Vietnamese
Vietnamese and English in one service
Vietnamese congregations abroad often hold a Vietnamese service for parents and grandparents and an English one for young people who grew up speaking English. Live translation lets a family worship in the same room again.
PewTranslate works in both directions: a sermon preached in Vietnamese can be read and heard in English, and an English sermon in Vietnamese (Tiếng Việt), each person on their own phone.
Choosing the direction
| Preacher speaks | Operator selects in the console | Listeners pick on their phone |
|---|---|---|
| Vietnamese | Vietnamese | English, or any other language |
| English | English | Vietnamese (Tiếng Việt) |
If a service moves between Vietnamese and English, set the console to the language spoken most and check in a test run how the other language comes through.
Bilingual listeners can turn on "Show original" to see the Vietnamese sentence under its English translation, which helps young people who understand some Vietnamese follow both.
Names, titles and forms of address
Vietnamese Protestant churches commonly read the 1926 Bible, where John is Giăng and Peter is Phi-e-rơ; Catholic communities say Gioan and Phêrô. Machine translation may choose either form, so check the names your congregation hears every week.
Preaching in Vietnamese uses kinship words such as anh, chị, em, ông, bà and con, and titles such as Mục sư (pastor) and Cha (Father). English has no match for most of them, so they usually come out as "you", "brothers and sisters", "Pastor" or "Father"; listeners still follow who is meant, but not how close or senior that person is.
A verse read aloud from a Vietnamese Bible reaches English listeners as a fresh translation of what was read, not as the NIV or KJV text. When a verse is central to the sermon, showing "Giăng 3:16 / John 3:16" on screen lets everyone open it in their own Bible.
Before the first Sunday
- Feed the stream from the pulpit microphone. Vietnamese is a tonal language, and a muffled room microphone changes words more often than it does in English.
- Ask a bilingual young adult to read along during a short test stream and note words that come out oddly; the full transcript stays in History.
- Show the QR code on the screen during announcements with a line in both languages, for example "Quét mã để nghe bài giảng bằng tiếng Việt".
- Check that older members' phones read Vietnamese aloud; most do, and if one does not, the text still appears.
Frequently asked questions
When an English-speaking guest preaches, do grandparents need an app or an account?
No. They scan the QR code, choose Tiếng Việt and press Play. It opens in the phone's browser.
Which languages do we pay for?
Each language at least one phone is listening to, at the same price per hour. During a Vietnamese sermon, phones set to Tiếng Việt count too, so ask Vietnamese speakers to simply listen in the room.
Keep reading
- Sermon Translation in 106 LanguagesEvery language PewTranslate offers: 106 listener languages and regional variants, and 82 languages the preacher can speak.
- Korean–English Sermon Translation for ChurchesLive Korean and English sermon translation for Korean churches with English-speaking second generations, and for English churches with Korean members, using PewTranslate.
- Welcoming Visitors Who Speak Other LanguagesHow churches can welcome people who speak other languages: announcing translation, greeters, signage, follow-up with transcripts, and learning who is in the room.
- Pricing: $5 per Hour per LanguagePewTranslate costs $5 per hour for each language someone is listening to, billed by the minute of speech. New accounts get $20 of credit, about 4 hours of one language.