Thank you! I am not teaching now but I can answer questions if you have any.

@@austenmersereau You should have kept teaching! These are by far the best explanations for me because Vietnamese teachers cannot say what it sounds like in English most of the time. Although it is not their fault because it’s their second language. I was confusing myself by going to so many until I found your channel! One thing I am currently stuck on is tuoi as in fresh! I have no problem saying muoi, nguoi etc. Do you have any tips? I’m sure I am way overthinking it and just need to repeat it a million times!

@@alexchisholm1471 it could help to make the t sound extra sharp. That your mouth can already be in the position to make the ư sound. If you make the t sound like it is in English, then you have to transition to the ư mouth position which messes up the sound. Hope that helps!

Thanks! I am not familiar with B1 level but I lived in VN for 3 years. After 1.5 years there my Vietnamese was very basic, which is typical of foreigners. Then I spent 6 months working hard to self study Vietnamese. That’s when I figured out the pronunciation rules.

Hello and thanks for the compliment. With the “a” in American English pronunciation, your tongue forward, mouth wide open, and lips smiling. The VN sound has tongue neutral, mouth is also open wide, and lips are not smiling. The VN “a” is like the at the dentist when you open up and say aaaaa, but don’t stick your tongue out of your mouth. If you said the “a” as in cat, back of your tongue would get in the dentist’s way. They are different sounds. At first it is hard to distinguish but I hope this helps you.

@@austenmersereau Thank you.

Glad to hear you’re getting utility from the videos. Sure you can make them accessible and I’d like to have a look. Thanks

Can you send me the link to that deck please

The “iêc” and “iêt” endings follow the rule that they can only take nặng and sắc tones. The combination of “iê” can be followed by “c” but “ê” as a single vowel can’t be followed by “c”.

Great question. The short sound / long sound rule does not apply to this word. The “o” and “n” in the word “con” are pronounced with equal duration. Since there is not another vowel that makes the “o” sound, there is no need to differentiate as there is in the case of “â” and “ơ”.

@@austenmersereau Thanks. How about the n sound when I pronounce words like bạn and khách sạn. I noticed it isn't really used and sounds more like bạ and khach sạ. Is there a rule for this?

Yes I can explain that. Your mouth should make the n position at the end of the word with your tongue touching the roof of your mouth. At the same time, your throat constricts the sound to produce the nặng tone. It won’t be easy for you to hear much of a difference between bạ and bạn, but a native speaker will hear a difference. I’d recommend saying the word without a tone first, then add the tone. Say “ban, bạn” and “ba, bạ”. It is analogous to saying the word “world” in English. You don’t produce a clear “d” sound at the end of the word, but your mouth makes the “d” position. It is hard for Vietnamese speakers to hear that ending sound, but a native English speaker can hear it. Admittedly, words with the nặng tone can be hard to understand on their own, usually the word is put into the context of a sentence to make it understandable.

Thank you!

Is this in reference to cicadas?? That's what they sound like where I live, it is a similar climate :)

Shir Catz no it is not. I didn’t want to keep paying for it. Is there anything I can help you with?

Just wonder if you have more contents.

Is it like "ee"?

Derek T yes it is. The i and y vowels make the same sound. Interestingly, name for i is “i ngắn” meaning short “ee” and y is called “y dài” meaning long “ee.” I think they’re named for the shape of the letter itself and those names are necessary to clarify the two different letters that make the same sound.

@@austenmersereau Interesting. Thanks for the quick reply, much appreciated!