How to learn tones

You already have a grid-like construct for spelling words in your own language, whether you know it or not. Become aware of this construct, and then extend it so that it serves you for a tonal language.

Luckily, with Vietnamese, all tones are marked with a dedicated diacritic symbol, and they are typed with a consistent method with one of the alphabetic keys, s f r x j and z. These letters are used because they are available, as they never get used in the middle or at the end of words.

The fact that all tones are clearly marked on top of a Latin-based alphabet is actually one of the primary reasons that Vietnamese is a good a bridge from Indo-European languages into tonal languages.

The brain works through a series of binding mechanisms. You learn a new concept; you repeat the concept; you relate the concept to another concept; you repeat it again, then it becomes stable.

You are learning things every moment of every day, and, simplistically, this is what is happening.

Choose a word now — let's go with khách. What is khách, you say? It doesn't matter for now.

Currently, your brain memorizes this as a sequence of letters.

So I'll tell you something about Vietnamese tone placement. Actually I won't, you can go and research that for yourself.

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• The tone always goes on the vowel letters.

• If there are two vowels then it probably goes on the second vowel.

• If there are two vowels and one already has marks on it, the tone goes on the same one.

• If there are three vowels, it probably goes on the middle one.

• If it is unclear, listen to notice which vowel the tone actually applies to. Some vowels are only onsets.

This is your brain currently:

k	h	a	c	h

Now we're going to do something that is not complicated at all.

We're going to add a new cell to the end of this sequence.

The new cell is for the tone: sắc.

This tone is an upward pitch. Practise that pitch now, with any sound you like. Upwards.

This is your brain now:

k	h	a	c	h	sắc↗

And when you say the tone slot, you can do whatever you want that works for you.

• Say sắc with an upward pitch bend.

• Make a random noise with an upward pitch bend.

• Make the vowel sound with an upward pitch bend.

Do it a lot of times. And do it every time you spell the word. And do it again if you did it wrong.

Adapt your new cell grid to fit your method.

k	h	a	c	h	aaa↗

Now you're ready for the final step:

Connect the upward pitch bend to the letter s.

This is the key used in the Telex typing method to apply the sắc tone.

k	h	a	c	h	ess aaa↗

Does this seem like a lot?

Sorry! It is

But it will become second nature.

And you won't have to do this forever.

Actually, what you're doing is carving out a new attribute in your mental model of spelling.

After practising this for a few weeks, you will become capable of memorizing the tones automatically.

We remember things most easily by how they are similar and how they are different to other things.

This is why we must maximize our awareness of the tones and attach them to the spelling mechanism that is inherent in your brain already.