Spencer

I married into a Vietnamese-American family, and early on I set a quiet goal for myself: surprise my wife's grandmother by speaking Vietnamese to her. That one idea sent me down a path I didn't expect.

Once I started, I fell in love with the language. There's something that happens when you speak even a little Vietnamese to a local — a kind of warmth and enthusiasm that you just don't get otherwise. Doors open. Conversations that never would have started, start. Visiting Vietnam became a completely different experience.

But I ran into a problem. I was learning the Southern dialect — the one spoken across Ho Chi Minh City and southern Vietnam. There's a funny twist here: it turns out my wife's family actually speaks Northern Vietnamese. A classic mix-up on my part. But I'm too deep in to change course now, and honestly I have no regrets. The bigger problem was that almost everything out there teaches Northern Vietnamese anyway — apps, textbooks, YouTube channels, all Northern. I eventually found a wonderful one-on-one tutor, and he's been invaluable. But I needed more. More ways to practice, more structured repetition, more exposure to the Southern dialect in everyday contexts.

So I built LingViet — the tool I wished had existed when I started. AI-generated reading passages, listening dialogues, and writing exercises, all in Southern Vietnamese, all fresh every session. A vocabulary system that saves words and brings them back at the right time. A place to practice consistently, even on busy days.

Vietnamese culture has so much to offer beyond the language itself — the food, the traditions, the fashion, the music. Learning the language is the key that unlocks all of it. I built LingViet because I believe everyone who wants that key deserves a better way to find it.

— Spencer