Learning Vietnamese - Lesson 8

Our family on our last trip to Vietnam. Here we are at the Starlight bridge in district 7, Ho Chi Minh city.

Just got back from the Edinburgh trip and went almost straight to the Vietnamese class. This week, we focused a lot on tones and some of the trickier vowel sounds. I'm still trying to wrap my head (and tongue) around the difference between ngang (the mid tone) and huyền (the low-falling tone). They sound almost the same to me, but apparently they're not even close if you're Vietnamese.

A Few Things That Help Me (Kind Of)

Pronunciation is tough, but I've found a few things that are actually helping:

• Slow and exaggerated is better than fast and wrong. I'm learning to just embrace sounding ridiculous at first.
• Minimal pairs (like "ma" vs "mà" vs "má" etc.) are super useful, even if it's really frustrating to get them right.
• Recording myself is awkward but really helpful. It's easier to hear mistakes when I listen back.
• I also try to listen to it like music, especially the tones. It helps me think less like a language learner and more like someone learning a song.

There's a famous American singer named Kyo York who learned Vietnamese, and is now as good as fluent in the language, inspiring!