Vietnamese is really HARD!

Xin chào Laowinners!

So, Winston and I are gearing up for a trip to Vietnam! This will be our first endeavor for ADV Media World.

Since Japan is coming up in the future as well, and Winston already able to speak a decent amount of Japanese, I've been tasked with learning Vietnamese.  

I've been to Vietnam twice now, and only learned some basics, so I figured a month or 2 would be good enough to go hard at it and get enough down to be able to have some basic conversations with the locals. But BOY OH BOY is this not an easy language! I thought that the grammar and general structure of the language would be similar to Chinese due to history and proximity, and yeah, it's distantly related to Cantonese, but I only speak Mandarin!

1. It's tonal...

Yeah, I speak Chinese fluently, and that is a tonal language... but Vietnamese?  These tones are another level.

2. The sounds! WTF!? How can a human mouth make some of these noises? Honestly, Mandarin Chinese is a joke in comparison of pronunciation. Chinese is a cakewalk to pronounce. I feel like I actually lack the muscles in my mouth to speak Viet.

3. It uses letters. This is a benefit for almost everyone... but if they still used Chinese characters, I would be able to read it! This is a weird problem to have, but I guess once I get the alphabet down, it will get easier. 

4. I'm old.
I feel like this would have been a lot easier in my early 20s. My brain is starting to solidify into a language barrier. I seriously can only think and speak in Chinese and English. Even when I want to say something... just one word in another language, it comes out in Chinese.

Either way. I am not going to give up. Keep drilling away, and hopefully I end up with some meaningful Vietnamese skills! I managed to get by in Vietnam twice already, but this time I want to be able to actually have some conversations with people so that I can learn and experience something more than just what I see with my own eyes. The ultimate goal is to translate those experiences to you guys!