Would like to have a tutor to teach me Vietnamese

I have found Google Translate to be an enormous help. The phone app will translate text from the keyboard, text from a photo, or the spoken word. It will translate to/from Vietnamese to/from Mandarin to/from English with amazing ease.
It won't replace your tutor but it will help you when the tutor is away.
And, until you get up to speed, it will translate spoken Vietnamese to spoken English and vice-versa.

I don't live in Bình Dương thus can't help you at all. 

Pertaining to this subject, however, if there are expats in VT who would like to learn Vietnamese, I would be willing to help.  No payment is required, although if you bring me a bag of xôi and/or a bowl of chè every so often, I wouldn't turn down your gifts.   

Do I have any experience teaching Vietnamese to foreigners?  Well, it's hard to say, as I'm not very successful in coercing my husband into learning the language, and I've only tutored English to Vietnamese so far (also as a volunteer since my visa doesn't allow me to work).  Nevertheless, I had taught Vietnamese Literature in several high schools (a couple hundred students in total) for a few years, pre '75.

I would jump at the chance to study Vietnamese Literature. I feel one would never fully understand the nuances of Vietnamese language without familiarity with the literature.

Jim-Minh wrote:

I have found Google Translate to be an enormous help.

Someone please correct me if I am wrong, but one drawback to Google Translate, when going from another language to Vietnamese, may be that it's vocalizations are in northern dialect.  For short words or phrases that may not be a problem but it may be for more complex sentences and paragraphs.  Of course my observation is predicated on the fact that the OP said he was in Bình Dương Province where most of his employees probably speak in a southern dialect.

I absolutely agree that Google Translate is not an optimal solution. It does voice the phrase in the northern dialect. But that being said, it is a vastly better tool than what was available to me when I started my studies in the early 1990s. The difference is akin to cuneiform tablets vs. a word processor. And the app does not seem to have a problem translating when the speaker is using the southern dialect. The software seems to be very flexible.
I spent three months in Saigon and dull old Da Lat during Tet. It was an amazing help, especially considering the price. I had a boatload of medical terms I needed to have translated and it did yeoman's duty.
I haven't found anyone in South Vietnam that had any significant problems understanding the northern dialect. All of life is a compromise, and I'm not about to turn down assistance that gets me within 90% of my goal when I might not get beyond 10% otherwise. Perfectionism is a bad habit.

THIGV wrote:

Jim-Minh wrote:

I have found Google Translate to be an enormous help.

Someone please correct me if I am wrong, but one drawback to Google Translate, when going from another language to Vietnamese, may be that it's vocalizations are in northern dialect.  For short words or phrases that may not be a problem but it may be for more complex sentences and paragraphs.  Of course my observation is predicated on the fact that the OP said he was in Bình Dương Province where most of his employees probably speak in a southern dialect.

Most Southerners can understand the Northern dialect, it's the Central dialect they can't understand.

*** Most Southerners can understand the Northern dialect, it's the Central dialect they can't understand. ***

Been there done that. In 1996 my son-in-law from Ben Tre and I went to Da Nang and Hue. I was at a complete loss and he had a lot of trouble as well. The Central Dialect has its own vocabulary as well as its own pronunciation.

Yeah that's one of the reason I'm not going to settle in Da Nang for my 7 months+ stay, I really want to learn South Vietnamese and  Da Nang is a bag of "random" accents, mixed from North, Middle and South. It's not optimal for the immersion I'm looking for.

I'll stick to the Mekong area and learn how to properly say "bag of potatoes" the South Vietnamese farmer way  (Bịch củ khoai, good luck finding this with Google Translate!)

WillyBaldy wrote:

Yeah that's one of the reason I'm not going to settle in Da Nang for my 7 months+ stay, I really want to learn South Vietnamese and  Da Nang is a bag of "random" accents, mixed from North, Middle and South. It's not optimal for the immersion I'm looking for.

I'll stick to the Mekong area and learn how to properly say "bag of potatoes" the South Vietnamese farmer way  (Bịch củ khoai, good luck finding this with Google Translate!)

Da nang to the Mekong.....😳
It's a long way to go for a bag of spuds mate.

Yogi will keep away from that optical immersion stuff....sounds like too many “carbs” .

Yogi007 wrote:

WillyBaldy wrote:

Yeah that's one of the reason I'm not going to settle in Da Nang for my 7 months+ stay, I really want to learn South Vietnamese and  Da Nang is a bag of "random" accents, mixed from North, Middle and South. It's not optimal for the immersion I'm looking for.

I'll stick to the Mekong area and learn how to properly say "bag of potatoes" the South Vietnamese farmer way  (Bịch củ khoai, good luck finding this with Google Translate!)

Da nang to the Mekong.....😳
It's a long way to go for a bag of spuds mate.

Yogi will keep away from that optical immersion stuff....sounds like too many “carbs” .

Spuds and 'tatoes are a code for something else, of course.

Reminds me of this joke I heard in Ireland:

An Englishman, Scottsman and Irishman just robbed a bank and are running away from the police. They go at the end of an alley and there's three big bags, each of them hide in one of the bags. A policeman comes and hit the bag with the Englishman with his foot, the thief goes "Warf, warf!". The policeman says "Oh, it's only a dog" and goes on hitting the second bag with the Scottsman. The Scottman goes "Miaow, miaowwww". The police thinks it's a cat, and hits the third bag. The Irishman goes "Spuds! Spuds!".

I'm pretty bad at telling jokes but could not help myself ;-)