INTRODUCTION |
Giang: Hi, everybody, and welcome back to VietnamesePod101.com. I’m Giang. |
Jason: And I'm Jason. This is the All About Series, Lesson 11 Top 5 Most Useful Tools for Learning Vietnamese. |
GIang: In this lesson, we have a great list of tools to help your Vietnamese studies. |
Jason: Yes, we do! These tools can help you enjoy your Vietnamese studies as much as possible and save you a lot of time. |
Lesson focus
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Giang: Right. So why don’t we jump right in? |
Jason: Sure. Our first tool is Entertainment! TV, news, and movies provide excellent examples of how the native people use the language in the most natural way. |
Giang: Some great sources for Vietnamese learners of all levels are YouTube and the Vietnamese TV channels and radio channels’ webpages. |
Jason: Yes, and the VOV website, which stands for the Voice of Vietnam, contains information about all aspects of life in Vietnam. And the information is provided in various forms such as articles, short audio and video files and pictures. You can refer to the Lesson Notes for the specific link to that website. |
Giang: Yeah. Learning Vietnamese through songs is fun too. Just go to Youtube then type “Vietnamese songs”. |
Jason: You’ll have a lot to choose from. |
Giang: Definitely, and it’s a fun way to learn new words! Now let’s move on to the next tool - a dictionary |
Jason: Using bilingual dictionaries is always safe. Here we’ll recommend the two most user-friendly Vietnamese-English/ English-Vietnamese dictionaries available on the web. The first one is vdict.com v-d-i-c-t dot com. And the second one is 1tudien.com 1-t-u-d-i-e-n dot com. |
Giang: Simply type in the word you want to look up, then you’ll see the equivalent word and detailed explanation in English. |
Jason: Another great thing about these two dictionaries is that they includes other languages as well. This means if you type a Vietnamese word, the equivalent in English, French, Chinese and Japanese will come out. It is convenient for both native English and non-native English speakers, isn’t it? |
Giang: Yes, it is! Now our next tool is Vietnamese-speaking friends. |
Jason: This is potentially the most efficient and most rewarding source of learning Vietnamese. Friends who speak to you in Vietnamese can give you more insight, understanding, and help you feel the heart of Vietnamese. |
Giang: That's true. They can really help you express yourself in Vietnamese and understand others. |
Jason: But if you don’t have a Vietnamese speaking friend, it’s still fine. Online social networks are another helpful tool. And one of the best of these is called Lang-8.com – (l-a-n-g dash eight dot com.) |
Giang: This site provides a free way for people studying a language to have their writing corrected by a native speaker of that language. |
Jason: For example, a native English speaker can correct a Vietnamese person's English writing. And a native Vietnamese speaker can correct a native English speaker who is studying Vietnamese. |
Giang: It's quite helpful because it offers a free service for people to correct each other's writing. |
Jason: Definitely, and if you want to meet even more Vietnamese, the best place is Facebook. |
Giang: Who doesn’t have Facebook these days. |
Jason: Right? Facebook is by far the most popular social networking site out there. It is even more popular among Vietnamese than any other Vietnamese social network. |
Giang: Search for Vietnamese language pages, groups or anything related to Vietnamese language learning ... |
Jason: And you are sure to find helpful Vietnamese visiting the places and provide their help to Vietnamese learners when needed. It’s free and there are great opportunities to make awesome friends there. |
Giang: All right. Our last tool is more simple than you can imagine - pen and paper. |
Jason: You may think this is absolutely prehistoric now because we’re in the digital age. But there are good reasons to use pen and paper. First, you can easily get them anywhere for only a few dollars. You won’t have to be afraid of getting them stolen or broken. And lastly, they help you take notes quickly and remember what you learned. |
Giang: And if you catch something interesting on the street, like a useful word or phrase, you can just write it down! This is when a notebook comes in handy. |
Jason: When you write it down yourself, and mark it in your notebook, it gets into your memory quickly and stays there longer. |
Giang: All right, so we hope you’ll take advantage of these great tools and all they have to offer. |
Jason: We've tried them and we know how good they are, so that's why we're passing them on to you! |
Outro
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Giang: Remember that the links for all of these sites and programs can be found in the accompanying lesson notes. |
Jason: Let us know what you think of them too! And if you have some other resources you found useful, you can always stop by VietnamesePod101.com and share them with the community! |
Giang: See you next time everyone! |
Comments
HideHi everyone!
What do you think is the best way to learn more Vietnamese?
Hi Sean,
Thank you for your post!
Music is always a good way to learn a new language.
I hope that day will come soon.
Happy learning,
Chi
Team VietnamesePod101.com
This website is not loading for me; Voice of Vietnam: http://vov.vn/Home/hoctiengviet.vov) Is this no longer valid?
In America,
Many nail salons are managed by Vietnamese ladies. If you're learning Vietnamese, why not get your nails done?
Guys, you can get a manly MANicure.
Hi aidriano,
Thank you for your feedback. I also think we'll need to update the selection of dictionaries for this lesson and we'll take your suggestion into consideration.
Thanks again,
Giang
Team VietnamesePod101.com
I have to disagree with your selection of dictionaries - I have found VDict to be absolutely terrible, with frequent errors and a very poor coverage of words (particularly composite words). By far the best I have found is http://tratu.soha.vn/dict/vn_vn/. I generaly take the Vietnamese to Vietnamese meanings, as (a) they are far more comprehensive than e.g. Vietnamese to English (b) the full context of the word usage (including examples) is explained and (c) doing this forces me to be able to translate the full Vietnamese meaning in order to understand fully, thus improving my knowledge of Vietnamese. If you want to save time, the direct Vietnamese to other language (or vice-versa) translations are at least as good as any other source.
Hi Mike,
Thank you very much for your positive comments.
We would love to hear more of your feedbacks on other lessons.
Do share with us any fun experiences with Vietnamese if you have any.
Cheers,
Giang
Team VietnamesePod101.com
Very simple, easy, and cost effective ways to enhance knowledge of the Vietnamese language.
Thank You for sharing this information!!
Hi Kelsy Ulrey,
This is right, it's never easy to find friend this way, but I'm pretty sure you can find some penpals using for example interpals.com.
This worked for me, so I hope you'll meet interesting people!
I wish you good luck! ;)
Cheers
Mélanie
Team VietnamesePod101.com
Of course, having Vietnamese friends would be a great tool, but it's not that easy just to find friends, especially when it doesn't happen naturally, and you clearly have a particular agenda. Any thoughts on successful ways others have cultivated friendships with Vietnamese in their home cities?