5 Most Asked Questions about Vietnamese

5. Question NĂM

Who invented modern Vietnamese?

First of all, what the heck is vietnamese?

Vietnamese language influences from Chinese, Portuguese, Italian, and French

Why? Let’s take a look back at history!

Vietnamese is of indigenous origin and belongs to the Austroasiatic language family. It is related to the Mon-Khmer and Muong languages.

Due to a thousand years of Chinese domination, Vietnamese culture and language was significantly influenced by Chinese traditions.

Throughout recorded history, the Vietnamese people consistently repelled Chinese invaders, achieving victory in numerous battles.

From around the 12th century, our ancestors began to create a type of writing to record our mother tongue, called Nom script. Nom script was built on the basis of Chinese characters read according to Sino-Vietnamese sounds, combining both symbolic and phonetic elements.

How national language was born?

Since the mid-sixteenth century, many European missionaries, especially the Portugese and Italian came to Vietnam to preach. They learned Vietnamese and used Latin letters to record Vietnamese for the purpose of preaching, translating and printing religious books.

Initially, Vietnamese recording was not unified, so it encountered many difficulties. It was not until the first half of the 17th century that they built a unified writing style and the National Language was born.

Under the reign of King Minh Mang, he strictly prohibited the spread of Catholicism because he believed it was an evil religion that corrupted national traditions. He tried every way to ban this religion and execute Catholics.

At the end of the 19th century, Vietnam became a French colony. French was adopted as the administrative language and was officially taught in schools. This led to changes in the Vietnamese language, with many French words being adapted into Vietnamese.

The two greatest contributors to establishing the national language, or modern Vietnamese today, are:

Francesco De Pina; Portuguese priest and missionary who was the first author of the national language.

And Alexandre de Rhodes ( or Dac Lo in Vietnamese); French missionary and lexicographer, who wrote the Vietnamese - Portuguese – Latin dictionary (annam - lusitan - latin).

Until the 20th century, when Vietnam gained independence from France, chữ Quốc Ngữ also known as modern Vietnamese became official national language.

4. Question BỐN

Is vietnamese a rare language?

Vietnamese is gaining  popularity as more Vietnamese people live, study, and work abroad. The United States is the country with the most overseas Vietnamese or Viet kieu living with more than 2 million people. Next are France, Canada, Germany, and Australia.

According to Betlitz statistics, Vietnamese ranks 20th on the list of the most spoken languages in the world in 2024.

There are more than 85.3 million Vietnamese speakers in the whole world.

On June 11, 2024 the San Francisco City Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to declare Vietnamese as the city's official language.

With this decision, Vietnamese becomes an official language requiring translation services.

So again is Vietnamese a rare language compared to others? I am still not sure! You let me know in the comment.

3. Question BA

I’m a complete beginner. Where should I start? What should I learn first?

To learn Vietnamese, there are 3 important things everyone needs to know first:

Number 1: The Alphabet

Vietnamese uses an alphabet based on Latin character patterns.

The Vietnamese alphabet has 29 letters.

a a a b c d d e e g h i k l m n o o o p q r s t u u v x y

17 consonants, 12 single vowels, 11 consonant compounds phonetic transcriptions, and lots of thongs. I mean 32 diphthongs, 13 triphthongs

Number 2: Vietnamese has 6 tones

Ngang, sắc, huyền, hỏi, ngã, nặng. Particularly in Southern Vietnamese, dấu hỏi and dấu ngã are pronounced the same. When spoken, Southern Vietnamese only has 5 tones or accents, which makes it relatively easier for learners of the Southern dialect.

Southerners often streamline their speech, removing unnecessary elements to keep it simple and straightforward or are they just lazy?

Speaking Vietnamese is like being a singer.

If you sing the correct notes, you will be likely to pronounce the tones correctly.

To learn more about the tones in Vietnamese, I have a detailed and easy-to-understand video for learners. Check out Sticker Teacher on YouTube.

Number 3: Pronouns

Vietnamese uses pronouns based on age and gender.

Depending on whether the listener is the same age, older or younger, the speaker uses different pronouns

Gender determines the pronouns. For example

Male: Tôi, bạn, anh, chú, em, ông, mình, cậu, bác…

Female: Tôi, bạn, chị, cô, em, bà, mình, cậu, bác…

Learning pronouns is crucial in Vietnamese. Addressing someone incorrectly can lead to significant misundestandings.

2. Question HAI

Why should I learn Vietnamese?

Why not?

English is too common now and bland.

Everybody, my mom, my dad, my brothers in law, my sisters, my cousins, my 2 year-old nephew, the homeless, uneducated people can say hello, I love you, how are you, I'm fine thank you and you? Your exes can only say Phắc diu!

Vietnamese is the language of poetry, its just beautiful.

"Em nhớ anh nhiều lắm, nhớ đến từng hơi thở của anh."

Being a tonal language gives it a musical quality. It also has a rich vocabulary filled with words that are inherently poetic and expressive. In fact, the Vietnamse word for The United States is "nước Mỹ" which can be translated as country beautiful. The US somehow has not returned the favor.

And if you want to swear, Vietnamese is the number one choice.

Vietnam is one of the cheapest countries to live and travel to. The food is delicious and dirt-cheap, and the scenery is as beautiful as paradise. I’m sure you want to visit Vietnam oneday and you want to make your experience enjoyable, so start learning vietnamese now!

Most importantly, để mị nói cho mà nghe. Vietnamese people are unbelievably kind and generous. Did you know that According to The Ease of Settling In Index of the Expat Insider 2023 survey, Vietnam ranks in the top 5 globally for local friendliness. We absolutely adore foreigners and are very curious about them. If we encounter foreigners speaking Vietnamese, it would surprise us and make us think they are very clever. We are willing to take you home so we can eat you. Just kidding, but my mother wanted to do it when I hang out with foreign friends. We are eager to help you if you don't bite and of course speak Vietnamese (ngl). You know I am using the pronoun we because that’s including me. I relate to that. And I am being honest.

I'm confident that if you were to ask most Vietnamese whether they harbor hatred toward the Americans or French because of the wars they were involved in, the answer would likely be no. It's still something I find hard to believe. As a Vietnamese born and raised in Vietnam, I don't develop any feelings of hatred or resentment toward the Americans or French. We have already moved on and now focus on growing and thriving.

And finally, but not as boringly, Vietnamese people own the most nail salons in the world.

“You like long or short nail? Short nails, please. Thanks. Oh, honey, that's why you don't have boyfriend.”

Ladies and gentlemen, if you want to get your nails done nicely, you know where to go!

Learn some cool vietnamese phrases, impress them, I think they will give you some discount, who knows?

"Chị muốn làm móng thật dài và đẹp". 

With that being said, being able to speak Vietnamese makes you a humble smart-a** creature on the planet.

1. Question MỘT

Should I learn Southern or Northern vietnamese?

Vietnamese is divided into 3 main regional accents. North, Central, and South

Each region has many different accents.

Northern Vietnamese is considered standard Vietnamese. It is used a lot in writing, spoken and formal contexts. In music, most singers perform using the Northern dialect.

One of the drawbacks of Northern dialect is many notherners can’t pronounce the “r” and “l”

Instead they say “z” for “r” and "n" for "l".

For example: "Đi za ngoài, chân tay zụng zời, Hà Lội, mày nếu náo" instead of "Đi ra ngoài, chân tay rụng rời, Hà Nội, mày lếu láo".

What about the Central accent?

The Central dialect has very regional characteristics. Although the Central accent is diverse and intriguing, I don't recommend it.

Southern Vietnamese is the most widely spoken dialect in Vietnam and among Vietnamese communities worldwide.  There are a lot of Vietnamese expatriates coming from Saigon, a major city in the south of Vietnam. The Southern accent is considered easy to understand, simple, and straightforward.

Every accent offers unique sound and linguistic diversity.

With that being said, the choice is yours. And of course, follow your guts.

If you are fascinated by the southern vietnamese, you can learn with me!

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