Learning Vietnamese (Southern Dialect)

Thank you for the links. But the first one is terribly boring. The second one seems more interesting thank to the beautiful girl. But the language she is speaking is not natural Vietnamese, both grammar and pronunciation. If anyone wants to improve their Vietnamese, just talk to me; it's free and interesting. I am an English teacher who is eager to teach....Vietnamese!! lol

What would you suggest to liven the videos up?  How about chimps riding tricycles in the background and circus music blaring at 100 decibles?  That always makes me laugh!  Maybe she could have butterflies and unicorns coming out of her mouth, instead of those awful word thingies!  It's amazing what they can do with computers these days!

They are educational videos and her delivery is probably the best way for a video: a no nonsense approach with clear pronunciation.  I appreciate their time and effort.

Grammatical structure, while important, isn't vital.  The goal of conversational language is to make oneself understood.  When I first arrived I would have wanted to speak perfectly; now I'm happy if I can just get that bowl of pho, or cup of coffee, without being laughed at.

VietNam is no different from many other countries as far as regional intonation is concerned, just as in the States.

The differences between Northerners and Southerners also extends to sentence construction and word substitution.

Many of the international language courses, available for VND30,000 per CD/DVD in HCMC, use Northern pronunciation.

WideAwake wrote:

What would you suggest to liven the videos up?  How about chimps riding tricycles in the background and circus music blaring at 100 decibles?  That always makes me laugh!  Maybe she could have butterflies and unicorns coming out of her mouth, instead of those awful word thingies!  It's amazing what they can do with computers these days!

They are educational videos and her delivery is probably the best way for a video: a no nonsense approach with clear pronunciation.  I appreciate their time and effort.

Grammatical structure, while important, isn't vital.  The goal of conversational language is to make oneself understood.  When I first arrived I would have wanted to speak perfectly; now I'm happy if I can just get that bowl of pho, or cup of coffee, without being laughed at.

I don't mean to insult anyone, sorry if I've made you think so. Imagine a woman show up and say: "me a teacher" instead of "I am a teacher", what will you think about her? You still understand what she says. But is she professional?
If you plan to live here in Vietnam for weeks, then yes, what you need is to make people to understand you; you don't have to talk much, just use the body language. But when it comes to learning, you have to head to academic results. Those videos are named to make people think that they TEACH Vietnamese. As a language teacher, I guarantee you can hardly learn from them. (we need methodology to TEACH people, not just listing sentences in both languages)It will be much more efficient to make friends and have some chit-chatting so that you can absorb the language.
Anyway, thanks for sharing. Sorry again if I irritate you; I don't mean so.

unei_nguyen wrote:

WideAwake wrote:

What would you suggest to liven the videos up?  How about chimps riding tricycles in the background and circus music blaring at 100 decibles?  That always makes me laugh!  Maybe she could have butterflies and unicorns coming out of her mouth, instead of those awful word thingies!  It's amazing what they can do with computers these days!

They are educational videos and her delivery is probably the best way for a video: a no nonsense approach with clear pronunciation.  I appreciate their time and effort.

Grammatical structure, while important, isn't vital.  The goal of conversational language is to make oneself understood.  When I first arrived I would have wanted to speak perfectly; now I'm happy if I can just get that bowl of pho, or cup of coffee, without being laughed at.

I don't mean to insult anyone, sorry if I've made you think so. Imagine a woman show up and say: "me a teacher" instead of "I am a teacher", what will you think about her? You still understand what she says. But is she professional?
If you plan to live here in Vietnam for weeks, then yes, what you need is to make people to understand you; you don't have to talk much, just use the body language. But when it comes to learning, you have to head to academic results. Those videos are named to make people think that they TEACH Vietnamese. As a language teacher, I guarantee you can hardly learn from them. (we need methodology to TEACH people, not just listing sentences in both languages)It will be much more efficient to make friends and have some chit-chatting so that you can absorb the language.
Anyway, thanks for sharing. Sorry again if I irritate you; I don't mean so.

I'm just being sarcastic dear!  I'm sorry.

I think we get a little too concerned with methodologies sometimes.

I think the videos are intended for conversational, not academic purposes.  Again, I just want my coffee and pho!

Do you have a website Unei Nguyen? 

I realize this is an old thread which has been brought up but I think many who view it will be looking for online resources for learning Vietnamese and so I would recommend Learning Vietnamese with Annie.

- youtube.com/user/AnnieVietnamese

She is a southern speaker and her background is in education. Her videos are interesting and her methodology well thought out. She also has videos which explain the differences between the northern and southern dialect. She is a southern speaker but uses a slightly modified version of the southern dialect by using all 6 tones (in southern Vietnamese the dấu ngã is pronounced the same as the dấu hỏi).

Personally I require a structured learning environment to make consistent progress but even if that were not the case I would add the caveat that Vietnamese doesn't especially lend itself to self-study because the difficulty level of achieving native-like pronunciation for a western speaker is extremely high (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnamese_phonology) and in a monosyllabic language it's also extremely important. It is very common for example for a westerner to pronounce the second of two consecutive words (which both have a flat or "no" tone) with a falling tone without even realizing they are doing it. The high rising tone is also challenging for most western learners of Vietnamese as is switching between it and other tones.

Bottom line, whether you are studying in a classroom or on your own you should be getting as much one-on-one feedback on your pronunciation from a native speaker as possible. Keep in mind that many of your friends will lean more towards praising you for your efforts rather than critiquing your pronunciation. A good measure of how you are doing is discerning whether or not you can be understood by strangers even with little to no context (the Vietnamese people you know will become accustomed to your accent over time and will often understand you in situations where others will not, this leads many to believe they have "perfect" or "very good" pronunciation and that others simply do not "want" to understand them when in truth this is rarely the case and there are westerners who learn to speak Vietnamese so well that virtually any native speaker can understand them, so with proper diligence it's definitely possible).

I'm hoping to find someone to help me learn southern dialect Vietnamese. Please respond.
Thanks, Tony

My name is Jim Nguyen, my brother and I are planning a trip to Viet Nam in Dong Thap provence to deli wr my father's ashes to our family. We were raised in the USA and don't speak Vietnamese. I am looking for a ptogram that will help us learn how to comunicate with our family. We have 6 months to go. Can you help?