Tiếng Việt Progress

The following is log of time spent studying Vietnamese.

Total: 40 hours (of 1100)

2019-05, – hours

Planning to continue on memrise, and hopefully post something useful for pronunciation.

2019-04, 10 hours

Discovered some decent introductory courses on memrise, which is useful (although I still have concerns about automaticity). Pronunciation is still difficult although I am slowly improving. I find that I can pronounce things correctly with a lot of focus and effort, so much so that it feels exhausting. I could definitely use more resources for studying and repetition of basic phrases.

Unfortunately, I ran into problems and had to de-prioritize language studies, but am hoping to still do a little bit every day.

2019-03, 25 hours

Began studying in earnest, including a workbook and a daily schedule for at least one-hour per day. The tones are different than in Mandarin, even where the diacritics match (e.g., mà), and the tones are noticeably more loose than in Mandarin. I’m not even sure the 6-tone writing system is accurate. Also, personal pronouns are extremely confusing.

Pronunciation has proven more difficult than I imagined, and most native speakers have absolutely no idea how to explain the phonemes and tones. The resources for learning Vietnamese leave a lot to be desired, but I’m finding some useful things online (i.e., happyhanoi.com). My guess is that it will take 100+ hours to get the basics of pronunciation.

2019-02, 5 hours

Watched some videos and learned a few simple phrases. Played around with some online resources. Learned to type and write in Vietnamese. The pronunciation seems extremely difficult, although I noticed a fair number of Chinese loan words which I hope will make things easier later on.