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

Tried & Tested - Tandem language app review

Today I will talk to you about a new language app I found. Unfortunately this app is only available in the Apple store, if you're an Adroid user I would suggest you to have a look at one of my older posts which will give you some good recommendations for Japanese learning Apps for Android. With that being said, let's get straight into business!
Alright, so Tandem describes itself as a ''community of language learners'' with over 3 million users. It allows you one on one conversations with people who share your interests. I tested Tandem for one week to see if it is any different than the other language exchange apps out there.


Signing up
So this was a bit fussy.. First of all, you can only sign up if you have a Facebook account. No, I'm not kidding. You can't sign up with just your email address or without making an account at all. So if you don't have Facebook, no Tandem for you my friend. The explanation for this according to them is ''to make sure everyone on Tandem is a real and friendly person''. If you are like me and you're a real and friendly person and have a Facebook account you can continue to sign up. The process for this is rather simple and they will ask you a couple quick questions about your interests, which languages you speak, which language you want to learn and they will ask you to write about a topic you're interested in. After you signed up, you will get a screen like pictured right and then you just have to wait...


Using Tandem
After 30 minutes or so I got an email that I got accepted and I was ready to use my account. The profile will look something like my profile here, but with your own interests an your own topic of course. When people are looking for someone new to chat with, they will see your topic at first so make sure it something interesting or catchy. You can search for new people by the language your interested in, by topic or by place. Only after a few minutes I signed up, I received a request from a nice lady from Vietnam to help me with my Vietnamese. If you studied a foreign language before you know how important it is to connect with natives and how easy it is to ask all your questions. If the little awkwardness is out of the way, you can chat like friends and study at the same time. Tandem also has a call / video call function which allows you to call your new friends for free.

Verdict
I will score the Tandem app in the same way as a did with my previous app reviews. Overall I would give Tandem a 3/5. The layout is very simple, although this can come over as boring, it does makes it easy to use. I would suggest this app to people who want to meet natives to chat with. If you are going to use Tandem, write down what you want to learn and also write down what you've learned from your buddy. This will keep you from only having fun while chatting and helps you remember that you have a goal.


Overall rating; Tandem Language Exchange
Visual / layout; 3/5
Information; 3/5

Pro's
- Easy to use
- Free calling option
- Great way for connecting with new people

Con's
- Only accessible with Facebook account
- No group chats


Did you already use Tandem before? Or are you going to use it now? Let me know what you think!

Thank you for reading.

~ mei mei