But people tend to lack dedication because you can live a perfectly convenient life in Vietnam without speaking a word of the language. The Foreign Service Institute classifies Thai as a Level IV difficulty language (in the same category as Vietnamese and Hungarian, for example), with an average of 44 study weeks needed to achieve a working knowledge of the language. 15. In attempting to learn anything it is best to first deconstruct the problem and then break down the learning task into manageable chunks. 13. It is the native language of the Vietnamese (Kinh) people, as well as a first or second language for other ethnic groups in Vietnam. However, a lot of Chinese vocabulary made it into Vietnamese because of the use of the written language. Vocabulary – The words in Vietnamese are often formed in a very logical manner. Here’s why: 1. [...]. It is the underdog Chinese language to the big brother Mandarin and is in many ways a more fascinating and challenging language to take on. Practice speaking with each other on a daily basis, and frequently quiz each other over new vocabulary. Each person has their own motivation for taking on a language, but without a doubt i’d say there are three important reasons why people might learn Vietnamese. Here are nine reasons why Vietnamese is easier than you think: If you've ever learned French, Spanish, German, or just about any European language except English, you just breathed a huge sigh of relief. Coors Spanish Blunder, There are an estimated 350,000 Icelandic speakers in the world, largely comprised by the 323,000-odd people that live in the country of Iceland. You may be able to learn Vietnamese faster as well. And unless you can get to grips with them, nearly everything else falls by the wayside. Pity the poor learner of Spanish. Some examples of common single syllable words can be seen below. Vietnam continued to be part of this empire for around 1000 years. Every other aspect of the language is extremely easy – far easier that what you might expect, especially compared to most European languages. I am a Vietnamese and Vietnamese is absolutely the easiest language ever. Perhaps that’s [...], Since I was little, I’ve loved the cadence of the beautiful Japanese language. The script is written from left to right. Learning Vietnamese is neither hard nor easy. In many languages there are both genders and associated articles so you not going to be slowed down having to learn these. English isn’t nearly as inflective as Spanish, but we still do it to some extent – for example the word “speak” can inflect to “speaks”, “speaking”, “spoken”, or “spoke”. How Hard is Cantonese to Learn? Learn the word nói, and you know how to say “speak” in all contexts and tenses for all speakers. Clairol and Canadian Mist’s German Blunder Put Mandarin spoken Mandarin at a 6. level 2 Vietnamese is a tonal language, and in total there are 6 tones. There are more examples than I can begin to list, but to give you an idea: a bench is a “long chair”, a refrigerator is a “cold cupboard”, a bra is a “breast shirt” and a bicycle is a “pedal vehicle”. Factor in different tenses and subtleties like the grammatical “mood” (indicative vs subjunctive), and a single Spanish verb has over fifty different forms that learners have to memorize. But this means that, of the Vietnamese who speak English, the majority are concentrated in this one sector. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. if ur from countries where people dont use tones in their languages then its really hard. The same happened to Clairol when it attempted to sell a curling iron called the “Mist stick” to German markets. They do not change for subject, gender or tense. Have I convinced you yet that Vietnamese just might be easier than you previously thought? Contents. In the modern era government-controlled media has kept a strong grip on national cultural values while in recent years Southeast Asian, East Asian as well as Western culture have played a increasingly influential role. The country was broken into two parts with Communist North Vietnam and the anti-Communist South. I nói, you nói, he or she nói, we nói, you all nói, and they nói. Even to say something as simple as the word “speak” (, ), he or she has to learn five or six (depending on dialect) different verb endings for the present tense alone . There are three major styles/dialects of spoken Vietnamese – northern (around the capital city of Hanoi), central (around the city of Hue) and southern (around the major southern city of Ho Chi Minh City). But, if you dedicate the time and effort to learning the 6 tones then the rewards are fantastic. The Vietnamese people are very friendly and hospitable, and language learners report they make the effort to learn Vietnamese well worth it. He currently lives in London. If you really need to be specific, just slap an extra word in front of the noun, like một người (one person), nhÅ©ng người (some people), or các người (all the people). Each has some key differences from the other. Next, the following are Vietnamese compound words formed from two existing words. I would say it is very different from English, due to its tonal features. George is a polyglot, linguistics nerd and travel enthusiast from the U.K. You can focus your energy on pronunciation because Vietnamese grammar is in many ways simple and predictable. Once you can read the Vietnamese alphabet’s 28 letters (which, remember, are almost exactly the same as English’s 26), and understand its five tone marks, you can read any Vietnamese word. “Person” becomes “people”, “mouse” becomes “mice”, “man” becomes “men”, and some words like “sheep” or “fish” don’t change at all. That’s dozens, if not hundreds of hours of work saved compared to learning almost any European language. Vietnamese is a relatively easy language to learn: short words, a stable orthography, no genders, no plurals, no conjugation, no cases, no articles, and more. First of all, some good news. Heavy – start low, fall lower then stop –, Asking – begin low, dips a little then rise to a higher pitch – bả – poison, Tumbling – begin above mid level dips slightly then rise sharply –. So if you’re learning Vietnamese, or thinking about learning, it’s likely that all you’ve been getting so far is discouragement! Pretty much impossible, if you ask the Vietnamese themselves. You need to be patient, persistent, diligent and consistent but if you keep it up, you will eventually get there! The written Chinese was read with Vietnamese words. Below, I’ll be sharing the easy and hard aspects of learning Vietnamese, along with some ideas to help make the hard parts easier for English-speakers. To ski is “to slide snow”, a tractor is a “pulling machine”, a turkey is a “western chicken”, a zebra is a “striped horse”, and the list goes on and on and on. Just how difficult is the Vietnamese language? This is one of the major stumbling blocks for speakers with a non tonal native language. Learning Vietnamese is possible and well worth the effort. He speaks four languages and has dabbled in another five, and has been to more than forty countries. Let us know in the comments. As you build up a foundation of basic words, they become more than the sum of their parts as you automatically unlock hundred of new translations. It's a big disadvantage for Vietnamese people wanting to learn English, but it makes your life much easier as a learner of Vietnamese. It’s a surprisingly complicated topic. With Vietnamese vocabulary, words are either single syllable or formed through compounding or reduplication. Articles – In Vietnamese there are no articles. 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