Vietspeak

Vietnamese learning app

Live page, currently still in alpha stage. This is a work in progress, so there are still many features missing and incomplete contents.

Purpose

To be one of the first Vietnamese learning app for people on the go. I realize there is a lack of learning app out there in online or mobile format that is designed with the modern UI, visuals, and technical framework (for example. no iOS app currently exists).

The purpose of Vietspeak can be 2-fold: a) The language part: Teach useful language knowledge for learners to be able to interact with Vietnamese speakers with comfort. b) The culture part: Give an intimate experience of living in Vietnam as a Vietnamese person. Because of this, the lesson should includes themes, visuals, and topics related to Vietnamese culture.

Target audience:

• Foreigners and expats coming to work and live in Vietnam from 3 months and up
• Mobile app users
• Casual gamers
• Interested in learning not just the language but also Vietnamese culture

Timeline

But to start with, the project can be broken into the following milestones (keep in mind I must allow flexibility to deviate from plan due to limitation in skills, time, and resources):

M1: Functional protoype. This prototype should include a minimal experience of learning via Vietspeak. This includes a web app, mobile app, several lessons, and a user profile to keep track of learning progress. Visual and content can be messy in M1, but it’s okay. The functional prototype should serve the purpose of pitching to attract illustrator and content writer for the app.

M2: Content update. Extend the lessons to full scale. Use more intelligent logic to monitor learner’s progress. At this point, having a professional insight into the content would be useful. Release for alpha testing, and content tweaking content and format as needed.

M3: Visual polishing. Breath in some life for Vietspeak.

M4: Beta testing, prepare to launch. Technical, content, and visual should be tested before release.

Format

• An app that has an account that shares across devices.
• The app is a collection of 25 lessons with reading, writing, listening, but no speaking.
• Each lesson contains 1 - 3 short paragraphs, followed by a 1 - 3 minutes challenge. Completing a lesson gives VND to unlock new lessons and special contents. Completing lessons with perfect score or maintaining day streak to unlock achievements. VND can also be spent to take 20-minute long progress quiz
• Monitor learner’s progress and remind them to retake challenges after several days when their memory faded.
• Allow a comment/feedback section for community to join in to help improve the content
• Open community to allow for new content to be added/improved (with permission from admins).
• Recommend alternative resources.

Visual

• Hand drawn images from around Vietnam
• There should be a turtle friend to guide learner (maybe)

Challenge types

1. translate phrase V-E (1 phrase) (x3 rapid phrase)
2. Listen and type in E (1 phrase, fast and slow)
3. multiple choice translation (1 phrase, 4 choices, some with images)
4. matching V-E (4 phrases) (timed matching)
5. Answering a question (1 phrase, 4 choices)
6. Arrange in correct order phrase (timed arranging)
7. Select the correct spellings (12 phrases flowing through)
8. Fill in the blank (1 phrase) (3 phrases)
9. replace the wrong word with the right word (1 phrase)
10. Translate E-V (1 phrase, after learning telex)

Lessons

• Basic phrases I am, you are, she is
• Greetings
• Shopping
• Numbers
• Animals
• Question
• Food
• Family
• Places
• Things around the house
• Things around the office
• On the street
• Things in the countryside
• Restaurant & Hotel
• Nature
• Date & Time
• Seasons
• Adjectives
• Verbs
• Nouns
• Proverb
• Jokes
• Flirting
• Pronouns
• Holiday
• Diacritic (Dấu)

Credits

Trung Le, creator, programmer (Javascript, meteor). Ha Nam, designer, UI/UX (website link coming soon), and many feedbacks from friends and family.