Our Language

Vietnamese is one of the languages that is hardest to learn. It can be a frustrating and intimidating lesson, or a fascinating and challenging experience.

Vietnamese is monosyllabic—having a single syllable— containing 14,430 possible syllables. It is a tonal language in that the vast number of possible syllables means an equal amount of different sounds! The confusion is added by numerous homonyms; a word can have up to ten different meanings. Often these homonyms when compounded with other monosyllabic words create more meanings.

The complexity of Vietnamese, like music, lies in the permutation and combination drawn from a simple, yet very discerning, set of sounds.

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