If you want to take a test to prove your level or check your progress, look no further than the Vietnamese Language Proficiency Test run by the Vietnamese Department of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Ho Chi Minh City.
Before I took the level A test (Chứng Chỉ A) in February 2013, I searched the internet for information but didn’t find anything. Now I’ve taken the test, here is my lowdown.
You might think that the so-called ‘no’ tone (known as ngang) is the easiest of Vietnamese’s 6 (or 5) tones, however I was having problems with it until a fellow learner gave me a gem of information…
The ‘no’ tone is flat, but it’s high.
If you look at this graph plotting the sound of the six Northern tones from Wikipedia, you’ll see that the ‘no’ tone starts higher than any of the other tones, but stays more or less flat.
Well, there we are! Try taking words with this tone up a scale but keeping them flat. For example, đi.
Now try a sentence, keeping each word high but flat: Em đi ăn cơm. In natural speech the tones aren’t so defined but it’s good to get your voice used to making this high, flat sound.
Over to you: Have you had problems with the ‘no’ tone? Have you tried our suggestion and noticed a difference?
Writing is a good way to practice your Vietnamese. Whether you keep a diary or write topical short essays, it’s important to get your writing corrected by a native so you can learn and improve.
You might not want your friends or your teacher to correct everything you write. Especially if you write quite often! If so, that’s where a website like lang-8.com can help. You can write something of any length, any title, any topic and native speakers will be able to read and correct it. They often also include explanations for their corrections or provide alternative ways of saying something.
In return you should read and correct journal entries written by other people learning your native tongue.
I always get corrections quickly, within 24 or 48 hours. I usually get a lot of corrections on my essays because there are many more native Vietnamese users than there are people like me learning Vietnamese.
If you get so many corrections that you find it hard to go through them all, consider making your journal entries only viewable to your friends.
If you’re not sure what to write about, we’ve got plenty of ideas.
Over to you: Do you get your writing corrected? Have you used lang-8? Tell us in the comments!
If you’re an Ubuntu user and want to start typing in Vietnamese, read on. For Windows instructions, visit this website.
Open Synaptic package manager, search for ibus-unikey and install it.
Once you’ve completed the install, go to your desktop. Click on System and look for IBus Preferences. There you can configure the settings.
Configure your settings
Make sure to open IBus every time you want to type in Vietnamese, and click on the taskbar icon to switch back or turn it off when you don’t.
Once you’re using it, the keyboard shortcuts to make the tones and accents are:
s = sắc (eg. os → ó)
f = huyền (eg. of → ò)
j = nặng (eg. oj → ọ)
r = hỏi (eg. or → ỏ)
x = ngã (ox → õ)mũ – press the key twice (eg. oo → ô)
móc – letter + w (eg. ow → ơ, aw → ă)
Over to you: Have you used Unikey on Ubuntu? Got any tips?
Where I taught English, this was the dictionary the Teaching Assistants used for reference.
I started using it myself and found it’s pretty thorough and most of the time has examples of the word in different contexts. I actually think it’s better than my dictionary in book form!
Here’s an example:
Many words also have an audio file so you can hear the pronunciation, with a northern accent of course.
It has multi-lingual dictionary features currently: English↔Vietnamese, Vietnamese-Vietnamese, French↔Vietnamese and Chinese→Vietnamese.
Over to you: Have you used Vdict.com? Do you have any other dictionary recommendations? Tell us in the comments.
Hello and welcome to More Vietnamese! Call me Thảo.
I started learning Vietnamese in 2011 when I first moved to Vietnam to work. Altogether I lived in Saigon for a total of 3.5 years. While I no longer live in Vietnam, I still maintain this site to help others learn Vietnamese
Thảo tuổi con mèo.
