As a family, Bryan and I thrive on exploring the world and making friends wherever our adventures take us. Yet, language is just as powerful a tool for forging connections as traveling itself.
Ever since I was pregnant with my first child, Serena, I have been eager to teach her Vietnamese. It’s a language passed to me by my mom and grandma that I’m proud to speak, however broken it may be, and I knew it was something I wanted to pass to her.
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Why do I want my child to learn Vietnamese?
I was born and raised in the U.S., so I speak primarily English. I learned Vietnamese hearing it in the house growing up and by studying abroad in Vietnam during college.
More details about my language background
I was born and raised in the U.S., so English is my primary language. I picked up Vietnamese in the house from my mom and my grandma, who took care of us after school and watched those 20-hour series of Chinese movies dubbed in Vietnamese (phim tàu). Although my mom taught my siblings and me the Vietnamese alphabet and tonal marks from a workbook, our conversations consisted mostly of her speaking to me in Vietnamese and me responding to her in English, and we both understood each other perfectly. I could understand Vietnamese, but my speaking was terrible.
In college, I decided to change this and studied abroad (EAP) in Hanoi, Vietnam in 2007 and then proceeded to a summer language program (VASI) in Ho Chi Minh City in 2009, which exponentially accelerated my Vietnamese speaking skills and cemented my understanding. I could actually carry on a conversation in Vietnamese, with sentences.
Imagine this: I’m bursting with excitement, sharing my big plans with Bryan about teaching Serena Vietnamese and my hopes that he’ll share Tagalog with her too (he’s Filipino-American). But, whoa, did that conversation take a turn! He argued that people speak English in the Philippines and that Tagalog wouldn’t be very useful. When I mentioned a Vietnamese dual immersion program for Serena (years from now since she’s not even school-aged yet), he shrugged it off, preferring she learn Spanish because it’s “more useful.” According to him, Vietnamese is only spoken in Vietnam and in no other country. I was shocked and upset and speechless all at the same time.
Passing On Culture and Expanding Relationships
Sure, I get it. Spanish could be more practical; it’s spoken as the primary language in multiple countries and second to English in California. But for me, it’s deeper than practicality. Learning Vietnamese is about connection. It’s about heritage, about passing down a piece of our ancestors from generation to generation. It’s about forging connections with those who share the language. There are so many stories I would have never heard and so many people I would have never talked to if it weren’t for me having the ability to speak Vietnamese.
Learning Vietnamese is about connection. It’s about heritage, about passing down a piece of our ancestors from generation to generation. It’s about forging connections with those who share the language. There are so many stories I would have never heard and so many people I would have never talked to if it weren’t for me knowing how to speak Vietnamese.
Benefits of Learning a Second Language
Many of my friends born in the US wish that they could have learned their parent’s native language, but their parents intentionally didn’t teach them because “it would be too confusing.” But that’s not true! A child’s mind is a sponge, primed for learning languages!
Furthermore, there are so many benefits to learning a second language (according to this article I read), including:
- Better academic performance
- Increased concentration
- More powerful memory
- Stronger communication skills and empathy
- More creativity
Sounds likes all things I want for my kids!
Useful in Little Saigon Especially
And useful? Don’t even get me started. We live in Orange County, home to Little Saigon, the largest Vietnamese community outside Vietnam! For me, speaking and understanding Vietnamese has been the key to unlocking countless meaningful connections and opportunities, both near and far.
How am I teaching Vietnamese to my toddler?
- The caregivers speak primarily Vietnamese at the daycare we send our kids to.
- I use Vietnamese phrases to describe our daily rituals in the house.
- wash hands = rua tay
- dry hands = lau tay
- diaper change = thay tã
- carry = bế
- wear clothes = mặc áo
- brush teeth = đánh răng
- drink milk bottle = bú sữa
- eat = ăn cơm
- drink water = uống nước
- go home = đi về
- daycare – nhà trẻ
- I read some Vietnamese books to her (though most books I read to her are in English).
- We sing Vietnamese songs together, many times with motions.
- I find Vietnamese songs on YouTube and sing along with her.
- We have a song book that plays the song in Vietnamese when you press a button
- Some songs we sing together:
- Kìa con bướm vàng (There’s a Yellow Butterfly)
- Cả Nhà Thương Nhau (Whole Family Loves Each Other)
- Một Con Vịt (One Yellow Duck)
- I play her educational YouTube videos.
- videos focused on teaching babies and toddlers Vietnamese
- videos of songs in Vietnamese
- I associate items or images of items with words by pointing and repeating.
- I point to images in a book (usually somethings she already knows in English) and repeat the word in Vietnamese and English. (Ex: animals, activities, expressions, body parts)
- I point to an object and repeat the word in Vietnamese (Ex: I point to body parts and repeat it in Vietnamese. Also, when we do our neighborhood stroll, there is a statue of a lion and a statue of a dog that we pass by, so I repeat the Vietnamese word for both)
- I point to images on flashcards and repeat the word in Vietnamese.
- I use my fingers to count and repeat the numbers in Vietnamese in order. That’s how she learned numbers 1-10 in Vietnamese.
Challenges of learning Vietnamese in an English-speaking home
A big challenge is that I normally don’t speak in Vietnamese (or think in Vietnamese). If I do speak Vietnamese, I have to translate it in my mind before speaking. For me to teach Serena Vietnamese, I would need to work on speaking it more regularly and improving it too. A bigger challenge is that Bryan and I talk to each other in English because it’s our only shared language.
Vietnamese learning resources for English speakers
Here’s the scoop on some awesome resources I’ve found for teaching Vietnamese to my toddler, Serena:
Mommy and Me Vietnamese
Mommy and Me Vietnamese (MMV) was started by a mom named Sophie who wanted to teach her own daughter Vietnamese. When my family was at the hotel in Thailand, Serena would request “Vietnamese!” and I would play her Mommy and Me Vietnamese YouTube episodes on the TV and repeat Vietnamese words with her. It’s a wonderful way for Serena to learn and for me to learn along with her.
On top of her fun YouTube episodes catered to teaching babies and toddlers VIetnamese, she always shares Vietnamese learning resources through her Instagram. This is where I learn about all the awesome Vietnamese books, flashcards, YouTubers, and toys that also share the same vision of spreading the language culture.
Fun fact: her parents owned The He Tre Productions, which was a VHS video series dedicated to teaching the next younger generation Vietnamese. You can read more about her story and the vision behind Mommy and Me Vietnamese here. I’m honestly so inspired by Sophie. I just want to teach my daughter Vietnamese, but she went out and made it her mission to teach her daughter and a whole generation of kids and parents VIetnamese.
Love to Sing Books
From Mommy and Me Vietnamese, I learned about this song book of Vietnamese nursery rhymes, and it has literally been Serena’s favorite activity. We sing these Vietnamese songs most nights before bed. It’s wonderful quality time and also educational, and I love seeing both her joy and pride in singing these songs. I think the only Vietnamese nursery song I knew in this book was Kìa Con Bướm Vàng, and so with Serena, I learned the lyrics to the rest. Our favorite is Một Con Vịt. There were other songs in there that I had only known in English, so it was fun learning the lyrics in Vietnamese.
Em Be Books
For several weeks around Tet (the Lunar New Year), Serena and I were reading a Tet book from Em Be Books. With adorable illustrations, I was teaching her the 12 zodiac animals in Vietnamese. She would say the animal in Vietnamese, in English, and then make the animal sound (“con khỉ, monkey, oo oo aa aa”), and we did this for weeks.
During the lunar new year, it’s tradition to offer well wishes or blessings, and I loved that they were included in this book too. However, they were a little too complicated for my 2 year old to understand, but I figured when she got a little older, I could explain those to her as well. While I don’t see that book on her website anymore (maybe it’ll come back next year), I wanted to highlight Em Be Books, and I see a few new books on her site that I may be purchasing soon.
Chris Tran Travels
This is probably not for Serena as much as it is for me, but I just find Chris Tran extremely educational and entertaining as hell. It helps that we share a similar background (taught Vietnamese in the house and pursued formal education in college by studying abroad in Vietnam). There are funny quirks and additional complexities in Vietnamese that just don’t translate to English well. He points these out, makes skits out of them, and just makes me laugh. He also has many very educational posts including one on what is politically correct to say in Vietnamese. He’s offering a class now on mastering Vietnamese pronunciation in the southern dialect, which I find to be extremely unique, because almost all of the auditory resources that pronounce the words aloud are in the Northern dialect.
What about our readers?
So yeah, that’s where we’re at. Teaching Vietnamese to Serena is about more than just learning a few words. It’s about passing down a piece of who we are and giving her the tools to make more connections in the future. I’m always open and eager to finding out more too, so please leave a comment if you find something new!
Are you teaching your child another language? If so, how are you doing it, and what is your experience doing it? What challenges are you running into? I’d love to learn how other parents are teaching their kids? Leave a comment below, and share this post if it resonated with you.
Thanks for writing this post. It’s inspiring and heartwarming to see your dedication to teaching your daughter Vietnamese.