Teaching Vietnamese With an “Ah OK” Mindset

Recently I heard a foreign colleague hold a full conversation in Vietnamese. I was surprised and delighted—the English-teaching approach I use translates beautifully into teaching Vietnamese.

At first they were terrified, insisting Vietnamese was too hard. I set the tone early: be relaxed learning, relaxed trying, relaxed making mistakes. When they said something wrong, I asked what they meant and guided them through a better phrase. They instinctively said “Sorry,” but I stopped them. In the UK “Sorry” is polite filler, yet in language learning it’s harmful. It makes learners feel that mistakes are shameful.

Learning is like visiting a doctor: to heal, you need to know what’s wrong. If the doctor says “You’re fine” while your leg still hurts, would you trust them? English, Vietnamese, any skill works the same way—you must expose what you don’t know.

In my classes we celebrate mistakes. We’re happy when we spot an error, happier when we fix it. The phrase I gift every learner is “à ô kê”—“ah OK.”

Made a mistake? Ah OK. New word? Ah OK.

Stop forcing your memory. The brain is like a cabinet: pull an item out often and you remember where it lives; leave it untouched and you forget. Keep cycling through wrong-right-wrong-right. Forget, remember, forget, remember. That’s how learning works.