Thank you!

Cam o’n !

that’s how you write it

good luck with your Vietnamese

gahm uhng- rahck-neeyoo!

How is Vietnamese culture regarding this?

Also - to the developers: I should balance out my above criticisms by saying that what I have sampled on this website has been done very well, and the addition of things like the lesson PDFs is a welcome thing. Learning a language is difficult enough, but building useful language teaching tools is really difficult. As a teacher of English here in Hanoi, I can understand that all too well. Hat’s off to you.

Carl Kenner’s comments are mostly true, though the word for “what” (gì) is pronounced “yee” (with the downward tone) more in the countryside area between central Vietnam and northern Vietnam - as far as the north is concerned.

In and around Hanoi, the pronunciation is supposedly the government “standard,” and words starting with “gi” or “d” (not the hard đ) have the same sound as “z” in English rather than “y” as in “you.” So in the upper north of Vietnam the word for “what” is “zee,” again with the downward tone.

The spoken lesson as well as the PDF fail to mention the distinction of the northern accent / dialect, and though I’d give bonus points for explaining that there are three main dialects (northern, central, and southern,) it is a complete misrepresentation that a foreigner can get by learning only one dialect. I have met Vietnamese is all of these regions, as well as being married to a native Hanoian, and Vietnamese can have quite a lot of trouble understanding natives from other regions, not to mention foreigners who are normally way off the mark with pronunciation. Even the tones of the language are used / spoken quite differently between the three regions (as well as all of the smaller minority regions.) Hanoi, for example, has the most distinct difference between the six tones (if you include “no tone as one of them.) What this means is that if you are planning to only visit the central and northern regions, you probably don’t want to practice pronunciation with examples from a southern speaker - and vice-versa.

Another problem (with this particular lesson) is the PDF has some mistakes both in explaining the tones used for the “You’re welcome!” phrase, and the Vietnamese spelling. The Vietnamese spelling is “Không có ̣gì” for “It’s nothing,” and “Không có gì đâu,” for “It’s nothing at all.” To explain the tones correctly: Không has no tone, có has the rising tone, gì has the falling tone, and đâu has no tone. Disregard the PDF. Unlike English, Vietnamese has very strict pronunciation rules, and if you learn these rules, you can correctly pronounce any word that you read. That said, it’s no easy task, especially when you mix it with the tones.

Finally, to clarify about the use of “Không có gì” and “Không sao đâu”: “Không có gì” is closest to “It’s nothing” in English, and is almost always used as a response to “Thank you” (”Cảm ơn.̶ However, “Không sao đâu” is closest to “(It’s) no problem at all,” or “It doesn’t matter,” but is best used as a reply when something “bad” happens (eg., a waitperson drops your food on the floor before it reaches your table,) or when somebody apologizes to you (”Xin lỗi” in Vietnamese.) It’s interesting to note that “Không sao đâu” can be literally translated several ways, including “Not why at all,” or - more popular with Vietnamese tour guides - “No star where.”

Question about “Thank you very much” in Vietnamese. Great Myan says something like “Cảm ơn [rach] nhiêu”, which I cannot find in the accompanying .pdf. What is the word she says right between ơn and nhiêu?

Thank you and keep up with the good work!

Thanks for including Vietnamese!

The lesson guide didn’t match the audio for this lesson. Please look into that and keep up the good work!

Can you also say “ben xe do” instead of saying “ben”, for bus stop? Thanks a lot.

Great series. Very helpful. A couple of questions:

#1- how many lessons will there be in total? The website says 50-60. Could you give me a more precise number?

#2- In a couple of previous lessons there’s ‘coming soon’. Will these ever be updated to actually include the content? Just wondering.

Keep up the great work and happy holidays. Thanks.

-MH

I just found this website and from this basic lesson #4, it appears well done. Thank you. How do I find Lesson # 1?

My nail tech and seamstress is Vietnamese and to be able to greet them in their language is going to be a trip. Cannot wait to see the expressions on their faces! This is just the beginning to be able to understand what the nail techs are saying about us Americans! Gotta start with the basics!

Good Bye - ka-by-sow

It was another great lesson today thank you! Keep up this great work.:cool S_R_C

But the word “yi” will be pronounced “zi” in the north. It is the same word with a different pronounciation. So you will hear “yi”, “zi”, or “chi”. “yi” and “zi” are pronounced with a tone going down, and “chi” has a flat tone.

Great lesson, keep it up, I want more Vietnamese lessons more often, thanks! :cool S_R_C

I am really glad you are enjoying the lessons!

Cảm ơn nhiều lắm.

Chúc may mắn,
Myan

But hey, three updates in a week? You’re going WILD. Thank you! Keep up the good work!

Jimmy B

Thank you so much! Cám ón.

Jim

2) In the final review, it would be nice to have ALL of the constructions discussed reviewed: On a few of them, only the primary grammar point was reviewed.

3) Sometimes you say “Falling Tone”, but it SOUNDS falling-rising: Is that more because you’re rising intonation a little to imply “See? Like this?”

4) I do love your hosting, but it could help me out to hear the same words spoken by a second voice… perhaps a male voice? It doesn’t need to be a “teamwork podcast” like JPod or anything, but having a second set of vocal cords doing the same words will help really establish the sound…

5) Perhaps every 5-10 lessons, you could release a “summary podcast” with all of the learning to date in it for review? That way I can review 10 lessons in 5 minutes rather than the 40 it takes to go through 10 podcasts.

Thanks! Keep up the good work.

The Premium Feed PDF for this lesson seems to be pointed at the “Spanish” directory, so my Vietnamese feed login doesn’t work.

It would also help me when ordering from menu - if I can get the basic reading principles down, I can order Phô.

Thanks!

Thank you for today’s lesson and keep up Vietnamese languages lessons coming please, you do a great job and I enjoy Vietnamese very much.

Well I like all Asian countries, people and their languages so I’m going to learn the four of them offer here for now at Survival Phrases. S_R_C

Thanks

A polite suggestion: you could probably pack a little more in with a five-minute lesson. For example, using the new phrase in context my be fun.

Good luck!

if i could make a sauggestion though, id really appreciate a course with optional extras. with a theme uch as thankyou, but also other phrases. you can pack a fair bit into 5 minutes. as i can rewind and fast forward mi ipod, you could learn more if you were comfortable, but still making sure, as you did, through reptition, that you learnt the essential central phgrase.

anyway, just an idea
gam an - thankyou - is that how you’d spell it?

Vietnamese is very pleasant!:cool S_R_C

I used this phrase at a Vietnamese restaurant I went recently, and they understood me! I used “This please.” and it worked!
Thanks again!
Peter

Don’t worry we'’ll wait until the next lessons are release. S_R_C

I like Vietnamese language! here in NYC there are Vietnamese meetups where we get to meet with other people interest in Vietnamese culture, language and people.

They all are very nice and thankful people, I like those meetups!

Good luck and I look foward to this SP Vietnamese! S_R_C