Let yourself explore Vietnamese with a Souther Vietnamese tutor. All levels are welcomed with a relaxed and personal approach.

Find out more about NGUYEN PHUONG VY

• Did you grow up speaking this language? Or were you inspired by a trip abroad, an individual or a certain aspect of the culture?

  I was born and raised in Viet Nam. During my childhood, I have learnt Vietnamese cultures. I love languages because languages are one of the main aspects of a country's culture. For example, English personal pronouns are "you" and "I", no matter who is older or younger, while Vietnamese has so many personal pronouns to show hierarchical respect.

• Can you name a living, historical or fictional character that you think is the emblematic representative of the language's culture?

  I never thought about this question. At this time, there are a lot of historical or fictional characters in Vietnamese literature. To be honest, each character reflects specific areas of the culture.

• Is there a typical word, phrase, tradition or expression in the language that you particularly like?

  I also help Vietnamese locals to speak English. Sometimes, they find it hard to express some specific words in English. For example, yêu and thương. Both of them mean "Love". But we can feel the difference between these words.
  
  Yêu means, in terms of a romantic relationship, we can refer to "falling in love". A couple who loves spending their times, going out for dinner, chatting to each other overnight, and ect.
  
  Thương is a more profound word to express. That is, they love each other of course, but the difference is that they sacrifice their jobs, their finances to stay with the one they love, even one of them decides to break up because they themselves could not take care of another, although it would be really painful.

• Why does speaking this language matter to you?

  Vietnam attracts a lot of investment as well as travelers because of cheap prices and easy to do business. I can find some of them enjoy living in this beautiful country for the long-term. Learning Vietnamese became a necessity for them to survive, and no one wants to be in trouble.
  
  Furthermore, in other countries, people with Vietnamese background want to learn their home languages to visit their relatives, or being curious, or it is one of their hobbies. Whatever the reason to approach Vietnamese, I would like to help.

• What is the main difficulty in learning this language and what can help the process of learning?

  According to foreigners that I have talked to so far, they find tones and pronunciation of specific consonant digraphs as well as vowel digraphs. Personal pronouns are tricky as well. Also, Vietnamese culture is a bit different from Western culture, for example, they may be too friendly to locals who are much older than them.
  
  From there, it depends on their personal needs. With beginners, I usually start with the book 123Vietnamese, because it focuses on most areas, such as personal pronouns, phonetics. My specific areas are daily conversation with Southern dialects. As a result, based on the book, I create separate slides which summarize sentences (according to the topics) that we normally say.

• Provide a valuable anecdote related to your language learning or your days at school.

  During teaching a student through the Superproof platform, they love drawing. So, I let them draw according to topics. Then I asked her to make a sentence in Vietnamese. They normally orally respond, then I write it down on the whiteboard. I believe learning language with hobbies provides the maximum learning. Also, I keep my personal word document to reflect what area they are good at and one to improve, including the plans for next week.

• How has travel or a specific trip helped you to increase your skill and knowledge of the language?

  I usually travel around VietNam with my family and friends. As we have hierarchical respect, such as saying respectful words to older people, I learn how to respond to different people in the right situations.
  Also, I have lived in Australia since my 20s, I normally visit my hometown once a year. It is a good chance for me to join in language exchange, such as Vietnamese clubs, where I can connect with foreigners who are struggling with Vietnamese. Also, hanging out with my local friends provides some updated slang that I never knew.