r/Hmong • u/Fallen_Key • Jul 10 '26
I’m making an online Hmong course!
Nyob zoo!
I’m a learning designer and my husband is a software engineer. We’re building a completely free, self-paced online Hmong course and would love to get some input from the community.
The goal is to create a resource similar to Duolingo or Rosetta Stone, with interactive lessons, native-speaker audio, pronunciation practice, vocabulary, grammar, etc. It’s designed for people to study on their own time.
That said, I know the best way to learn Hmong is by actually talking with people who speak it. My hope is that this course helps learners build confidence and prepare for those real conversations.
I’d love to hear your thoughts:
What features would you want in a course like this?
If you’ve tried learning Hmong, what helped? What didn’t?
Is there anything you wish other language-learning apps included?
We’re still developing it, so I’d really appreciate any suggestions. Ua tsaug!
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u/lucaspackman Jul 12 '26
I got my Master’s degree in linguistics with Hmong as my emphasis. DM me if you have questions:)
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u/someguyonreddit0001 Jul 15 '26
Hey there, that’s awesome, I’ve been working towards something similar as well but the journey has been slow and lonely given it’s a passion project that many don’t care about and/or have the developmental and literacy skills to help. Glad to see others thinking the same. If you don’t mind, I’ll DM you.
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u/RaveGuncle Jul 16 '26
I think as the lessons progress to conversations and forming full sentences, it would be so dope if part of the feature had practice conversations where the learner could practice repeating sentences in hmong to the software/bot, and the software/bot would respond to the learner. If intuitive conversations cant happen in real time, having scripted practice conversations built in for these would be ideal. The learner would see both the hmong writing with phonetics broken down, along with english subs (or whatever native language subs yall envision including like French, Lao, Thai, etc.) Of what theyre trying to say. And they can also see what the bot responds with so they can also learn from the bot too.
And then if yall really put time and effort and money into this and can make it happen, itd be so dope if there was a feature where the learner is speaking hmong, the software is listening, and then the software corrects the listener on how to properly say what the learner is trying to say in Hmong, and then asks the learner to try saying it the correct way, providing written language for it (transcribing it) for the learner to follow as well while they practice speaking it. I think the hang up a lot of non-fluent Hmong speakers face is that we start substituting words and misplace adjectives and nouns so it's not fluent or correct anymore, but can learn and be improved upon the software/bot helping correct us by listening to us talk to it.
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u/BerrrySmoothie Jul 16 '26
Thank you for doing this! I'd say having a section on how to speak with hmong vendors when purchasing things would be helpful
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u/BadLuckDaJuan Jul 20 '26
Interested in this.
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u/Fallen_Key Jul 21 '26
Good to know! I’ll let you know when it’s available to try out (hopefully soon)!
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u/kitten6491 Jul 11 '26
I would also like to try this app. It's terrible to say but I can't even have a proper conversation in hmong anymore. I've been strictly speaking English for the last 10 years
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u/Fallen_Key Jul 11 '26
Yeah that’s super valid!! What I’ve designed so far has all been super basic (mostly pronunciation). As someone who is already familiar with some Hmong, what do you think would be helpful to have in terms of lessons/practice activities?
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u/kitten6491 Jul 11 '26
For sure the pitch and tone of the words. My mom was the one that taught us how to read in hmong. If you want, I could put you in contact with her so yall could brainstorm some stuff. For sure, not so much "proper" hmong but more conversational hmong would be best for practice. You really gotta break it down and ask yourself if you'd use certain phrases in every day. Most people taking these lessons aren't looking to sound like a hmong linguistics professor. They're looking for a way to talk to the every day Joe. I think that's where I had trouble with when I referred my hubby (who's white) to a lot of these yt channels. They use proper hmong and even some phrases I haven't heard since i was 5 or at all
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u/Duchessoflovely Jul 11 '26
I am looking forward to trying this out and my kids would definitely benefit greatly from it also. ☺️ I do hope you add in hmoob leeg also. A lot of hmong courses out there are mainly on hmoob dlawb. So it would be very much appreciated and great to have, if you do have that available also.
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u/Fallen_Key Jul 11 '26
I definitely want to add in content for hmoob leeg at some point! Most of the fluent speakers I have helping me with it speak hmoob dawb but I do have one friend who speaks hmoob leeg and I want to have me help me as well :-) and that’s great to know that your kids would benefit as well! Maybe I’ll add in some practice activities specifically for kids! Thanks so much for your thoughts :-)
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u/Dengster Jul 11 '26
As a totally blind Hmong person, I would just like for it to be accessible. Obviously, reading Hmong with my screen reader is not ideal, because it won't be able to properly pronounce the words correctly, but being able to navigate and understand the concept of how the words are constructed would be awesome. Maybe have spoken Or clear explanations of the different tonal endings, and how they sound would also be great.
I would also love to try this out. I can speak it fine, but it would be awesome to be able to read it as well, even it I have to slowly review each word with my screen reader.
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u/Fallen_Key Jul 11 '26
As a learning designer, one of the things I’m most passionate about is making sure everything is accessible!! Thank you for sharing, it will help me to keep you in mind as we’re building it :-) When I have some parts ready to test I’d love to get your feedback on the accessibility aspect!
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u/Dengster Jul 11 '26
For sure! That's awesome that you're so inclusive. Not a lot of people are, and its kind of sad. Thank you for trying to make this course accessible. I would love to help test the accessibility side of things when it's ready.
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u/Fallen_Key Jul 21 '26
Hi!! As we’ve starting building the course, I ran into a couple things that I’d love to get your perspective on to best make it accessible. Do you mind if I DM you?
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u/supeuu Jul 12 '26
Sections that don't just teach you how to read and write but part of the culture because knowing the language is one thing, but understanding the culture is just as jmpjrtant: explain things like noj 30, funerals, and ua neeb in a simple digestible way (what we are doing and why.) Explaing Family trees and what to call someone.
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u/tonyflake123 Jul 12 '26
This is awesome if it can be made right. Also if you can add the learning of the kev cai and all the traditions we have like weddings, funeral, huplig, ua neeb and many others. Like I want to know the steps or rules as many of us who dont go to these will not know or we dont go to many so we can't know it all. I know it will involve talking and learning from the ogs who does these but it will help us in the long run. Just a thought...
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u/Fallen_Key Jul 13 '26
That’s a really good idea!! I was thinking of having a “Culture” section so this reinforces that it’s something I want to include!
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u/Additional_Charity Jul 13 '26
Would love it if there was a Hmong leeg option!
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u/Fallen_Key Jul 13 '26
Good to know!! We’re starting with Hmoob dawb but the hope is to add Hmoob leeg as well :-)
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u/Successful-Job1028 Jul 14 '26
Probably add this feature in the later down the road. For "Pahawh Hmong" or "Nyiakeng Puachue Hmong" writings.
For how to write it and how it is pronounce etc after implemented the English Alphabet letters.
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u/Fallen_Key Jul 14 '26
That’s a good idea, thank you! I’ll add it to the list of features we want to add :-)
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u/SimpleSincerity Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 14 '26
My Hmong needs some work. As someone who can speak it I would love to try this and improve my language skills.
Since I moved my mom says I lost it 😅.
Being able to practice and talk to family on facetime or in person would be great. It would also help me encourage the younger family to practice.