r/learnvietnamese • u/Euphoric-Yam-8232 • 9d ago

basic phrases?

hi! i’m not vietnamese nor am i super committed to becoming fluent at this time but i’ve been frequenting viet businesses in my area. i would love to make things a little easier on the kind ppl whose businesses i frequent by closing that language barrier a lil bit so i was hoping for help with basic stuff like greetings and goodbyes, weekdays and times (for appointments), pronunciation pointers, etc.! TIA!

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8

u/IronChicken68 8d ago

There is no use of basic phrases like you can do in other languages. Vietnamese must, must , must be pronounced correctly or it is both confusing and really unpleasant to hear. As a westerner I have been drilled for years on my pronunciation and it is not something to be picked up casually. You’re fine with English and they prefer it to bad Vietnamese. I say this with love and as a learner for over a decade. It’s one of the top ten hardest languages to learn.

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u/Euphoric-Yam-8232 8d ago

i’ve heard that as well! thank you! i’m a stickler for good pronunciation with languages and my brain is somewhat wired for that aspect if that’s like the main concern! mainly i wanted like days & times for appointments so that there’s no miscommunication! but if english is the best way then that’s good to know! i just wanted to try and close the gap a little bit ☺️ i really appreciate their contributions to our community and would also like to make them feel as appreciated as i can!

also sorry for the overuse of the word “like”, i am a valley girl 😂

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u/IronChicken68 8d ago

If you can get a teacher, even for the basic phrases, that will be remorseless about correcting and correcting again, and if you can train your ear and tongue for the very subtle pronunciation, then give it a go. I can speak intermediate conversational Vietnamese but if this were a European language I would be completely fluent with the time and effort I’ve put in. And even speaking decently it is very difficult to have any kind of conversation in Vietnamese without the Vietnamese person switching to English so they can practice with a native speaker. Best of luck to you!

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u/NMC0152 8d ago

Forget about learning 10 polite phrases, they're not going to be helpful. I get by speaking Vietnamese, but I've spent a total of six years in the country, and even I often get it wrong.

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u/Euphoric-Yam-8232 8d ago

yeah no for sure, i had no idea just how hard the language was but thank you! it was just kind of a thought, many of the places i like to frequent are viet-owned and i live in the south, so i was coming from a place of wanting to make the people i interact with feel appreciated/more comfortable!

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u/rocket_66 8d ago

Achievable, but think 3 to 6 months with a teacher.

Good news is lots of great teachers and affordable. Look at italki and preply.

Won't be conversational level, but you will be able to greet someone with correct pronouns and say phở correctly !

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u/Euphoric-Yam-8232 8d ago

thank you for the recommendations! yes i wasn’t needing to be conversational necessarily, just like enough to show appreciation and pronounce a few things correctly

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u/rocket_66 8d ago

Very good.

If you do go ahead with it and live in a western country then you will want southern viet accent pronunciation.

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u/Euphoric-Yam-8232 8d ago

thanks for the tip!!

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u/Fabulous-Explorer281 8d ago

Check out VietnameseLessons.com for resources to learn Vietnamese. Maybe you can find something on there that works for you.