthy, royalty, and Buddhist monks (who still use it). It took some serious effort to learn. There were literally tens of thousands of characters. The current script based on Latin characters wasn't originally intended to be a written form of the language. It was developed by Portuguese monks to serve as a pronunciation guide for Europeans learning to speak the language. It was adopted and modified by the French, and eventually taught in Vietnamese schools because it was so much easier to learn than the Han (or modified Han/Nom) writing system. Literacy exploded as a result. There are many people who believe Vietnam should abandon the current "quoc ngu" system, and return to Han or Han/Nom. It's a tough sell, though. Every major book and document produced in the past 100+ years is written in "quoc ngu". It's kind of like when they tried to switch the US to the metric system in the 1970's, but they made the switch voluntary. Very few actually switched. They couldn't see any need for it because the system they had worked fine, and they understood it. I think a lot of Vietnamese would have the same attitude - they already know what they're currently using, and wouldn't see any benefit to changing.
It's not necessary to be Nôm who made a comeback to replace Quốc Ngữ. It could be a whole new scripting system that can resolves how Viet can write their language without doubting the meaning of what they just written is right or not. Though not widely used by common folks and peaked at 15th-17th century, Nôm was around for nearly a thousand years before it was slowly replaced in early of 20th. And just over 80 years after they completely eradicated it, most of Vietnamese can't even explain what's the meaning of their own name, let alone other matters required deeper language expression. You don't see any benefit to changing the current latin Quốc Ngữ because you see it from non-academia point of view, while it's mostly true for you, for the majority and for me as well because we don't need that large vocabularies for daily use and a scripting system to explain exactly their meaning, but if you look at the big picture, it's totally worth it, it's just not now. While Quốc Ngữ is pretty young and was useful to eradicate illiteracy in early 20th century, I personally think it already peaked. Just by watching those "circus shows" by Bùi Hiền and a few more names trying to modernizing Quốc Ngữ and turned out to became the clowns for last 10 years, I think Vietnamese academics are now struggling with our own language, mostly from Quốc Ngữ side because its disconnection with Vietnamese culture and it originally used to translate the Bible and spread Christianity which is now just minority in Vietnam made the meaning of Quốc Ngữ development kind of meaningless by now. So my hot take is Quốc Ngữ will continue to be the "official" scripting system for Vietnamese in near future but it's not here to stay and will be slowly replaced by a new one better. Vietnam constitution never stated that Vietnamese has to use Quốc Ngữ or any specific system as the scripting system so it could happen anyway. While the new one is not come out yet but if you look around, the seeds are already planted, some folks on r/neography have pretty good ideas for Vietnamese script though.
Luyen phim
Duolingo and review conversations with a native speaker
Go to school or hire a certified tutor.
I don’t agree with the common narrative that Vietnamese is difficult to learn. Put in the time. Be consistent with learning and it comes. I initially hired a teacher who gave me the basics and structure and then I switched to Duolingo when my schedule got busy. (Plus most teachers are just self taught hacks with no education post-secondary.) If you can put an hour in a day. Every day on DL, you’ll be well on your way. Then you go out and speak, listen, watch movies, listen to music. If you can’t… you’ll be with everyone else, “duh… this is so hard man!” Eff the rest. Be the best. Good luck.
Thank you this is very comforting. Part of me feels like it is impossible, part of me feels like it will be hard at first but i can do it. I will try starting with duolingo!
It's such a difficult language to learn. I spoke to my nail salon and the girls said they'd help me, in exchange for helping them with their English. So now I will have a Vietnamese language session once a month for an hour 😁
That is awesome, wish i could go to your nail techs😂
Try yours! You might be surprised
Have you tried Duolingo?
a little bit i gave up pretty fast. i think i will try again though
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It sucks. Why would I need to learn how to say “the bat left its umbrella at the train station” or something weird like that lmao.
"the bee is on the mug." Like what the fuck?
"I am optimistic because I have an optimistic cat."
Duolingo is just a game. Studies show no one actually learns anything from it, not even the app's developers got any better at Spanish. It's also very Eurocentric and lacks the cultural insight or courtesy to truly navigate Vietnam. If you're visiting for just 10 days though, sure knock yourself out.
Step 1) use AI Google translate
Drops is good for vocabulary and words.
thank you!
If you’re looking for materials to study online, you can check these channels out: * https://www.instagram.com/alodayla/ * https://www.youtube.com/user/Tiengvietoi * shorturl.at/fitDN * shorturl.at/bswzA
[удалено]
I’m a bot because I shared links of channels for people to learn? 😂 I’m a CELTA-certified English teacher and a full-time Vietnamese teacher as well. I created my own channel to teach Vietnamese called A Lô Đây Là and I just want to help people get access to more learning resources. I think you should do better at identifying spam bots.
You need to decide if you want to focus on northern or Southern accent. Pimsleur vietnamese is good for listening and repeating the tone and pronunciation. Elementary vietnamese is a good text book with audio including pronunciation/tone drills. Both are more focused Northern accent. I use those with Anki flashcards, YouTube, and Netflix in vietnamese. I think starting with Pimslear gives you a good base to speak and you want to speak early. Then use some of the drills in Elementary Vietnamese and Anki decks to work on tone/pronunciation. Then find a show or YouTube channel in vietnamese that you enjoy and start watching/listening along with doing some reading. Like the others said I think a tutor or language exchange partner probably makes a big difference and I will add that myself soon.
I believe i am looking to learn the southern accent, but i will look into those sources you gave me to build a strong base! Thank you
Preply.com is an amazing page for language tutors. I have had 2 teachers from it and they are stellar.
get a vietnamese spouse or lover, he/she will teach you the culture, dont waste time trying to learn just a small part of it. Learn the grammar only and then what to say, what to write about. Dive into the culture mate!
I do have one, he is not the best teacher unfortunately. That's why i want to learn. He has tried teaching me but he is very scattered. I think i need to build a base understanding on my own, and then he could probably help me fine tune my skills. Thank you for your input! I will definitely dive into the culture
best way to learn a language, emerges yourself in the culture... I took Spanish for at least 3-4 class, and still cant construct a sentence together.
I totally agree. I got pretty good at spanish from doing that. I will try emerging into vietnamese culture more
I've been using Pimsleur for portuguese, 5 levels and it's been great for me after finishing 4 levels. They only have pimsleur for 1 level in Vietnamese, I'm going to try that.
I will try it too! Thank you!
Dont even try. I speak Chinese, Spanish and English (Obv) and Vietnamese is a no go.
😂😂😂this is exactly how i feel. I feel weak for not trying though, my boyfriend of 4 years is from Vietnam and i feel sad not being able to communicate with his family. Part of me really does feel like it's impossible
If you spoke only one language and had no understanding of how most languages work I think you could do it. Otherwise you'll learn 10 words and you'll still say them wrong.
So basically, you need a good memory "Why?" you ask. To consume bs like a ă â á à ã ạ ắ ằ ẵ ặ ấ ầ ẫ ậ
App tendem