Living in Vietnam without Vietnamese: a practical everyday guide

Most of daily life in Vietnam can run on short written messages: you write in English, the other person reads Vietnamese, and their replies reach you in English, translated on each phone. In person, Face to face mode needs just one phone. Two caveats from day one: Vietnamese pronouns, which shift with age and relationship, often come out strangely in machine translation, and anything binding, like a lease, a work contract or a medical decision, needs a human.

How Piou translates, and who needs what

Every message is stored in its original language and translated on the recipient’s device. A translated message carries a “Translated” label, and “Show original” shows exactly what was sent. Translations stay on the phone and are never sent to our servers.

Translation is a Piou Premium feature, and it’s personal. With Premium, you read your landlord’s Vietnamese in English; if he doesn’t have Premium, he sees your English as typed. For both of you to read each other in your own language, you both need Premium, or one of you gifts it to the other. Everything else is free with no time limit: messages, voice messages, photos, groups and calls between Piou users.

Your apartment: landlord and building staff

Say your landlord, Minh, is a few years older than you.

• You write: “Hi Minh, the bathroom light stopped working last night. Could someone fix it tomorrow after 6 p.m.?”
• He replies in Vietnamese, and depending on the sentence, you’ll read “I’ll send an electrician tomorrow at 7 p.m.” or something odder: “Big brother will send an electrician tomorrow at 7 p.m.”

“Anh” (older brother) is simply how he refers to himself when talking to someone younger. It’s ordinary Vietnamese, not overfamiliarity.

Apartment buildings usually have a management office (ban quản lý) and security guards (bảo vệ) who handle parcels, access cards, motorbike parking and renovation rules. Their notices often circulate as images, and Piou doesn’t translate photos or documents. Ask for the key points as text, or go to the front desk with Face to face mode.

Before you sign a lease, have it read or translated by a person, such as a professional translator, a reputable agency or a lawyer. Piou is for preparing your questions, not for approving a contract.

Delivery riders, drivers and markets

Delivery riders often call your regular phone number, and Piou can’t take those calls: Piou calls only connect Piou users. When the rider reaches your building, though, Face to face mode helps. Set the phone between you; it detects who’s speaking, shows the translation and reads it aloud. The rider doesn’t need the app, and once English and Vietnamese are downloaded, it works offline.

At the market or the motorbike repair shop:

• Keep it short. “The rear brake is squeaking.” Then: “How much to fix it?”
• Spell out prices. Amounts are often written in shorthand: “50k” means 50,000 dong and “1tr2” means 1,200,000 dong. Translation may leave these as they are or misread them, so confirm the full amount on a calculator.
• Watch the dates. Vietnam writes the day first: “5/11” is November 5, not May 11. Translation may keep the numbers exactly as written, so check important dates in the original.
• Fight the noise. Horns and engines confuse speech recognition; hold the phone closer to whoever is talking.

Speech recognition depends on what your phone supports for each language, so test it before you need it.

If you teach or work in an office

If you teach, short messages to teaching assistants and parents work well:

• You write to a teaching assistant: “Could you print 30 copies of the worksheet before 8 a.m.?”
• A parent writes in Vietnamese, and you read: “Teacher, Bảo will be absent tomorrow because he has a fever.”

Class groups for parents often live on other messaging apps, and Piou can’t translate those; offer a one-on-one Piou chat instead. For meetings, Face to face mode handles a simple exchange, and a Piou video call with Translated subtitles (Premium) works at a distance. Group calls take up to 8 participants.

Contracts, HR documents and internal procedures need a human translation: Piou doesn’t translate documents or PDFs. We don’t give advice on work permits or visas; only the Vietnamese authorities, and the Vietnamese embassy or consulate in your home country, can tell you what applies.

Pronouns, accents and tone

Vietnamese picks pronouns by age and relationship: anh (older brother), chị (older sister), em (younger person), and cô, chú, bác, ông, bà for elders. People refer to themselves with the word that matches their position relative to you. Machine translation flattens this or renders it literally. In the other direction, your “you” may become a neutral pronoun that sounds distant or slightly casual, depending on the person’s age.

• Messages without accent marks. Text typed without diacritics (“ban o nha khong”) or full of shorthand (“ko” for không, “dc” for được) often translates badly. It’s fine to ask, politely, for accents.
• Particles of respect. The “ạ” at the end of a sentence and the “dạ” that opens a polite reply often disappear in translation, so a message may look blunt when it isn’t.
• Mixed languages. Dropping a Vietnamese word into an English sentence confuses translation. Save “Chào anh” and “Cảm ơn chị” for in-person moments, where they’re usually appreciated.
• Jokes and sarcasm rarely survive. A plain, friendly tone travels best.

Getting set up

1. In Settings → Language & translation, choose English.
2. Download English and Vietnamese over Wi-Fi. It’s a one-time download that lets translation and Face to face mode work offline.
3. Invite your landlord or colleagues with your invite link or QR code.
4. To let your landlord read you in Vietnamese, cover his Premium with “Gift Piou to someone.”
5. For a gate code, turn on Disappearing messages in that chat: 24 hours, 7 days or 90 days.

For health questions, ask for an interpreter rather than relying on machine translation, and in an emergency, call local emergency numbers from your phone’s regular dialer. Piou runs on iPhone (iOS 18 or later), Android (8.0 or later) and as a web app.

Premium starts with a 7-day free trial: a card is required, nothing is charged for 7 days, and the subscription then starts automatically at the price shown unless you cancel before the trial ends. In Vietnam, it costs 59,000 dong a month or 449,000 dong a year; in the US, $5.99 a month or $47.99 a year. The exact price for your country is shown before you subscribe, in local currency.

Chat between English and Vietnamese with Piou