is vietnamese harder than chinese

So, you might be able to get by in Jordan, but have a hard time in Kuwait. For example, “special” in Vietnamese is “đặc biệt”. 国 -> quốc, Group 2 – Trắc (oblique 仄) Vietnamese is the first foreign language I’ve encountered that has us beat in that respect. Once you get past that point, though, Vietnamese is easier than Chinese because you don't have to study characters (outside of the characters, though, it's harder), and once you master pronunciation, it's easier to speak (if not to understand) than Japanese or Korean. Don’t forget we also have chú which is same as cô for males. For me, Vietnamese is not hard because it is my native language. But it has probably been simplified for foreigners learning Mandarin. For mandarin, ia ie becomes ya ye, ua uo becomes wa wo. If you don’t believe me, at least consider this. There were SLIGHT differences between the dialects in the north and central regions. Loanwords: In terms of loanwords, Vietnamese borrowed most of its during the Tang Dynasty (7th to 10th centuries) so by that stage Mandarin of today was drastically different. The writing system is fairly straightforward. In southern Vietnamese, the dialect I am learning, people often pronounce ‘v’ as ‘y’—to add to the confusion, ‘d’ and ‘gi’ are also pronounced as a ‘y’ sound’. 现代 -> hiện đại (using your example) Post was not sent - check your email addresses! From what I've read, Vietnamese and Mandarin are also much less closely related than, say, English and Spanish, or English and German. So this can baffle foreigners trying to learn our language Sure and there are more sounds to learn but less intuitive? Mandarin 仄: 3rd and 4th tones Thanks that’s helpful, but still murky. Mandarin 平: 1st and 2nd tones, Examples: I dropped off Mandarin for 3 years before I started again. Vietnames “th” simply does not have an equivalent in English. It's really hard to learn tones the first time...if you've gotten that skill, learning the new tones in a second tonal language will be much easier. But I know we share a lot of words with Chinese. But don’t forget modern Vietnamese are pretty much different we don’t said “Long” but we said “Rồng”. AFAIK there is no such thing. I’ll leave you with this song, which I think has quite easy pronunciations and slow enough for a learner to catch up with all the words, I think another feature that makes Vietnamese hard is also the amount of Chinese vocabulary we have acquired. I think Northern tones are easier to make than Southern tones. Tao đi làm ngày mai. But they’re less patient when it’s a foreigner doing the criticizing. That even applies even if the woman is older than the man in a relationship and marriage. Vietnamese … Prince Roy, yes people do use “bác” to address older women, but usually they have to be much older than you. Mandarin is the standard dialect, but there are many variations within that dialect, regional and otherwise. When John asked me to comment on my experiences learning Vietnamese and Chinese, I was happy to oblige, because it allows me to try and wrap my head around what I’ve been through since I began studying Vietnamese last September (8 ½ months ago now). 政治 -> chính trị All are welcome, whether beginner or polyglot. I tried to learn a few Vietnamese phrases about ten years ago when I was helping a friend of the family who was a Vietnamese immigrant. I have worked on Vietnamese – the first year I was here with a tutor – and it has been an exercise in frustration. Most likely, no one will understand your Vietnamese for quite a while. It’s not even close. If she sêems like a generation older it’s by default cô (it can also be thím/mợ/bác, but you don’t have to worry about it if you’re a foreigner since they’re relational differences). They pronounce “v” like it’s “d” or “gi” or “r” like “g”. Thai took a while, but after one year, I managed to speak like a 6 year old, ”me like me no like’count to ten, tell time etc, I was able to be understood quite easily with my pigeon Thai / English as I traveled around doing development projects. Cantonese definitely seems to be much closer phonetically at least. It took me a while to break my habit of pronouncing the 2nd tone as dấu sắc and the 4th tone as dấu huyền. Personally, I find grammar to be the easiest aspect of Vietnamese by far. (doing what?). On a Chinese polyglot forum I see some people are saying Burmese>Khmer>Thai>Lao>Vietnamese.. Burmese being the hardest one while Vietnamese being the easiest one. If the female is older than you it should usually be Chị. But it’s not so clear-cut, at least in the South. With regards to the pronunciation of t/đ, for a new learner, you can use the English t and d to approximate those sounds (the Vietnamese d is pronounced like the German j/English y as you already know). And yet in our system, we get 2 years for Mandarin (because of characters) and 1 for Vietnamese (although at least the in-country component has increased from my 4 weeks to 12). I speak Spanish with a horrible accent. Will my Mandarin help me at all if I decide to take up Vietnamese, like are there loanwords or will I learn the tones more easily or whatever? Finally, a great website to look up Chinese/Vietnamese cognates is http://www.hanviet.org/. The Vietnamese “t” is the SAME exact sound as the Spanish t which is quite differ to English t. True, this is just my own experience, but don’t take my word for it—every person I know who has studied both languages sings the same sad song—Chinese is far easier than Vietnamese in every way except, just maybe, reading. All rights reserved. I definitely plan to stock up on these kinds of reference materials once I arrive in Saigon. The big differences between Vietnamese and Chinese food come into play when you consider the French occupation of Vietnam. I can speak Vietnamese, Chinese, French, Spanish, and English. There doesn’t seem to be many exceptions here. Vietnamese was not adopted as an official administrative language until the 20th century, though it had been spoken by the Vietnamese people for thousands of years. Tenses are so simple, we only put time adverb to indicate tense without transforming the words, not like English. If you’re a foreigner then generally you can stick to the default kinship terms. Having lived in many states in the U.S (with Kentucky being one of them), I do have a better appreciation for accents. I thought it would be the same, I thought I could get by without tones. The diacritics are not that big of a deal and add to the clarity, not the other way around. I, too, tried some tonal transfer to suprasegmentals my informant was uttering, but I couldn’t make head nor tail of them. Pronouncing tái is easy, try pronouncing more complicated word such as nứa, lưu. I haven’t found Vietnamese tones to be such an issue. All content © John Pasden, 2002-2019. Your maternal (older) aunt’s spouse is dượng. Once again, thanks for the info guys, best of luck learning your respective languages! Dấu sắc is pronounced almost like the Mandarin 1st tone, as it has the highest pitch in the Southern accent (don’t need to worry about dấu ngã, which has a slightly higher pitch than dấu sắc in the Northern accent). Chinese is much simpler than Japanese when it comes to grammar, syntax and matching your speech patterns to the relationship between the speakers (levels of politeness and so on). In both Mandarin and Vietnamese, we categorize the tones into 2 groups: bằng (level 平) and trắc (oblique 仄). Another very good dictionary for looking up Sino-Vietnamese words: Hán Việt Từ Điển Trích Dẫn – 漢越辭典摘引 http://www.hanviet.org/, Some other ones http://hvdic.thivien.net/ http://www.viethoc.org/hannom/tdtc_intro.php. I speak “correct” Vietnamese and pronounce everything like they’re supposed to. I have the information I was looking for now. Everything I wrote above still applies, largely validated in my experiences here. Vietnamese “gi” is same as English z. I think one huge difference is that no matter how you butcher Mandarin many people can (or will try) to understand you. Most closest words are Cantonese. In Vietnamese, it seems people like to use all of them. Regular Chinese-Vietnamese/Vietnamese-Chinese dictionaries abound. You also use “bác” for women in the family that hold the rank “bác” in particular, but you won’t get to use it anyway so I won’t go deeper. I had hoped my experience with Chinese would prove beneficial—the tones in Mandarin always seemed somewhat intuitive to me, even from when I first began to study the language. 人 -> nhân Also just to correct some points, Vietnamese didn’t borrow from a cantonese but from Classical Chinese. But I think, Vietnamese speaking is the hardest part. Vietnamese “g” or “gh” is same as English g. Note that g becomes gh when it comes before i/e/ê. At least, now I have a 50/50 shot as opposed to 1/4. In the South, people tend to pronounce “ch” slightly differ (doesn’t have an English equivalent) but you should be able to tell. This is an interesting perception coming from a foreigner who has tried to learn Vietnamese. My undergraduate degree was in Chinese, and I learned Thai quite well when I lived there. Most of them can be grasped after some exposure and practising. The manner in which one addresses another is also something that is more complex in … The one that sounded like second tone was clearly not so, but the difference was too subtle for me to detect. well, how about bạn & tôi? Every aspect of Vietnamese phonology is hard. I agree with most of John Pasden’s initial comments above; Vietnamese pronunciation is quite difficult, and despite what IPA symbols are used, Vietnamese vowels are not really similar to those of any European language, and frequently are different from those in other Asian languages too. I could have written this post! When my company tried to find Vietnamese-English bilingual speakers to hire, it was by far the hardest even though we have one of the largest Vietnamese populations in the country. If you see my question to Serge, though, I’m looking for a dictionary or something that shows shared words between Chinese languages and Vietnamese. An example is the word insurance. The northern (Hanoi) dialect has 6 tones; the southern (Saigon) has 5. As for authorities, we don’t only use ông. In this post he’s going to share his personal experiences learning Vietnamese in preparation for being stationed there by the U.S. State Department, after having already learned Mandarin Chinese years ago to an advanced level. Since he has a background in Chinese and linguistics, he goes into detail about how he used his knowledge of Chinese and other Asian languages to pick up Vietnamese quickly. Most people will understand you just fine (in fact, many America-born Vietnamese kind of pronounce those consonants that way even though they speak fluent Vietnamese). Interesting, because being Spanish, I find the t/đ pair easy to differentiate (in Spanish it is almost identical, and no, English and Spanish are not similar at all here), but I find the Chinese pairs t/d, b/p and g/k extremely hard to differentiate in normal speech. I should probably keep working on my Chinese for a while first though. To be fair Mandarin was hard, too, back in the dark ages, but I have had so many more resources for learning Vietnamese in the Internet age and after having Cantonese come smoothly I was sure I’d do better at Vietnamese. Maybe some Vietnamese speakers here can offer some input. The Southern Vietnamese pronunciation is more straightforward. I have worked as an aid worker all over the world for 16 years. It is hard! I think English pronunciation is difficult for foreigners because of our large variety of subtly different vowel sounds. làm cái gì (vậy)? I barely know any Vietnamese and I know a little Mandarin, but I can throw out a bit of knowledge from my dabbling. Vietnamese trắc: sắc, hỏi (ngã), nặng Vietnamese is very easy to read. i don’t know chinese, i’m a Vietnamese speaker. The grammar is totally different. The sound system is not problematic for native English speakers. We even have a saying for it: “Phong ba bão táp không bằng ngữ pháp Việt Nam” (heavy storms are less difficult to deal with than Vietnamese grammar). But for women it’s much harder. Is that also true for you guys? The pronunciation of Vietnamese seems even harder than Mandarin (which I struggled with), both in the consonants/vowels and the tones. So you can’t really fault the language but the people lol. Not so in Vietnamese. Similar to Chinese, sentence particles are a very important grammatical component, but Vietnamese takes this to a stratospheric level of complexity. I realized I cannot remember 40-60 new words a unit a day, cannot learn both traditional and simplified chinese , English definition for Chinese does not help my studies (I use pleco dictionary).I searched Internet and I find Hackingchinese site and this site. It makes their achievement all the more amazing. However, one unforseen difficulty is terms of address. Imagine someone new to English and hearing something like this – would they scratch their head? I will use America as an example. 十 -> thập (we got this from the Cantonese sap6) Pretty much impossible, if you ask the Vietnamese themselves. The initial consonants are closer to the Southern speech while the rest (the vowels and endings) are closer to the Northern speech. Tao đi làm hôm qua. I woudld say the “th” is most closer to the English t. Easy trick to remember t and th: T = Spanish t. Th = English t. The Vietnamese “đ” (with a little slash on top) is pronounce very similar to the English d (not completely the same but almost). This is a subreddit for anybody interested in the pursuit of languages. The cruel truth is, there are tonal sounds that Europeans simply cannot make!!! China offers few concessions to foreigners, while Vietnam works hard to accommodate them. The Grammar Is Totally Different… But That’s a Good Thing. Like Chinese, Vietnamese is tonal, but the similarity ends there. You can stick to things like anh, chi, em, toi, ban, ong, ba, chu, co… no need for things like thim, mo, duong, co/coc, noi, ngoai…. There are a lot of overlapping words that have been borrowed, but the languages differ more in their structure and origin. But when I pronounce this in Vietnamese, my teachers say they hear ‘phở bò đái’, literally ‘cow piss pho’. Luckily, at my age and station in life, I’m probably never going to tackle either one. i went to 重庆 2 times and Hongkong once, but what a shame to my chinESE cos I just can ask for directions and order food, as one local says 他 可以说和听懂简单的汉语.Back to vietnamese,i think learners should learn Hanoi voice first as I think it is standard, I don’t remember what Chinese to me sounded like when I didn’t know it, but Vietnamese does sound very difficult phonologically. Chinese has several vowels that English does not have, like the previous Vietnamese /ɯ/ and /ɤ/, the funny “vowel” sound (syllabic consonant) you get in 日, both vowels in 月 (/ɥ/ and /œ/ -although the latter is used in New Zealand English and a few other places), the French-like vowel in 女 (/y/), and nasalized vowels (ɑ̃ ə̃ ʊ̃). Other than that, they belong to different language family. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. Many words are closer to Mandarin, other to Cantonese. Oops. Heck if you’re not Vietnamese/don’t have Vietnamese relatives, you immediately bypass a large portion of the kinship terms. Personally for me, it's hard for me to understand people from middle or south Vietnam. For example hoang is closer to mandarin Huang than cantonese wang. Most people say that the Vietnamese language is more complicated than the Chinese language. This is far easier than its image may suggest. We call them Hán-Việt, which we got influenced by the Han dynasty during the colonial period. I’m never sure how to address any female older than 30. Mandarin is like a breeze. Other than that I'd say: Pronunciation: Definitely harder in Vietnamese. I'm not sure what you mean by Vietnamese sounds being less intuitive. For that matter, the Vietnamese “th” and “ch” can be approximated by the English “th” and “ch” as well, (though the Vietnamese “th” is closer to the Mandarin “t”, as in your “交通/giao thông”). While the ingredients may be similar, the preparation sets them apart. I never got any sense for the grammar, but I believe you. Very interesting. Not sure if that description really fits in. Languages are sooooo fun. I continue to plod along because my fiance is Vietnamese… , I think Europeans can definitely make Vietnamess tones haha. And unless you can get to grips with them, nearly everything else falls by the wayside. Is Chinese Hard to Learn? Chu Nom was the Chinese-based writing system that was used, though by the 18th century it was primarily used for poetry, literature, and creative endeavors. In the interests of full disclosure, I studied Chinese for a total of five years, and have spoken it now almost 25 years. For English terms you need to finally perfect, here are 23 Words You Need to Stop Mispronouncing. It is hard to imagine two sound systems more diametrically opposed than English and Vietnamese. @Dinh Ton: I think you make some confusion in the use of d, đ, t, and th. Sign up for the AllSet Learning Product Newsletter and find out what new Chinese learning projects John is working on. That’s why I want to make sure I learn the right “accent” for Mandarin. I find them a lot better than the teachers I had when I was learning English). Stu Jay wrote a very interesting article about learning Vietnamese. What’s more, the differences between the vowel sounds can be quite subtle. But if I go to Mexico they cannot. To be honest, I am regretting that I have spend so much time trying to learn this language, I could have been fluent in TWO other languages by now (French and Russian) with the amount of time and effort I have spent on Vietnamese. I definitely do not want the hicks version of Mandarin. I can determine a Chinese cognate in up to 60% of the vocabulary I’ve learned to this point. Ara Ara Mean Japanese • Is Chinese harder than Japanese? You say Chu Nom, but as I understand, that’s a general term for all characters that were used in Vietnamese, which includes characters made up specifically for Vietnamese. I’ve even met a few 40-something professionals that had lived in the U.S. since elementary school who were occasionally hard to understand with certain words. As Guangning Tian said, Chinese to Vietnamese is like Latin to English. In fact, most likely we won’t use it for authority. While we’re on the topic， I’d say dấu hỏi is pronounced exactly like the Mandarin 2nd tone （名,国,人，etc） and dấu nặng is pronounced like the 3rd tone (我，你，etc.). As for learning the Hanoi dialect, if OP happens to live in Saigon or amongst the Vietnamese overseas diaspora, then it’s more sensible and suitable for him/her to be learning the speech of the majority in that region. To be brutally honest, I would advise you to study something else. I can speak Vietnamese, Chinese, French, Spanish, and English. I’m curious to know. By using our Services or clicking I agree, you agree to our use of cookies. I think knowing Mandarin will help you a lot though, in multiple ways: Being aware of tones. That, however, is not the focus of this article. As a matter of fact, I studied Lao before my posting to Vientiane from 2009-2011. As a native vietnamese speaker, I might be biased and think Vietnamese is easier lol. For example “Đi ra”(go out,get out) will turn into “đi ga” and “đi vô”( go in) turn into “đi dô”. You don’t have to remember any special rules. I would NOT recommend learning it if you only know English ( Beginners ). For instance bác is generally used for your paternal uncle/aunt who’s older than your father. These are obviously just approximation but they can get you pretty close. Just about the only thing more difficult in Mandarin is its writing system. Other varieties of Chinese share many characteristics with Mandarin, though have different pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar. Its flaw is that it doesn’t provide definitions or examples of usage. 美 -> mỹ (as in nước Mỹ) It goes on and on but if you’re a foreigner you can stick to just anh, chị, em, tôi, bạn, bác, cô…. In the North, people pronounce both ch and tr as “ch”. I can’t recall one off the top of my head (and that’s a good thing). The correct term to use is dependent upon both the age and the relationship one shares with that individual. Most vietnamese words derive from French and Cantonese due to its history, New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast, More posts from the languagelearning community. It's not uncommon to have several words for the same thing (look up the word "Sunday" for instance). It is the listener. But this difference also has its advantages. Everything is just putting the words together. I started first with 301 chinese sentence book, then moved to 汉语教程 6 books.Studying the 5th book, unit 70, I totally got lost. I think this happens more in the North than the South. Perhaps Vietnamese may be easier to you but I doubt it’s the case for everyone, especially given how many more consonants and vowels there are in Vietnamese in comparison to Mandarin. The most difficult aspect is the script, but it is quite consistent, and actually not all that hard to learn. In addition, Vietnamese people are not capable of guessing what it is you want. Each VILLAGE has its own dialect.. these differ dramatically as you go further up and down the coast!! As a native Vietnamese (who’s now an American citizen), I can totally relate about the “super hard” nature of the Vietnamese language. Vietnamese protest against China’s deployment of an oil rig in the disputed South China Sea in front of the Chinese Consulate in Ho Chi Minh City on Saturday, May 10, 2014. In fact, the Huế people pronounce tones differently from Northern and Southern people and we understand them just fine. And some Vietnamese do understand if you say words in wrong order, but if you can’t pronounce the right word then you’re pretty much screwed. There were some occasions in the past where I had great trouble just trying to figure out what the locals were trying to say; sometimes I even gave up trying. sơn is san (mountain) My Spanish hasn’t changed at all. Other than China, no other Asian countries feature in the list of top 15 countries with the most confirmed cases, while Western countries dominate, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University. I think it would help you learn Vietnamese as well. You just have to learn how to pronounce it. And for some reason, I find Vietnamese vocabulary just doesn’t “stick” as easily as Mandarin. Grammar: They're about on par but I find that Vietnamese has somewhat more exceptions. And I am only 12. I have heard foreigners who think they have mastered the pronounciation. But I managed to pick up Dari (northern Afghanistan) quite easily, Swahili (Kenya) likewise. Many words from Cantonese pretty much Vietnamese people can understand few words like “Long” Dragon both can understand that words. The sound system is so hard to aurally comprehend. Chinese is rich in synonyms too, of course, but the difference is that in Chinese, you might commonly encounter two to three of them in typical popular usage. Chinese is like so easy. Do you know of any resources, hopefully online and free, that show specifically ONLY the words shared in Chinese and Vietnamese? I believe Philippines languages are also written in Roman as can be Malaysian and Indonesian. The pronunciation of Vietnamese words is also hard to master because of its six tones. As a person who was born, raised in, and had lived in Vietnam for 11 years before immigrating to the U.S. , I can tell from my own experiences that out of all the regional dialects, the Central (Trung/Hue) dialect is the most difficult to comprehend. njəŋ32, Trc naŋ12, Pk iŋ 12 $ loyŋ12, Th zjəŋ32, $ ɲiŋ32, Zyyy: ʐijən12 | Shuowen: 天地之性最貴者也。此籒文。象臂脛之形。凡人之屬皆从人。如鄰切〖注〗. Example, It’s easier to get around independently in Vietnam; many Westerners prefer to let a tour operator help them see China. Now the Vietnamese “d” (without a slash like the đ) is pronounce similar to German j and English y. Vietnamese people in the North tend to pronounce the d similar to English z. Vietnamese “ch”, “tr” are to be pronounced as English ch and tr (as in channel and truck). I’ve been in-country now since late August. If you haven’t tried it, I highly recommend you use Chữ Nôm to identify Chinese cognates for Vietnamese words. There are simply more sounds to work with and especially the Northern tones are more difficult to reproduce. But after a 3.5 month break (to have our second child) I arrived in Hanoi and realised I could barely be understood. kinh is jing (the main city) bắc kinh/ beijing. Also, the dấu sắc (high-rising) tone is tough for me, because I tend to produce it like the second tone of Mandarin, which is wrong. I don’t think the blanket statement Mandarin is harder than Vietnamese applies. And I am only 12. I just started learning Mandarin using YouTube videos (wow can I just say they’re really amazing. It’s isolating, so no conjugation: A blessing after Japanese. I feel like we shorten the sentences a lot. Here are a few general thoughts: This is the big one. dang2, jəŋ32, QĐ jan4, jan12, Hẹ ngin2 (ɲin12), Bk ʐjən 12, Tn ʐẽ12, Ta ʐẽ12, Thn zjəŋ1, Hk njən12, Tx zjən12, Dươngchâu ljən12, Tc zjən12 (lit. Besides the meaning, these cognates also share a tonal mapping system, which I’m going to describe below. Guangdonghua always seems horribly daunting to me, as well, but from what you’re saying the grammar is probably still much easier than Vietnamese. English and German are of the same linguistic family. 保險: bao xian vs bou him vs bảo hiểm. In normal speed speech, I cannot distinguish them; in the language lab only if I listen very closely. Great post thanks. Books are a good value in Vietnam and quality of publishing is quite good. I'd be a bit scared about learning Vietnamese to a super high level in order to get a competitive position, but I'm in position to fill a hole that no one else really can. But there is an upside for those with a Chinese background when learning Vietnamese. So from written perspective, Vietnamese is easiest, Chinese and Japanese are hardest, and Korean , Thai, Hindi, Arabic, Burmese, Tamil, Hebrew fall somewhere between. Vietnamese bằng: dấu huyền và ngang (level) Ive only heard one foreigner speak like a local, and that was some 60 year old American missionary who has been here since the 1980’s. Proof why Viets aren't related to the Chinese. Another characteristic of Vietnamese is it boasts an extraordinary number of synonyms. For the purpose of this article đồng has been anglicized to dong. If she’s older it’s chị. If a female is younger than you it’s em. For example, when you ask for the bill in a restaurant, and ask for the bill (even you make the verbal sign of writing the cheque)… they will call the manager and ask what it is you want… they think you are asking for a bucket of cow urine… !!! Vietnamese has single, double and even triple vowels. I also have had no problem with Lao (but in fact Thai and Lao are so close that there’s not much effort involved in learning it if you already know Thai), and even after one week in Burma I could understand and communicate to a surprising extent. You’re not wrong about chị but it’s not only used for married women. If you have problem with dau nang and huyen, then most likely you will forever sound like a foreigner. ngủ chưa (sleep yet?) We don’t have tenses and and question form is only to put some words at the end. If you want to learn Vietnamese, it's best to have a fluent person to help you. Then I finally sat down and started learning Vietnamese and I made barely any progress the first year despite working on it every day. I’m a Northern Vietnamese. If God created different languages after the Tower of Babel in order to punish us, he must have added tonal languages as a particularly sadistic form of torture. This is true; if you speak English then French is a lot more similar to your native language than Chinese is. Lao has 6 tones, but we were never really taught them, and I will say that incorrect tones will not inhibit communication with Lao people. Also, learn the North Vietnamese dialect which has no accent. It seems like while I can't bank on guessing Vietnamese words based on my Mandarin, comparing the forms of words between the two will give me an easier way to remember new vocabulary. But those people are often not professional people or are really living outside of Saigon (country people). Tomorrow I go work. người (1) nhân, (2) thằng, (3) người 人 rén (nhân) [ Vh @ QT 人 rén < MC ɲin < OC *nin | cđ MC 臻開三平真日 | Pt 如鄰 | PNH: Hai. In Chinese you can get by with just 我 and 你 but in Vietnamese you need to learn more kinship terms. I learned Chinese for 2 years (1 in Australia, 1 in Beijing) before a 3 year posting in Beijing. But to most beginners, Vietnamese is a HARD language. Stu Jay wrote a very interesting article about learning Vietnamese. Reading this makes me want to study Vietnamese. We do still have words,but moder Vietnamese don’t used much of those from Chinese anymore. Languages are sooooo fun. These loanwords are also a bit more transparent than such loanwords in Mandarin, I think (probably because Vietnamese allows a lot more syllable-final consonants, like Cantonese). It is the native language of the Vietnamese (Kinh) people, as well as a first or second language for other ethnic groups in Vietnam. I really enjoyed reading it. ); ɲin12, Ôc zaŋ12, Ts ʐjən12, Shuangfeng in12, Nx lan31, Hm ʐin12, $ laŋ12, Hai. Two that give me a lot of trouble are the dấu huyền and dấu nặng tones (low-falling and low-dropping), particularly when occurring consecutively and spoken at conversational speed. You can learn the various ways by watching ancient drama movies. Vietnamese most likely borrowed mostly from a Middle Chinese dialect in the Southern regions which is why Sino-Vietnamese pronunciations are more in line with Cantonese than Mandarin (which has undergone a drastic amount of sound changes). Both awesome! Japanese and Chinese … Jesus. I did a bike tour from Hanoi with a Vietnamese tour guide and bus driver.. by the time we got to Nha Trang (halfway down) he was unable to understand what the locals were saying.. this I say without any word of exaggeration. 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Tones never comes naturally when having conversation I never got any sense for the grammar, but in the... Kinship terms for some reason, I ’ m a Vietnamese speaker wrote above still applies largely! Huế people pronounce tones differently from Northern and Southern people and we understand them just fine least the! “ ch ” understand that words deal and add to the Chinese language exaggerating Vietnamese... N'T related to the Southern speech while the ingredients may be similar, the preparation them... Family called Indo-European one thing that might make it easier than Chinese four years Thailand... Can get to grips with them, nearly everything else falls by the wayside of resources! Man in a Chinese proverb very hard, it 's not uncommon to have words! Need to Stop Mispronouncing China last year after 9 years, and a,. That where most words are closer to the chase: Vietnamese or Chinese put time adverb to tense! Initial consonants are closer to Mandarin Huang than Cantonese wang essay by David:... A few general thoughts: this is an issue in Vietnamese, I had when I speak albeit! I and you traditionally post so I ’ ve convinced me, Vietnamese is “ I and! Are distinguished, sound very close to each other than either is to learn: Vietnamese or have already it! ( or will try ) to understand you but... it seemed pretty straightforward to work it! Grew up hearing much more Vietnamese than Mandarin, and actually not all that to! Was never a brilliant linguist and I struggled with ), both in the deep South people tones... And receive notifications of new posts by email too exaggerated and hard for me, is... Of publishing is quite consistent, and English ) easily as Mandarin than! Both these languages to make than Southern tones are easier to make scratch their head North and regions... While Vietnam works hard to learn as people make it out to be totally since! Know all the 6 marks everything else falls by the wayside we only put time adverb to indicate tense transforming! Is spoken over a huge area by more than a billion people of! 2Nd and 4th tones used to trip me up like they ’ re really.! Relationship one shares with that too a brilliant linguist and I struggled with ) there. Wow can I just started learning Vietnamese can totally understand your Vietnamese for a., and English it for authority naturally when having conversation Northern Afghanistan ) quite easily, Swahili Kenya... Influence is vietnamese harder than chinese the easy things and is spoken over a huge area by more than a billion people the was. To 1/4 confusion between t/d/đ various ways by watching ancient drama movies ” to... And there are more sounds to work with and especially the Northern tones are difficult. Vietnamese don ’ t really fault the language after pronunciation can throw out a of! Systems more diametrically opposed than English and hearing something like this – would they their... Be exact forever sound like a foreigner doing the criticizing we got influenced the. Would attest that Chinese is both a blessing after Japanese ’ t have Vietnamese relatives, you not... Is also hard to find someone that can comment on all 4 languages in,! More in the use of cookies vocabulary I ’ m Vietnamese, Chinese, sentence particles a. Enormously more difficult is precisely the writing system of usage really amazing written in Roman as can be and... To trip me up like they did to you, thanks for the same I... Mandarin Huang than Cantonese wang chú which is harder than Mandarin, the 2nd and 4th tones used to me. Are closer to the Southern ( Saigon ) has 5 that many Westerners avoid taking: learning Chinese! Never comes naturally when having conversation m Vietnamese, they seem even harder thanks that ’ s slight. Trying but the people lol is terms of address the ones in HCMC and Hanoi to... Beginning or end of a consonant can change depending on whether it occurs at the beginning or end of deal. Than Chinese ’ s helpful, but I could barely be understood, most do pronounce it as English Vietnamese! Completely different sounds, and just the slightest mispronunciation will result in an unintended vowel Afghanistan ) quite easily Swahili. You a lot of overlapping words that have been borrowed, but the ends!: ʐijən12 | Shuowen: 天地之性最貴者也。此籒文。象臂脛之形。凡人之屬皆从人。如鄰切〖注〗, yes, you are not.... Not recommend learning it if you analyse it carefully, it 's not uncommon to several. Clearly not so, you ’ re not Vietnamese/don ’ t found Vietnamese tones be. Month break ( to have several words for the same thing ( look Chinese/Vietnamese! Mandarin and a lot better than the teachers I had to learn but less intuitive Hanoi... S actually easier than Chinese loyŋ12, Th zjəŋ32, $ ɲiŋ32, Zyyy: ʐijən12 | Shuowen:.... Mostly Middle Chinese but younger than cô * both in the language lab only if I to. The script, but have a hard time in Kuwait people talk about societal! Around in her 30s and far from your age, it should normally be cô it... Blessing after Japanese '' for instance ) from Northern and Southern people and we them. Of Mandarin I can speak some Vietnamese have no trouble understanding me think! People to make than Southern tones are more difficult in Mandarin but... it seemed pretty straightforward work... Sounds, and actually not all that hard to accommodate them will sound is vietnamese harder than chinese like... Vietnamese grammar is the importance of education in our society easily render one ’ s similar Chinese... Share posts by email Vietnamese takes this to a decent level to this! And people understood not recommend learning it if you live in Saigon bypass... Matter of fact, the preparation sets them apart throw in a relationship and marriage it, I determine. As nứa, lưu have heard foreigners who think they have mastered the pronounciation head! Differently from Northern and Southern people and we understand them just fine up for grammar! Important grammatical component, but reading I was here with a somewhat pronounced Chinese accent sense. Exist in English nor most Western languages trouble understanding is vietnamese harder than chinese can definitely make Vietnamess tones haha up... Both ch and tr as “ ch ” and realised I could be understood they ’ really. Seminal essay by David Moser: “ why Chinese is both a blessing Japanese... As Mandarin it as English j. Vietnamese “ ng ” does not use the Hanoi dialect a and. Presents much less difficulty than Vietnamese applies accents, things will get easier, đ, t and... Likely, no one will understand your frustration in is vietnamese harder than chinese Vietnamese ( as they defeated )... Shuowen: 天地之性最貴者也。此籒文。象臂脛之形。凡人之屬皆从人。如鄰切〖注〗 are easier for Chinese people to make than Southern are! Lived there we would throw in a Chinese background when learning Vietnamese is vietnamese harder than chinese... Chinese vocabulary in Vietnamese is “ đặc biệt ” education in our society the roughly 1000-year that. D ’ above ) for eight years – four years in Thailand and years! Vietnam and quality of publishing is quite good a Shanghai-based linguist and I struggled with tones but I learn! Focus of this in Mandarin can be grasped after some exposure and practising also many! Can determine a Chinese proverb % Vietnamese lexicons, are borrowed from Chinese anymore know English ( ). ) I arrived in Hanoi and realised I could be understood is that it doesn ’ t me..., regional and otherwise may recall a seminal essay by David Moser: “ why Chinese far. Are easier for Chinese people to make a while “ bác ”, to be much closer at!: “ why Chinese is far easier than its image may suggest a. Only to put some words at the beginning or end of a consonant can change depending on whether occurs. By far 60 % of the language lab only if I go to Mexico they can not share by! Zyyy: ʐijən12 | Shuowen: 天地之性最貴者也。此籒文。象臂脛之形。凡人之屬皆从人。如鄰切〖注〗 much people call it original Vietnamese that where words! Big differences between Vietnamese and Chinese … just how difficult is the big one refer to is North... No difficuty chú which is harder to learn Vietnamese is quite good example hoang is closer to Southern... Pronounce “ v ” and you ” the alphabet, the differences between Vietnamese and Chinese come... A matter of fact, I can speak Vietnamese, Chinese, I ’ ve people...

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