Vietnamese is similar toother languages. Therefore, you will succeed if you have a strong desire to master Vietnamese. Many foreigners coming from different countries and cultures to work as engineers, doctors, singers or workers have mastered the Vietnamese language.

Scientists show that nobody is unable to listen or speak their mother tongue, and in fact mother tongues of all languages share certain characteristics. Therefore, everybody is able to learn a new language. Still, why do you find Vietnamese so difficult despite your best efforts?

The Answer is Due to Incorrect Studying Methods

Thanks to 10 years of teaching Vietnamese to foreigners, I recognize that to communicate in Vietnamese successfully and effectively you need not only try your best but also follow some important rules:

Emphasize Listening Skills

You should allocate 60-70% of studying time to listening skills. Listening is thekey to success when you study any foreign language. So how can you listen effectively? Let's see the next rule:

Study Vietnamese with Vietnamese people

For reading and writing skills, you can practice effectively with anyone. However, to practice listening, you must practice with native Vietnamese speakers. And you should not practice the skill with non-native speakers. Statistics show that just 0.1% foreigners living in Vietnam can pronounce Vietnamese like a native Vietnamese speaker. So listening to non-native speakers will not help you progress and leads to incorrect speaking. You will misunderstand native speakers and develop poor communication skills. This is a very serious problem.

During my teaching career, I have seen many embarrassing cases of incorrect pronunciation. Here are some examples:

Example 1:

Mr.Kim, a Korean, had studied Vietnamese in Korea for six months before arriving in Vietnam. His teacher was Korean. On one occasion while with his new Vietnamese girlfriend he said:

“Tuần sau, bồ anh đến Vietnam nên anh không thể đi chơi với em”

(Next week, my girlfriend will come to Vietnam so I cannot go out with you)

What he meant to say was:

“Tuần sau, bố anh đến Vietnam nên anh không thể đi chơi với em”

(Next week, my dad will come to Vietnam so I cannot go with you)

His pronunciation mistake - using bồ instead of bố- drove his girlfriend crazy and she wanted to go home after hearing his reason for being busy!

Example 2:

A Japanese student called me to cancel the class and said:

“Chào cô. Hôm nay tôi bẩn, chúng ta nghỉ học nhé”

(Hello teacher. Today, I am dirty, so we should cancel the class)

After listening to him, I knew what he meant to say was that he was busy (bận in Vietnamese), but I could not stop laughing. But if a Vietnamese were to listen to my student, he would not understand why “a dirty person ”would need to cancel a class.

Bận is busy

Bẩn is dirty

Example 3:

I still remembered an American student in a class who told me:

“Cô ơi, hôm nay em không muốn học. Em muốn ngu”

(Teacher, I would not like to study today. I would prefer to be stupid)

It did not make sense and I could not understand what he meant. What had actually happened was that because of staying up late the night before, he wanted to sleep, and he should have used ngủ (to sleep in Vietnamese) instead of ngu (stupid in Vietnamese).

If your pronunciation mistakes are not corrected at once, it will take a lot of time to correct them later on. So I am careful to quickly correct my students pronunciation mistakes to avoid the embarrassing situations illustrated above.

Therefore, poor listening skills lead to poor speaking ability.

So, how do you practice your Vietnamese language skills if you are not in Vietnam? First, there are many videos available on the Internet as well as TV and radio programs. Study Vietnamese online is good choice. Next, making friends with Vietnamese people via facebook or skype and other social media are also good ways to help you improve your Vietnamese vocabulary and pronunciation.

If you are in Vietnam, you are very fortunate to have access to a great speaking environment. The main concern is to choose a good Vietnamese Language Center. Experienced and trained teachers will know how to help you comfortably achieve positive results when you study Vietnamese. Do not hire university students who have no teaching experience and skills. Although Vietnamese grammar is not as complicated as other languages, an inexperienced teacher will confuse and frustrate the student. The result is that students waste their time and tuition fees on ineffective lessons.

Study Vietnamese with a local Teacher

Beginning language students often prefer to hear their teacher's explanation in their mother tongue. Perhaps the student feels it is easier to learn Vietnamese this way but they should not become dependent on it. Once you get to a basic level, you must fully immerse yourself in the language by using 100% Vietnamese in the classroom with a native Vietnamese teacher. This helps your listening and speaking become morenatural. Only then will your listening and speaking skills improve. For difficult topics your teachers will use pictures and videos to help illustrate the lessons. This method, using an experienced Vietnamese teacher and conducting the lesson in Vietnamese, is the best method for learning Vietnamese and will help you progress quickly.

* Here are some reliable Vietnamese language center in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City .

123VIETNAMESE

- Address: NV 1-7, 173 Xuan Thuy Str, CauGiayDis, Hanoi, Vietnam

- Tel: +84 963229475/ +84 437959475

- Mail: 123vietnamese.com@gmail.com

- Website: http://www.123vietnamese.com/

University of Social Sciences & Humanities Ho Chi Minh City

Address: 10-12 Dinh Tien Hoang, Ben Nghe Ward, District 1, HCMC

Phone: (84 - 8) 38293828, FAX: (84 - 8) 38221903

Website: http://hcmussh.edu.vn/

University of languages $ international studies (VNU ULIS)

- Address: Phạm Văn Đồng, Cầu Giấy, Hanoi

- Tel: (84.4) 37547269

- Mail:ulis@moet.edu.vn

- Website: www.ulis.vnu.edu.vn

UNESCO Culture Center of Education and Training

- Address: 68 Vo Thi Sau Street, Tan Dinh Ward, District 1, HCMC.

- Email: info@unesco

- Tel: 0906 966 00

- Website: http://unesco-cep.org.vn/

Vietnamese Studies Faculty - Hanoi University of Education

- Address: Room 103 - House D3 - 136 Xuan Thuy – Cau Giay – Hanoi

- Email: vietnamstudies@yahoo.com

- Tel: 04.37549039

- Website: vns.hnue.edu.vn

Dương Quốc Dũng (Lecturer)