About Vietnamese

The Vietnamese language is spoken by approximately 81 million people worldwide with the majority of speakers residing in Vietnam, including both Vietnamese people and ethnic minorities in the country. Out of all of the Austro-Asiatic languages, Vietnamese has the most speakers by far. Over one million fluent Vietnamese speakers live in the United States where it is seventh in line of the most-spoken languages in the country. It is also used by a significant number of people in Australia, Canada, Cambodia, Finland, Norway, the Netherlands, Laos, Czech Republic, Thailand, Taiwan, Senegal, the United Kingdom, and several other areas of the world.

There is considerable debate among linguists as to the origins of the Vietnamese language. Over 150 years ago, the language was first identified as being a part of the language family known as the Mon-Khmer, which is a branch of the Austro-Asiatic language family. Vietnamese, Nguồn and Mường dialects are now commonly placed into a sub-category language family known as Việt-Mường.

Even though Vietnamese has been spoken by the Vietnamese people for thousands of years, written classical Chinese was used in the country until the 20th century. Now, Vietnamese is used as Vietnam’s official administrative language.

Many people choose to learn Vietnamese as a second language in order to enhance their traveling experience to Vietnam, to speak with others in their community who are fluent in the language, or simply for the challenge of learning a new language. A modern method for learning the Vietnamese language is to listen to a Vietnamese podcast designed for non-native speakers. Language podcasts offer one of the most effective ways to learn how to speak Vietnamese using a proper accent. Learning Vietnamese accents is imperative if you would like to understand the spoken language and would like to be understood by others when trying your hand at conversing with native speakers.

With a combination of effective learning tools at your disposal, you will be able to quickly learn the Vietnamese alphabet, vocabulary, phrases, and proper grammar. These days, it is easy to find both written Vietnamese lessons and audio lessons online where you can learn at your own pace in a customized fashion. Pick up a few common Vietnamese phrases to get started. Build up your understanding of Vietnamese words and how to use these words in sentences and, soon enough, you will be able to participate in basic conversations. Every lesson that you master will take you one step closer toward fluency.