If you’ve been thinking, “I should start speaking more Vietnamese with my kid(s)” but somehow keep putting it off, you’re not alone.
People often say the best time to start bilingual parenting is NOW. While that’s true in a way, I think there’s something even more important:
How do you start?
Lately, I’ve been asking myself the same question about helping my kids learn to read Vietnamese.
I bought books. I made flashcards. I gathered supplies. I talked through ideas with my husband. I asked other bilingual parents what worked for them.
Everything was ready.
Except me.
I kept waiting until I felt more confident. More organized. More certain that I was “doing it right.”
But confidence never seemed to arrive on its own.
When I look back at the beginning of our bilingual journey more than four years ago, I honestly can’t remember the exact day we started. There wasn’t a perfect plan or a magical milestone. Somewhere along the way, Vietnamese simply became part of our family life: a Vietnamese name, a bedtime story, a favorite song in the car, a bowl of phở, or a new word we learned together.
Those little moments added up.
None of them felt significant on their own. But repeated over hundreds of ordinary days, they quietly became part of our family’s normal.
This summer, I finally applied that same lesson to our Vietnamese reading journey. Instead of waiting until I had the perfect routine, I started with one small habit: pointing to each Vietnamese word during storytime, one verse a day. We’ve been doing it for about a month now, and it has naturally become part of our morning routine.
Maybe that’s the real goal.
Not doing everything.
Just doing one small thing often enough that it becomes part of our everyday life.
If you’re wondering where to begin, here’s a simple cheat sheet:
- Pick a day this week (or even tomorrow).
- Put it on your calendar so you don’t have to remember.
- Keep the first step almost ridiculously small. Read one page of a Vietnamese book. Sing along one verse of a Vietnamese song. Count to five in Vietnamese while climbing the stairs. Introduce one new Vietnamese word during dinner.
- Repeat without judging yourself or your child. Some days will be easier than others, and that’s okay.
- Give it a few months before deciding whether it’s “working.”
And if your biggest question is, “Where do I even start?” I’ve put together a growing Resources page here on the blog with ideas you can borrow instead of creating everything from scratch.
You’ll find Vietnamese bilingual book recommendations, local libraries with Vietnamese collections, a Spotify playlist of Vietnamese songs for kids, language-learning resources, and other tools I’ve found helpful along the way.
You don’t have to use everything. Maybe this week, your “one small thing” is simply visiting your local library to look for one Vietnamese children’s book.
That’s enough.
Bilingual parenting isn’t built in one weekend.
It’s built through ordinary days.
