Vietnamese School/ Lessons

2POSTS

4 years ago

Hi! I‘m moving to nha trang next year so I‘m looking for a vietnamese language course. I already googled it but I could find any school there. Does anyone have any recommendation?

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Mac68 Serial expat

357POSTS

4 years ago

Hi! I‘m moving to nha trang next year so I‘m looking for a vietnamese language course. I already googled it but I could find any school there. Does anyone have any recommendation?
- @Calathea

Hi Cala,

So, maybe, ... just brainstorming here. I am not clear on your intent though. If learning Tieng Viet is your goal that is great! Language learning with effort applied consistently, which you may already know, takes about 3-4 years to be come a novice. But you will pick up much needed phrases in the interim. Prior to travel, make up little business size 'phrase cards' w both your home language and Tieng Viet on them.

Bring them with you when you travel.

In the meantime, try learning more about the rich history of VN. Thousands of years in the making. As you pursue learning language, seek out speakers of the language, possibly there are some in your area, go out for coffee, Avoid talking about conflicts. Talk of the very rich culture, the country, family. Your timing is such that you really have a space, albeit with limited time to pursue this learning.

As I teach here itinerantly, I also pursue my learning of Tieng Viet. My Vietnamese students are my teachers.

Should you wish to discuss further recommendations, please PM me and I can offer you some free online options .

Until then,

'Hãy khỏe, nói chuyện với bạn sau'

Mac

1 member reacted to this post

qnbui Serial expat

329POSTS

4 years ago

You can try duolingo online. It's free and the beginning lessons were useful but then they go into subject/words that you may never use or rarely use. You can learn at your own pace. It's best to learn in person but this is an option.

2 members reacted to this post

Guest2023 Guest

0POSTS

4 years ago

Join expats in Nha Trang forum on Facebook and ask there. There will be someone in the city who does classes for non-speakers.

3 members reacted to this post

Bhavna Team

44002POSTS

4 years ago

Hello everyone,

*** I for one believe posters should be able to recommend such schools as long as they are not financially tied to or employed by them. ***

- @THIGV

Well noted! You can recommend a school in that case! We used to moderate as most of the recommendations were disguised advertising but a genuine recommendation is most welcome.

Have a nice day,

Bhavna

1 member reacted to this post

OceanBeach92107 VIP Member

7686POSTS

4 years ago

Hello everyone,
*** I for one believe posters should be able to recommend such schools as long as they are not financially tied to or employed by them. ***

- @THIGV
Well noted! You can recommend a school in that case! We used to moderate as most of the recommendations were disguised advertising but a genuine recommendation is most welcome.

Have a nice day,
Bhavna
- @Bhavna

As has always been so.

The out-of-context incident referenced by THIGV was a dual violation of the code of conduct:

It was a first-time poster in the new member thread who was promoting a language learning school/event.

Because it was both a promotion with external link(s) and off-topic, it was Julien himself who deleted the comments (and subsequent arguments by THIGV).

OceanBeach92107 VIP Member

7686POSTS

4 years ago

Hi! I‘m moving to nha trang next year so I‘m looking for a vietnamese language course. I already googled it but I could find any school there. Does anyone have any recommendation?
- @Calathea

Welcome to the Vietnam forum Calathea!

Sometimes it's useful to first translate your English-language search terms into the Vietnamese language (tiếng Việt) before searching for things in Vietnam using Google search or Google Maps.

Using Google Translate, I translated:

Vietnamese language school teaching Vietnamese to foreigners in Nha Trang city

and got:

Trường dạy tiếng Việt dạy tiếng Việt cho người nước ngoài tại thành phố Nha Trang***

Which gave me a few pertinent results, all in tiếng Việt.

Then, in the Google search drop-down settings, I chose "translate".

I was then able to read all of the listings (mostly for private tutors) in English.

As THIGV mentioned, you will be more likely to find a dedicated tiếng Việt school for foreigners in larger cities, such as HCMC (I know of a school such as that in Hanoi).

In other locations within Vietnam, try contacting a locally recommended tutor (no rush; wait till you get here) and tell them you are interested in a class with other students.

In Danang city these "classes" pop up all the time on social media, and it's likely you'll see a few of them in the Nha Trang expat face.book groups.

I'm pretty sure I saw a couple back when I was monitoring those groups, before COVID.

Cheers!

O.B.

Vietnam forum advisor

Expat.com team

*** everyone feel free to tell me why that was a faulty translation

Mac68 Serial expat

357POSTS

4 years ago

O.B.

Not so much faulty as Google Translate is according to my wife, sometimes 85-90 percent accurate, but serviceable in getting to where you want go in communicating.

I asked my Grandson about the site sometime ago, he is an IT guy, says IT learning will always have some inaccuracies. So, thus said, he tells me "that's why I have this job for now." It IT is constantly changing, like you said Grampy: "the only thing you know for sure is change."

Mac

2 members reacted to this post

jayrozzetti23 Serial expat

860POSTS

4 years ago

#10

I use an app called Mondly

https://www.mondly.com/app

which gives you a free daily lesson of about 5 minutes.

For 69,000 VN đồng per month (about $3 USD), you get access to a large number of lessons. You can also study in your own language by choosing it in the settings if you speak a language other than English.

It's something you can use for an introduction to the basic vocabulary, but i think you would still want to have private lessons with a tutor to make real progress. As people have mentioned, private lessons are most common and these days you can even study online.

You should note that VNese is quite a difficult language and many people get frustrated and give up since in urban areas at least there is often someone around who speaks English and translation by phone usually works if you phrase the original statement in English in a clear way. Also, "a picture (on your phone) is worth a thousand words" when you're looking for a specific item.

As I mentioned on another thread "Language Advice":

https://www.expat.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=992963

it's vital to learn the orthography/writing system so that you know how words are supposed to be pronounced, although there are also regional differences in pronunciation.

By glancing at this article:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnamese_alphabet

you'll see that it is rather complicated.

Just aim to learn as much as you can rather than thinking you will "master" the language. I have especially focused on food items so that I can read a menu. In Nha Trang, some restaurants and noodle shops have menus in VNese, Chinese and Russian, not English, so you may similarly want to focus on that and being able to order food and beverages/ask for utensils, etc.

2 members reacted to this post

Mac68 Serial expat

357POSTS

4 years ago

#11

I use an app called Mondly

https://www.mondly.com/app

which gives you a free daily lesson of about 5 minutes.

For 69,000 VN đồng per month (about $3 USD), you get access to a large number of lessons. You can also study in your own language by choosing it in the settings if you speak a language other than English.

It's something you can use for an introduction to the basic vocabulary, but i think you would still want to have private lessons with a tutor to make real progress. As people have mentioned, private lessons are most common and these days you can even study online.

You should note that VNese is quite a difficult language and many people get frustrated and give up since in urban areas at least there is often someone around who speaks English and translation by phone usually works if you phrase the original statement in English in a clear way. Also, "a picture (on your phone) is worth a thousand words" when you're looking for a specific item.

As I mentioned on another thread "Language Advice":

https://www.expat.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=992963

it's vital to learn the orthography/writing system so that you know how words are supposed to be pronounced, although there are also regional differences in pronunciation.

By glancing at this article:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnamese_alphabet

you'll see that it is rather complicated.

Just aim to learn as much as you can rather than thinking you will "master" the language. I have especially focused on food items so that I can read a menu. In Nha Trang, some restaurants and noodle shops have menus in VNese, Chinese and Russian, not English, so you may similarly want to focus on that and being able to order food and beverages/ask for utensils, etc.

- @johnross23