How long does it take to learn Vietnamese?

The US Foreign Service Institute puts Vietnamese in its 'hard languages' group and estimates 44 weeks of full-time study, about 1,100 class hours, for an English speaker to reach professional working proficiency. For comparison, it estimates 600 to 750 hours for languages like Spanish and French. If you want to know why, our honest look at whether Vietnamese is hard to learn breaks it down.

That figure describes diplomats in class about 25 hours a week, plus homework, aiming to negotiate and read the news in their new language. Most expats, travellers and people with Vietnamese partners want something else: to live their daily life in Vietnamese and get to know people.

A more useful way to think about it: 30 minutes a day adds up to roughly 180 hours a year. That isn't fluency, but it's enough for a lot of everyday life.

These ranges count total practice time: learning words, listening, and speaking. At 30 minutes a day, divide the hours by about 15 to get months.

• First 100 words, 15 to 25 hours (1 to 2 months): greet people, order, pay, ask prices and directions. You get by.
• 300 words, 50 to 80 hours (3 to 5 months): small talk about your name, job, family, where you're from and how long you've been here.
• 1,000 words, 150 to 250 hours (10 to 16 months): everyday conversations on familiar topics with patient people. You follow the gist of slow, clear speech.
• 2,000 words and more, 400 to 600 hours (2 to 3 years): comfortable conversation, phone calls, most of what's said to you. Fast group chat is still hard.
• 1,100 hours and up: the professional level: meetings, news, jokes and wordplay.

Living in Vietnam and using the language every day can shrink these a lot. Studying only from a book, with no listening, stretches them.

The first milestone comes quickly because a small set of words does a lot of work in daily life. With about 100 words and a few fixed phrases you can buy a coffee, order lunch, pay, say thank you and admit you don't understand.

Your sentences will be short and your tones wobbly, and that's fine. Vendors and drivers hear learners all the time. For a ready-made set by situation, see our basic Vietnamese phrases for travelers.

Vietnamese small talk follows a script, and foreigners hear the same questions again and again: your name, your country, your job, your age, whether you're married and how long you've been in Vietnam. That repetition is a gift. Learn the questions and your answers, and within a few months you can hold a real first conversation.

This is also when pronouns start to matter: you'll need to switch between anh, chị and em depending on who you're talking to. Our introductions phrasebook has the full script.

The 1,000 most common words are the backbone of everyday speech: the little grammar words (là, có, không, được, của), the everyday verbs, people, food, time, money and feelings. Most of the words in any ordinary conversation come from this core.

With them you can start linking ideas: if, because, but, I think. You can explain a problem to a repairman, tell a short story about your weekend and follow most of what a patient friend tells you. You'll still miss slang and fast talk, but you'll know what to ask about.

The sentences below use nothing beyond those 1,000 words.

Speeds it up: living in Vietnam and using the language for real errands; friends or a partner who will speak Vietnamese with you; getting the tones right early; listening to audio every day; speaking from your first week, even badly.

Slows it down: learning from text without audio; switching between Northern and Southern accents; long breaks; and letting everyone switch to English. Many Vietnamese people speak some English and will kindly switch to help you. Ask them not to.

If you have a Vietnamese partner, agree on a regular Vietnamese-only slot, such as dinner or the drive to work. It's slow and a little frustrating at first, but it does more for your listening than most courses. Ask their family to speak Vietnamese with you too.

The lines below turn any conversation into a free lesson.

Twenty minutes every day beats three hours on Sunday, because tones and listening need regular exposure. Here is a routine that fits around a job.

• 5 minutes: review. Go back over the last few days' words with audio. Say each one out loud, with its tone.
• 5 minutes: 10 new words. Learn each one inside an example sentence, not alone. At 10 a day you meet all 1,000 most common words in about 100 days. Using them comfortably takes longer, which is what the other blocks are for.
• 5 minutes: shadowing. Play a sentence, pause, and copy it, melody included. Once a week, record yourself and compare.
• 5 minutes: use it. Say something new to a real person: the coffee seller, your Grab driver, a colleague. Or text a friend in Vietnamese.

Once a week, add something longer: a 30-minute chat with a tutor or language partner, or a vlog with Vietnamese subtitles.

easy1000words covers the first two blocks: the 1,000 most common Vietnamese words in frequency order, each with a recorded example sentence. If the tones still feel slippery, our guide to Vietnamese tones is the place to start shadowing.