How many Vietnamese words do you actually need
Word counts for different levels of Vietnamese, why the grammar saves you time, and why counting words is a poor measure of progress in this language.
#study tips
Remembering Vietnamese words: the tone is what fades
Why the meaning of a Vietnamese word stays while its tone slips away, how spaced repetition should be adapted for this, and a workable review schedule.
The Sino-Vietnamese layer: why news feels like another language
Why you can hold a conversation in Vietnamese and still not read a newspaper, what the Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary layer is, and how to approach it.
Classifiers and set phrases: learn words in company
Why Vietnamese nouns need classifiers, which pairings must be learned as units, and how to record vocabulary so it is actually usable.
Vietnamese words learners keep confusing
Word pairs in Vietnamese that foreign learners routinely mix up, why the pronoun system causes most of them, and how to sort each one out.
Vietnamese vocabulary by topic: what to learn first
Which topic areas to learn first in Vietnamese, why pronouns and food come before everything else, and what to leave until later.
Tools for learning Vietnamese vocabulary
Which tools actually help with Vietnamese vocabulary, why your notes need a tone column, and how to type diacritics properly.
From understanding Vietnamese to actually speaking it
Why you understand far more Vietnamese than you can produce, what makes the gap wider in a tonal language, and how to move words into active use.
The speaking section: pronouns are the real test
What happens in a Vietnamese speaking exam, why pronoun choice matters more than accent, and how to prepare when you have no one to practise with.
From zero to intermediate Vietnamese: a realistic timeline
A three-stage path from no Vietnamese to intermediate level, what to study in each stage, and honest time estimates for learners studying daily.
Getting past intermediate Vietnamese
Why progress in Vietnamese stalls at the intermediate stage, what the formal vocabulary layer demands, and how to move from getting by to being fluent.
Using practice tests when few official ones exist
How to prepare for a Vietnamese proficiency exam when official sample papers are scarce, and how to build usable practice material from real sources.