15 Best And Worst Online Vietnamese Courses For 2024

Looking for the best online Vietnamese course to learn the language?

Vietnamese is rising in popularity, as more and more course options are being released.

In addition to tourism and foreign language careers, the benefits of speaking Vietnamese cannot be overstated.

Today I’m going to give you my rundown of the best (and worst) online Vietnamese courses.

Below you’ll find pros and cons for each Vietnamese course, pricing and a summary. Where applicable, I’ll link to a review of the course.

IMPORTANT: Some of the items listed below are probably only loosely defined as “courses” for Vietnamese. The reason I’ve included them is that they’re popular enough Vietnamese tools and therefore should be included.

DISCLAIMER: The comments below are personal opinions and some affiliate links are used.

The best Vietnamese courses online (most popular Vietnamese resources)

1. VietnamesePod101

Cost: Starts as low as $4 a month.

Summary: VietnamesePod101 is a brilliant online resource for learning Vietnamese (especially listening comprehension). If you’re into podcast learning especially, this might be the course for you.

VietnamesePod101 uses audio lessons similar to podcasts. Lessons are suitable for beginners through more advanced levels. The instruction not only includes listening skills but also incorporates essential vocabulary and grammar with loads of other useful features.

What I like:

• Large and always expanding variety of Vietnamese lesson material
• Clean lesson interface and downloadable content

What I don’t like:

• Content choices are sparse beyond the beginner level
• Too much English banter
• While the lesson interface is nice, the rest of the site is overwhelming and confusing to navigate

UNIQUE OFFER: Use the code MEZZOGUILD to save 25% on any of their Vietnamese course options.

---

2. Pimsleur Vietnamese

Cost: $14.95 a month subscription (or $119.95 per level)

Summary: Pimsleur’s a household name for learning Vietnamese using spaced repetition recall. The lessons focus on practical vocabulary and expressions one might need in various scenarios. This includes greetings, common phrases, and vocabulary you might need when talking to native speakers.

In terms of just how much you get out of it, I’d say Pimsleur is a good entry point for Vietnamese but it will only familiarize you with the basics. Treat its Vietnamese course as a foundational course and then move on to something more comprehensive.

Pimsleur does not offer any video or written content. It’s audio only.

Read this Pimsleur review.

What I like:

• Pimsleur was based on solid research in second language acquisition.
• Extremely effective method despite its age.
• Heavy repetition of Vietnamese language samples.

What I don’t like:

• Outdated scenario examples.
• Too much English.

---

3. Glossika Vietnamese

Cost: $30 a month.

Summary: I’m a huge fan of the Glossika series.

Glossika is one of the most unique language products available and, in my opinion, one of the very few that uses a natural, research-grounded method. In fact, the Glossika method aligns very closely with how I personally learned Vietnamese and I’ve seen tremendous success doing it.

Glossika focuses on high repetition of lexical chunks – in other words, listening over and over to a sequence of sentences at natural speed and repeating them.

It is hands down the most effective trainer for Vietnamese listening comprehension and requires little else but frequent, daily listening/repeating to audio.

See this massive Glossika review and interview I put together.

What I like:

• One of the most truly unique and effective methods available, in my opinion.
• I personally had tremendous success using Glossika for Vietnamese (and Russian).
• Focuses on heavy repetition of natural language chunks.

What I don’t like:

• Difficult concept to grasp for new learners of Vietnamese.
• Natural approach requiring heavy repetition may feel tedious to some people.
• Slightly higher priced monthly subscription.

---

4. Mondly Vietnamese

Cost: Starts at $9.99/month.

Summary: Mondly offers courses for loads of different languages including Vietnamese and is similar in style to Duolingo and Babbel. There are even hints of Rosetta Stone in its delivery.

It’s a beautifully-designed web app and a pleasure to navigate the Vietnamese course content.

Some of the language courses aren’t that great (e.g. Arabic) but Vietnamese and others are done fairly well.

What I like:

• Beautifully designed app and web interface makes it a pleasure to use
• Clear and easy progression through the Vietnamese lessons
• Inexpensive

What I don’t like:

• Linear learning path
• Fairly repetitive and monotonous

See this Mondly review to learn more.

---

5. Transparent Language

Cost: Pricing varies

Summary: Transparent is one of the most surprising online Vietnamese courses I’ve tried.

The system and interface are antiquated and slow which is a real drawback, but if you can look past it, Transparent Language provides a real depth of Vietnamese course content.

The voice recognition comparison is non-existent in Transparent Language. It relies on recording on your voice and showing you your sound wave to compare with the native speaker’s sound wave.

No inbuilt system to automatically compare sounds.

The Transparent Language course has a “Produce it. Say it.” section that literally asks you “Were you right?”.

In other words, no way to automatically detect whether you were correct or not – it relies on your own determination. This is incredibly outdated.

Overall, if you can look past the outdated design and deficient voice recording aspect, Transparent Language Vietnamese is an outstanding course option.

What I like:

• Vietnamese dialogue is 100% natural speed
• Extensive coverage and depth of content

What I don’t like:

• Outdated and slow interface that’s a pain to navigate
• Pronunciation section has no inbuilt voice recognition to compare to native dialogue

---

6. uTalk

Cost: $4.99 monthly per language, $9.99 for all 140 languages, $99.99 for a lifetime subscription

Summary: uTalk is essentially a fancy flashcard app, an alternative to Memrise and a great way to learn words and phrases in hundreds of different languages.

There are thousands of potential language pair combinations and tons of native speaker audio recordings with picture associations.

Read this uTalk review.

What I like:

• Authentic native speaker audio
• Hundreds of available languages
• Thousands of potential language combinations
• Easily affordable

What I don’t like:

• Sloppy UI
• Games are mediocre
• Broad approach that isn’t tailored for specific languages

---

7. Assimil

Cost: Prices vary widely

Summary: The Assimil method is old and outdated, and its ‘two wave’ approach has little value in light of current Second Language Acquisition trends (although its focus on patterns rather than grammar drills is ahead of its time). The Assimil dialogues are extremely useful, however.

What I like:

• High quality dialogues
• Perfectly arranged audio library
• Very comprehensive

What I don’t like:

• Translation-based
• Doesn’t appear to be backed by research or case studies
• Unusual and bizarre situational topics

See Donovan’s Assimil review.

---

8. Duolingo Vietnamese

Cost: Free.

Summary: Duolingo has become a staple for many language learners – a completely free household name to rival established companies like Babbel and Rosetta Stone.

I’ve personally have never liked Duolingo and I think it’s an overrated, infantile game that offers little value other than being an addictive distraction and procrastination from real learning. People go through entire courses on the Duolingo platform and come away with little more than a cartoon trophy.

Their Vietnamese course might serve you well to get you acquainted but there are better ways to spend your study time in my opinion.

Check out my comparison of Duolingo and Babbel.

What I like:

• Free to use.
• Fun downtime activity in between real study periods.
• Appealing to young people and those experimenting with Vietnamese before committing to a paid resource.

What I don’t like:

• Tedious, repetitive point and click on easily predictable answers.
• Addictive gamification that feels productive but is, in fact, time-wasting.

---

9. Memrise

Cost: Free

Summary: Memrise moved its free “community” courses to a site called Memrise a while back, while it continues to run a premium subscription on the original Memrise site.

From what I see, Memrise is identical to what Memrise use to offer.

Memrise are 100% free community-added courses (Vietnamese and others) in the form of a gamified flashcard deck. You select a language or dialect, then go through a flashcard game of “watering plants”. It’s highly addictive and actually quite effective.

Some courses are excellent but not all courses are good. Look for ones that include audio and ones that teach phrases rather than single words.

See my video on downloading Memrise to Anki.

What I like:

• It’s an effective memorization tool for phrases and words.
• The addictive nature of the game gets you coming back often to continue learning.
• It’s all free.
• There are loads of community-driven courses to choose from.

What I don’t like:

• As it’s community-driven, you can’t always guarantee quality.

---

10. Lingodeer

Cost: Starts at $9 a month

Summary: A less known app than Duolingo, Lingodeer teaches Vietnamese by utilizing a wide variety of exercise types (very reminiscent of Duolingo and others). The nice part about it is that the lessons are in small, manageable chunks. The audio quality is good for an app and the wide selection of lessons keeps learning interesting.

What I like:

• Clear Vietnamese lesson path makes the learning trajectory straightforward
• Provides detailed explanations
• High quality Vietnamese audio

What I don’t like:

• Lingodeer feels too much like an attempted imitation of other products (lacks uniqueness)
• Highly repetitive like Duolingo

See this Lingodeer review.

---

11. Mango Languages

Cost: $7.99 a month

Summary: Mango Languages has implemented what I believe to be one of the best ‘chunking’ approaches in its course style I’ve ever seen (very close to my own successful method). It does this by avoiding grammar Vietnamese explanations and instead highlighting lexical chunks in colors to help you learn language patterns.

One of the best features I’ve seen in a language product. Period.

The only problem with Mango is that it’s quite lightweight on its course depth. If they developed an advanced course for Vietnamese, I’d be a raging fan.

What I like:

• Beautifully designed Vietnamese course
• Focuses on lexical chunks (color coded) rather than rules which is how I prefer to learn

What I don’t like:

• Minimal grammar focus
• Lack of content depth for higher-level learners

---

12. italki

Cost: Prices vary widely

Summary: italki connects learners with tutors, teachers and conversation partners. As with similar services, it doesn’t a curriculum or content to instructors - just facilitates.

The good thing about italki is their vetted onboarding process for teachers which ensures quality. italki has earned its amazing reputation.

Teachers succeed on italki through client feedback, meaning subpar teachers simply will not cut it on the platform.

What I like:

• Facilitates great connections with expert teachers.

What I don’t like:

• No set curriculum means you could be paired with an inexperienced new teacher not yet weeded out by italki’s review system.

---

13. Rosetta Stone

Cost: Starts at $6.49 a month.

Summary: My biggest complaint about Rosetta Stone used to be for its astronomical price tag but it recently switched over to a subscription model (to compete) and now is comparatively cheap.

RS was actually one of the first paid products I used to learn Vietnamese (and I used it A LOT).

Rosetta Stone is a household name that everyone’s heard about. It tends to get sharp criticism for its method but as I’ve pointed out in the past, people criticize Rosetta Stone because they’re either: a) impatient or b) not willing to allow the method to work for them. Rosetta Stone is all about intuition – it doesn’t give you quick answers or translations.

You infer meaning gradually.

No Vietnamese grammar rules are given. Just intuitive inference.

See my massively popular review of Rosetta Stone.

What I like:

• Rosetta Stone is, to this day, one of the few major Vietnamese course products that is genuinely innovative and different
• The RS immersion approach (using pictures and intuitiveness to learn) is a powerful approach that works (if the student’s patient)
• Very comprehensive overall
• Inexpensive (used to be outrageously expensive until they changed to a subscription model)

What I don’t like:

• Inappropriate cultural images
• Very formal dialogues used in scenarios that are unnatural (see my review where I explain this in detail)
• Voice recognition is often inaccurate for Vietnamese

---

14. Living Language Vietnamese

Cost: Starts from $25

Summary: I was never a fan of Living Language when I reviewed it several years ago. I’m including it on this list because it is one of the big names and most popular courses for Vietnamese (plus I get asked about it from time to time).

I found Living Language to be bland, incorrectly levelled and just a very uninspiring grammar-heavy course.

Read this Living Language review.

What I like:

• Very thorough in its grammar explanations

What I don’t like:

• Incorrect levelling – especially for higher levels
• Trashing of competitors in its marketing is extremely off-putting

UPDATE: Currently unavailable.

---

15. FSI Vietnamese

Cost: Free

Summary: FSI (Foreign Service Institute) is a government entity that trains diplomats and government officials in foreign languages. It offers Vietnamese along with many other languages online for free (including audio recordings).

The problem with the FSI material is that it’s literally been around for almost a century.

It’s ancient.

So although you can download their comprehensive Vietnamese course for free with audio, be aware that the material is literally photocopied booklets that were typed up on typewriters making it almost illegible.

If you’re patient, there’s some good value in the FSI courses but it’s so dated that I personally wouldn’t bother.

What I like:

• Being a US government entity that trains diplomats, FSI naturally has incredible Vietnamese course depth.
• Free and easy to download lesson + audio on many sites (the link below is the easiest to access).

What I don’t like:

• Archaic course.
• PDF material is still just a photocopy of the original, typewritten paper so it’s dreadful to read.

---

Summary: Best online Vietnamese courses

This pretty much sums up every online Vietnamese course option currently available (if I missed one, do make sure to let me know!).

In addition to a Vietnamese course, make sure you’re getting regular Vietnamese practice with native speakers.

For that, italki is the easiest way to find really inexpensive practice partners and tutors.

Just remember that even if you have all the courses on this list, you’ll still fail at Vietnamese without the right motivation, and even a poor Vietnamese course can be effective in the hands of someone with the right amount of determination to succeed.

For tips on how to learn Vietnamese and overcoming various language learning struggles, subscribe below by ‘Joining the Guild’ (select Vietnamese as your target language).

---

Know of a Vietnamese course that I didn’t mention?

Share it below in the comment section.

🎓 Cite article