Living in Vietnam, decoded.
Practical, current guides for running your Vietnamese life in English — Zalo, landlords, translation tools, and the phone-call problem nobody else will talk about. Written by the maker of ZaloDesk, living it in Saigon.
Zalo in English: the complete 2026 guide
The 30-second language switch for every platform — and the honest truth about what stays Vietnamese (your messages and calls), with every workaround compared.
Living in Vietnam without speaking Vietnamese: what actually breaks (and 7 fixes that work)
The honest map: where life without Vietnamese genuinely breaks (calls, Zalo, bureaucracy) and the seven fixes that hold up — from free survival phrases to the AI that calls for you.
The best translation apps for Vietnam, tested — and where they all fail
Camera apps for menus, ChatGPT for tone, extensions for Zalo web — an honest comparison of every option, and the gap they all share when somebody says "just call me".
How to deal with your Vietnamese landlord: scripts, etiquette, and the phone-call problem
Eight copy-paste bilingual Zalo scripts (repairs, rent, deposit), the politeness rules that make chị chủ nhà love you, and the fix for "gọi chị nhé" — just call me.
The guides solve it with workarounds. The app just solves it.
ZaloDesk turns your existing Zalo bilingual — every chat translated both ways — and makes your Vietnamese phone calls for you, with live English subtitles. Plans from $19/month, cancel anytime.