Everything you need to actually speak Vietnamese — in one app.

An illustrated journey from your first xin chào all the way to C2 — with AI Hanoi street characters who listen to your voice and, just like the real ones, don't understand you when your tones are off.

Free tier, no card. Runs in your browser and installs to your home screen like a real app.

🗺️ Story Mode · A1→C2🍜 talking locals 👂 tones actually scored🧠 spaced repetition 📻 hands-free audio📲 installs offline
CÔ LAN — PHỞ STALLGì cơ? Nói lại cô nghe!

👂 she heard: "chợ e mọt bạc phô bó ai" — your tones, transcribed honestly

Why a 300-day streak still can't order coffee

Apps "understand" anything

Every language app accepts whatever you mumble. Vietnamese has six tones — say "phở" wrong and you've said a different word. Nobody tells you.

The street doesn't

Real aunties say "Gì cơ?", quote prices in shorthand, and ask if you're married yet. No app prepared you for a single second of it.

The street, safely

Practice the exact conversation — with a character who reacts to what your mouth actually produced — before you do it for real, with an audience.

One road, from your first word to C2

Story Mode is the spine of the app: a hand-painted ride through real places, broken into six legs. You never pick "what should I study today" — the map hands you the next stop, and it knows what you've already proved you can do.

A hand-painted aerial map: one road winding down through karst peaks, past a
                  waterfall and over a bridge into terraced rice fields.
The Northern ride — Hà Giang down to Hà Nội
  1. A1Hà GiangReborn — your first words, up in the far north
  2. A2Hà NộiSettling in: SIM card, landlord, market, Grab
  3. B1Ninh Bình → Hạ LongFar enough out that nobody switches to English
  4. B2Sa Pa → Lào CaiFluency under pressure — haggling and complaints
  5. C1Mộc Châu → Mai ChâuNuance: proverbs, Tết custom, formal register
  6. C2Hà Nội — Phố CổHome again — now you're the one explaining tones

Three dialects. Each one rides its own region.

Where you live is why you picked your dialect, so the map keeps you there — a Saigon learner shouldn't have to spend C1 in Hanoi. The other two accents are still taught, as listening, from home.

● Authored

Northern — Hà Nội

The ride that's written. A1 is complete and A2 is nearly there, with the lessons, cheat sheets, roleplay scenes and texting sims in place; the upper legs are mapped and filling in ahead of you.

◐ Beta · in build

Central — Huế

Merged tones and its own vocabulary — the hardest accent to follow. All six legs are mapped A1→C2 and you can ride it today, but past the A1 orientation the Central lessons and scenes aren't written yet.

◐ Beta · in build

Southern — Sài Gòn

Flatter tones, faster, more casual, its own everyday words. Same story: the full route is there and open, the Southern content past A1 orientation is still being written.

Every stop that isn't written yet says so, in the app, before you tap it — "coming soon", not a dead end dressed up as a lesson. That honesty is the whole reason you can trust the parts that do say they're ready.

What you get

Six or seven tools most learners pay for separately — plus the one nobody else sells: consequences.

Street roleplay, tone-scored

AI locals who talk back — and genuinely don't understand bad tones. Your speech is scored on tone and pronunciation, not just "did you say roughly the right word".

Spaced-repetition deck

Every word you meet becomes a card, ranked by how common it really is in spoken Vietnamese, and drilled on the schedule that makes it stick.

Lessons & guidebook

Five-minute lessons plus the grammar, pronouns and culture Duolingo skips — the pronoun matrix, spoken numbers, the tone minimal pairs, all free.

Five-skill progress

Listening, reading, speaking, writing and culture each carry their own CEFR level, so you can see the one that's quietly lagging.

Radio mode

Hands-free listen-and-repeat for the commute. You speak out loud in the gaps; no screen, no tapping, no traffic accident.

Ask a tutor

"What did that phrase mean?" — an AI tutor that answers any time, in context, and drops the answer straight into your deck.

Installs like an app

Add it to your home screen and it opens full-screen, works offline for the reading and review, and stops feeling like a website.

Your own conversations

Record a real exchange; the words the native speaker actually used get mined straight into your curriculum.

NgheĐọc NóiViếtVăn hóa

Five skills, and a diploma that means something

Listening, reading, speaking, writing and culture each rise on their own from what you actually do in the app — no self-assessment sliders. Culture is a first-class skill here, because knowing em/anh/chị is not a footnote to speaking Vietnamese. Graduation medals aren't handed out for showing up: you claim one by passing a short exam across all five.

🎒 Elementary🎓 High school 🏛️ University📖 Professor 🏅 Distinguished

Pricing

Start free and stay free if you want to — the pedagogy basics that fix the Duolingo gaps are never behind the paywall.

Free

$0forever, no card
  • The whole guidebook & cheat sheets
  • Story Mode map + placement quiz
  • Recall deck & daily reviews
  • A roleplay scene every day
  • Listening mode + tap-to-define
Start free →

No lifetime deals. The AI that listens to you costs money every single session, and we'd rather stay alive than sell you a promise. After the 100 founding spots are gone, the regular yearly price applies. Cancel any time; refunds inside 30 days, no questions.

FAQ

Northern, Central or Southern?
All three are in the app and you pick when you start. Northern (Hà Nội) is the one that's authored — it's the broadcast/curriculum standard and where FluentViet is built and street-tested. Central (Huế) and Southern (Sài Gòn) are marked beta: the full A1→C2 route is mapped and rideable, with orientation, drills and reviews working today, but the lessons and scenes past the A1 stops aren't written yet. If you're in the south, start free, ride the A1 leg, and tell me what to write first.
How is this different from Duolingo?
Duolingo teaches you to translate sentences and can't hear tone errors (a documented problem). FluentViet throws you into the conversations you'll actually have this week, with a character who genuinely doesn't understand bad tones — because that's the feedback the street gives you. It also explains the grammar and the pronoun system instead of hoping you infer them from pictures.
Is my pronunciation really judged?
Yes — automatically, on every spoken turn. Your voice runs through Vietnamese speech recognition and is scored on tone and pronunciation, and the character reacts to what she actually heard: mangled tones come out as mangled words, and she answers like any Hanoi auntie would. That score is what feeds your Speaking level.
Do I have to install anything?
No. It opens in your browser. If you add it to your home screen it runs full-screen like a native app and keeps your reading and reviews available offline — no app store, no 30% tax, no update nags.
Is the free tier a trial?
No, it's a tier. The guidebook, cheat sheets, the deck, the map and a scene a day stay free. What costs money is what costs us money per use — unlimited AI scenes, debriefs, speech scoring, the Audio Lab.
Who's building this?
One very motivated expat in Hà Nội who got tired of pointing at menus, plus the AI stack he uses daily. Built in public — the failures included.
Refunds?
Full refund inside the first 30 days, no questions — just email. Payments run through Stripe, which handles the receipts and VAT.

Next time she says "Gì cơ?" — make it part of the game.

Free to start. You'll be in a phở stall in about ninety seconds.

Start free →