Hey guys, wow oh wow it’s been a long time since I posted anything new here. I have been busy working on some projects that should make it easier for me to continue traveling and being self-sufficient in the coming years.
Anyway, that’s besides the point. Around the beginning of September I began my last serious effort to learn Vietnamese. Despite living in Vietnam for about 3.5 years, I hadn’t been able to push past the most basic level of Vietnamese.
Before this challenge had begun, I wondered if learning Vietnamese was even possible. This is coming from someone that has already learned a foreign language (Spanish) to a level of conversational fluency.
My doubts with Vietnamese came mostly from the fact that it is a tonal language. This combined with the fact that no Vietnamese people are expecting you to speak Vietnamese combine to make practicing the language and being understood extremely frustrating in the early stages.
Vietnamese has one of the steepest learning curves of any language. I’d say that of expats that have lived here for at least a year, roughly 1% approach conversational fluency (B2) in Vietnamese.
Before this challenge I was probably at an A1 level of Vietnamese. After five weeks and 105 hours of practice, however, I would self-evaluate myself to be approximately a mid-A2 ranking on the CEFR scale.
The most difficult part of learning Vietnamese thus far has been pronouncing the tones and vowels correctly. Vietnamese has been the first language I’ve studied where it was necessary to break words down into individual letter sounds while learning.
Summary
Learning Vietnamese is difficult. It’s definitely more difficult than learning European languages like Spanish or German (as a native English speaker). With that being said, it is possible. I am already capable of having conversations for multiple hours solely in Vietnamese (albeit with a paid tutor).
In the next couple months, perhaps around 300-400 hours of total practice, I predict I’ll be able to comfortably have friends that only speak Vietnamese. Now, I can communicate with others solely in Vietnamese, but it still requires them to exert a bit too much effort for us to have fun having extended conversations.
Anyway, that’s enough ranting. Check out the clip below and judge my Vietnamese for yourself! If you don’t speak Vietnamese, remember to press “C” or click “CC” in YouTube for English subtitles.
P.S. Are you considering traveling to Vietnam? Read this post first.