If you are a parent who wants to teach your children a bit of Vietnamese but aren’t sure where to start, we have found lots of great books, apps, language learning systems and some free games that will help your kids learn a bit of Vietnamese in a fun and stress-free way.

Since Vietnamese has six different tones it can be a bit difficult to learn, so the more material that you can expose your kids to, all the better. Unfortunately, there aren’t as many resources for Vietnamese as some of the other languages that we have covered, but there is still lots of great stuff that can help parents at home.

On the positive side, Vietnamese is based on the Roman alphabet (like English) so some people consider it one of the easier Asian languages to learn.

medium_4014167635

Vietnamese Kids Books

When teaching your children a new language at home you should invest in a good picture dictionary like First Words Vietnamese or the Vietnamese/English Children’s Bilingual Picture Book  It’s great for kids to have a reference book that they can go back to if they are wondering about a particular word.

vietnamesebooks
If you want a book that has both English and Vietnamese, and can teach children a little bit about Vietnam a very popular book is  Vietnam A to Z. This book is great because it introduces Vietnamese culture in a fun and silly way.

Listening to songs in another language is an easy way to get kids to learn basic vocabulary and pronunciation. A good resource with songs in Vietnamese is Sing ‘n Learn Vietnamese Book with Audio CD. This set has 14 songs and melodies that children will enjoy listening to.

Another way to help children become familiar with a new language is to find stories or books that your child already knows and read them in another language. Language Lizard is a site that offers dual language books for popular titles like Dear Zoo or The Wheels on the Bus, which just means that each page of the book includes Vietnamese and English text on the page.

 

Free Online Lessons

You can’t go wrong with Duolingo.com. The site is often used in schools for French and Spanish but they have lessons for pretty much any language that you can think of.

Free Online Games to Help Teach Vietnamese

  • Digital Dialects has games for learning numbers, colors, and vocabulary in Vietnamese.
  • Hello World This site is a little confusing to use, but it does have some good material including conversations, songs, a dictionary, games, and lots of other things.
  • Vuontre is a cool Vietnamese children’s web site. Not for beginners.

Best Apps to Help Kids Learn Vietnamese

Apps are a fun and easy way to help kids learn a new language without them realizing they are learning something useful. Luckily there are some apps designed for kids that will teach them a bit of Vietnamese.

vnapps

  • Vietnamese-English Language for Kids  has interactive audio flashcards and games in categories such as animals, basic human anatomy, colors, all with pronunciation from a native speaker.
  • Gus on the Go has Gus visiting the cities of Hanoi, Da Nang, Nha Trang, and Ho Chi Minh City and going over how to how to properly pronounce vocabulary words in the following categories: animals, food, transportation, clothes, numbers, colors, parts of the body, and shapes.

Let us know if you have any Vietnamese resources that you use with your own family, we would love to share them with others.

photo credit: Padmanaba01 via photopin cc