10 reasons to start learning Vietnamese

Ever thought of learning one of those amazing sounding Asian languages? What pops into the mind of most people at the beginning (including myself) is of course Chinese, Japanese and Korean. But how about one of those beautiful languages which are not thought of frequently? Such as Tagalog, Thai or Vietnamese? Imagine studying one of these languages and blowing people away by doing something totally different. Surprising them with your newly achieved skills and introducing them to a language which is so unique.

Vietnam is an amazing country and Vietnamese is an amazing language. For both beginning and advanced language learners, Vietnamese is a perfect language to study. According to the graphic below its difficulty is rated as 'medium' meaning it's significantly different from English but can be learned with some devoted studying. Since Vietnamese is not a common language being studied it's also perfect for the aspiring polyglots among us.
Now let's get to my 10 reasons to convince you even more!

1 - Vietnamese is spoken by 75 million people. which means they have more speakers worldwide than Korean!

2 -  There are large communities of Vietnamese speakers in Australia, the United States and other countries. In the US it's even the sixth most spoken language and in France it's the most spoken Asian language.

3 - Vietnamese is heavily influenced by other languages. Major influences in the early days from Chinese, later by French (through colonialism) and English (trough globalization).
Which makes it easier for you learning Vietnamese if you already speak one of these languages.

4 -  Vietnamese uses a Latin alphabet with accent markings
So that means no difficult memorizing like Chinese or Japanese.

5 - Vietnamese is a challenging language for (aspiring) polyglots, since it's probably something completely different than you're used to. However perfectly doable for beginners since it's a language of medium difficulty.

6 - There are only three accents in Vietnamese language (Northern, Southern & Central)
unlike for example Chinese which has a different accent for almost every part of the country (Yue, Wu, Min, Hakka etc.)

7 - There are only six tones in Northern Vietnamese and even fewer in the other dialects.

8 - Vietnamese, like many other Asian languages is an isolating language, which means it does not use different marking for tense, gender, number and so on.

9 - Also like many other languages (such as Japanese) it uses the SVO (subject-verb-object) word order for their sentences.

10 - And last but not least; Vietnam is a beautiful country, with great history, delicious food, and kind people who will be impressed by you speaking or even trying to speak Vietnamese.

I hoped this sparked your interest for this beautiful language.
If you want to start with Vietnamese I suggest reading my post learning Vietnamese Northern or Southern accent.

Thank you for reading!

~ mei mei

Learning Vietnamese; Northern or Southern accent

After awakening my interest for Vietnamese I found out that it is quite difficult to get some information online. There is not so much decent information for studying Vietnamese, even on this world wide web. This is can be kind of discouraging for those who want to learn Vietnamese because everyone needs resources and everyone needs study materials. Luckily I have my partner who speaks the language and several colleagues as well. Therefore every single thing that I learn from them I will share with you, as I do with Korean and Japanese. So today is my first Vietnamese language related post.

We will start by asking ourselves; do I want to learn the Northern or Southern accent?
Do I really have to choose? That's what I thought myself too, but the answer is yes. It is definitely better to make a decision right at the start to prevent confusion for yourself. I will help you to choose today.

So let's start with the Northern accent. Northern accent or also known as Hanoi accent, is from my point of view the best to start with because it's 'standard' Vietnamese. When I say standard, I mean it is clean Vietnamese compared to the Southern accent. The Hanoi dialect represents the phonetic system more fully then others which makes it more understandable. However Southern accent sounds amazingly different as of the people are singing to each other when talking. When you have set your mind on learning Southern accent you must be prepared to have some difficulties finding materials since most of the books are written in Northern accent. Many people have to learn the Northern accent first to cover the basics and then adjust their pronunciation to Southern accent.
For those who it is considerable learning the Southern accent is those who come to Vietnam for business purposes. You most likely have to do all your business in Saigon. Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) is the biggest and the most important political, economic center in the whole county of Vietnam. therefore learning the Southern accent would be a good choice.

In the end you can just choose whichever accent you like more or would be more convenient for you. In this case there is no right or wrong. People all over the country still understand each other despite the differences in their accent.



Please look forward to more Vietnamese language related posts!

~ mei mei

Ultimate guide to Vietnamese sweets & desserts

So many people asked me to write more Vietnamese related posts so here you go. In this post I will be introducing you to the world of Vietnamese desserts and sweets and show you some of my favorite Vietnamese dishes.

Core ingredients 

Vietnamese sweets and desserts are not always sweet and can also contain savory ingredients. Some of the core ingredients for desserts are; glutinous rice flour, mung beans,coconut (milk),jelly,palm sugar, cassava, tapioca, pandan,tofu and a variety of fruits such as mango, durian, longan, lychee or jackfruit.

Popular dishes

- Chè ba màu

Three colored dessert. (see top picture) This refreshing cold dessert is one of my favorite things to eat during a hot summer day. It can consist of different type of beans (red beans, kidney beans, butter beans), water chestnuts, jelly and fruits topped of with coconut milk and shaved ice to keep it cool. Depending on your taste the options are endless and there are many variations for this dish. You can enjoy this dish in many Vietnamese restaurants.

- Bánh Cam

These are fried glutinous rice balls
coated with sesame seeds. The fillings
do vary but consist mostly of mung beans and / or coconut.

- Bánh Khoai Mì Nướng

Sweet cake made out of cassava, coconut and condensed milk. This super delicious cake is also a good alternative when you are on a diet since you can cut out most sugar because the cassava and coconut are already very sweet.

-Bánh Dày Đậu
Glutinous rice balls with mung bean filling. Similar to Japanese mochi this dish is made with glutinous rice and stuffed with a crushed mung bean and coconut filling. Sometimes cassava is also added or the mung beans are replaced with a other type of bean. On the right picture is my own version topped with coconut but mostly you see them topped with crushed mung beans.

-Cà phê sữa đá
Vietnamese style iced coffee. Introduced by the French and then developed by the Vietnamese. This is a really popular treat among tourists. Made with a special stainless steel filter and coarsely ground dark roast coffee, then mixed with condensed milk and served with ice.

-Kem chuối 
Banana pops. Super easy to make and amazingly delicious. Small bananas are pressed a little flat and coated with sweetened coconut milk then topped with desiccated coconut and peanuts. A Popsicle stick is pushed into the bottom and they are frozen into delicious banana Popsicles.   

I hope you gained a little more interest into Vietnamese cuisine after this post. These Vietnamese dishes are fairly simple to make but extremely delicious. Surprise yourself and your family by making one of these dishes or simply enjoy it in the convenience of your local Vietnamese restaurant. These are all worth the try!


Thank you for reading.
~ Mei Mei