How to make friends in Vietnam: what to do in your first month

How do you make friends in Vietnam in your first month?

Pick two weekly activities in your first week and keep both for the whole month. One should meet in person, and one should put you near Vietnamese speakers. Friendship needs hours together [1], so the plan below repeats the same two activities every week.

In person, that can mean a hash run, which is a group run or walk on a marked trail [3], or a Toastmasters club, where members practice public speaking [40].

What should you do in week one?

Choose your two activities from the tables further down and read each group's page before you go. Then set up the apps people use to stay in touch. Expat.com says the social calendar is on Facebook, and it suggests downloading Zalo, which local people mostly use, once you have a Vietnamese phone number [5].

What should you do in week two?

Go to both activities once and stay until the end. Toastmasters describes a free club visit with no pressure to take part until you are ready [2]. Swap Zalo or Facebook details with anyone you would like to see again.

Expect a small room. The events we could read drew 2 to 30 people, from a free Hanoi class with 2 attendees [9] to a Da Nang nomad meetup with 30 [11].

What should you do in week three?

Add some Vietnamese. Saigon Language and Culture Meetup holds a free Vietnamese class event once a week [6], and Hanoi Exploring lists a free Vietnamese community class at 6:00 PM [9]. USSH's Center for Vietnamese Language for Foreigners charges 3,600,000 VND for its own 40 hour evening course in Ho Chi Minh City [23] [24].

What should you do in week four?

Turn one acquaintance into a plan, such as a coffee before the next session. Cultural Atlas says the person who invites members of a company out to a restaurant meal generally pays [31]. If someone invites you, invite them back.

Two 3 hour meetings a week from week two add up to 18 hours by the end of week four. That leaves about 32 of the 50 hours in the Kansas research, or about 5 more weeks at the same pace (our arithmetic) [1].

Where can you meet people in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi and Da Nang?

All three cities have recurring groups that welcome newcomers, and most cost nothing to try. InterNations lists 41,658 members across Vietnam but only 9 monthly events [20], so the weekly groups below are easier to repeat. If you have not chosen a city yet, start with our guide to where to live in Vietnam.

Several meetings below run past 9:00 PM [8] [14] [15] [16]. If you do not ride a motorbike, read our guide to living in Vietnam without a motorbike before you pick evening events.

What can you join in Ho Chi Minh City?

Start with a weekly language night or a Saturday Toastmasters club, then add a hash run. Mundo Lingo on Thursday evening and a Saturday Toastmasters club do not overlap, so they make a workable pair [7] [2] [13]. On InterNations the city has 27,322 members and 5 monthly events [18].

Expat.com's Ho Chi Minh City guide points newcomers to Eventbrite, Meetup and Facebook for listings [21]. A 2017 Vietcetera feature said the Expats in HCMC Facebook group, founded in 2007, had more than 70,000 members [22]. We could not read its size today.

Group	When	Cost
Mundo Lingo Saigon [7]	Thursdays at 8:00 PM at The Green Box, Thao Dien.	Listed as free.
Saigon Language and Culture Meetup [6]	Several evenings a week at Coffee Talk English venues in District 10 and Binh Thanh, plus a free Vietnamese class event each week.	Class listed as free.
Saigon Toastmasters Club [2]	2nd and 4th Saturday, 1:45 to 4:30 PM, District 3.	Free guest visit.
HCM Toastmasters Club [13]	1st and 3rd Saturday, 1:45 to 4:30 PM, Cao Thang Street.	Free guest visit.
Saigon Hash [12]	Most Sundays, bus at 1:30 PM from the Caravelle Hotel, District 1.	300,000 VND for a bus trip, 150,000 VND for a city run.
USSH evening Vietnamese course [23] [24]	40 hours in classes of 3 to 14 students, published by the university's own language center.	3,600,000 VND.

Source: organizers' own pages, read 2026-09-21 [2] [6] [7] [12] [13] [23] [24].

The two Saigon Toastmasters clubs meet on alternate Saturdays, so together they cover the first, second, third and fourth Saturday of the month [2] [13]. Toastmasters says every club is unique and you can visit as many as you like, so you can try both [2].

Saigon Hash says to be at the bus 15 minutes early, because it leaves at exactly 1:30 PM [12].

What can you join in Hanoi?

Hanoi has a free Friday language evening and a Saturday hash run, which do not overlap and fill two weekly slots in your first week [8] [3]. The Hanoi chapter of InterNations has 14,336 members [19]. Expat.com names Hanoi Massive and Where In Hanoi as the most heavily used Facebook groups [5].

Group	When	Cost
Hanoi English Club [8]	Fridays, 6:30 to 9:30 PM, at a cafe in Cau Giay, with English, Korean and Chinese groups.	No fee.
Hanoi Exploring [9]	A Vietnamese community class at 6:00 PM, at a cafe on Hoang Quoc Viet Street.	Listed as free.
Hanoi Hash [3]	Saturdays, bus at 1:00 PM in winter or 1:30 PM in summer, from 36 Ngo Quyen Street.	150,000 VND, first timers add 50,000 VND.
Hanoi Toastmasters [14]	1st and 3rd Thursday, 7:00 to 9:30 PM, Dong Da.	Free guest visit.
Hanoikids [17]	Tours led by students, in English only. The city tour takes about 3 hours.	Free.

Source: organizers' own pages, read 2026-09-21 [3] [8] [9] [14] [17].

What can you join in Da Nang?

None of the Da Nang groups we found meets every week. International Friends Da Nang lists 1,452 members and meets in person once a month or every two weeks, with online meetups in between [10].

A workable mix is Danang Toastmasters on Thursdays, Yup Danang Leaders on Tuesdays and International Friends Da Nang [15] [16] [10]. Each meets every two weeks or less often, so check the calendar before you count on a weekly rhythm.

Group	When	Cost
International Friends Da Nang [10]	In person once a month or every two weeks, online in between, for 60 to 90 minutes.	Fee not on the group page.
Danang Toastmasters Club [15]	Thursdays every 2 weeks, 6:45 to 9:15 PM, 12 Cao Thang Street.	Free guest visit.
Yup Danang Leaders Toastmasters [16]	Tuesdays every 2 weeks, 7:00 to 9:30 PM, The Books Coffee.	Free guest visit.
Digital Nomads in Da Nang [11]	Fridays at 7:00 PM about every two weeks. No upcoming event was listed.	Fee not on the group page.

Source: organizers' own pages, read 2026-09-21 [10] [11] [15] [16].

How long does it take to make a friend in Vietnam?

Plan for about two months at best and most of a year at a slower pace. University of Kansas research found that roughly 50 hours together move an acquaintance to a casual friend, and more than 200 hours to a close friend [1]. Hours spent working together count for less than hanging out [1].

The table shows our arithmetic for four habits, using the meeting lengths the organizers publish [2] [8] [15].

Habit	Time together	Time to 50 hours
One Hanoi English Club evening a week [8]	3 hours a week.	About 17 weeks.
Two 3 hour meetings a week [8]	6 hours a week.	About 9 weeks.
Saigon Toastmasters, twice a month [2]	5.5 hours a month.	About 9 months.
Danang Toastmasters, about twice a month [15]	5 hours a month.	About 10 months.

Source: meeting lengths from the organizers' pages, read 2026-09-21 [2] [8] [15]; the 50 hour figure from the University of Kansas [1]; the arithmetic is ours.

The study counts hours together, not meetings attended, so read these as best cases.

Is it hard to make friends in Vietnam as a foreigner?

Easier than in most places InterNations' 2025 Expat Insider survey covered. InterNations ranked Vietnam 10th of 46 destinations for finding friends that year, and 10th for local friendliness [25]. It ranked Vietnam 12th on ease of settling in overall [25].

Language was the weak spot, with Vietnam 34th of 46 destinations [26]. InterNations describes its 2026 survey as an online questionnaire open to non-members, so read its rankings as opinion polls, not a census [27].

Vietnam does not appear on the 2026 pages we read, which rank 31 destinations, so the 2025 results are the newest we can use [27].

Do you need to speak Vietnamese to make friends?

No, but it changes who you can meet. Some groups above run in English, including International Friends Da Nang and Hanoi English Club [10] [8]. EF's 2025 index scores Hanoi 532, Da Nang 509 and Ho Chi Minh City 508 for English, against 500 for Vietnam as a whole [28].

EF ranks Vietnam 64th in its global ranking, and says its test takers are self-selected [28] [29]. The scores describe people who chose to take the test, not every resident.

Nnadozie Uzor Nadis, a Nigerian English teacher in Ho Chi Minh City, told VnExpress International in 2023 that he learned Vietnamese at a center in District 1 [33]. He made more friends as his Vietnamese improved, and says people opened up once they saw how hard he tried [33].

How do you meet Vietnamese friends, not only other foreigners?

Choose groups that are mixed on purpose and keep going back. Saigon Hash welcomes Vietnamese people, expats and tourists of all ages and abilities [12]. Mundo Lingo Saigon says its weekly night is for meeting foreign and local people [7].

International Friends Da Nang says it is for locals who enjoy meeting people from around the world, as well as expats and travelers [10]. Hanoikids is a student club that gives free tours in English and has more than 900 members [17].

Hanoi English Club says Vietnamese can be used in any of its groups [8].

How do first conversations usually go in Vietnam?

Expect personal questions. Expat.com's Hanoi guide says new acquaintances often ask your age, whether you are married and whether you work, and that age decides how they greet you [5]. It adds that people want to know who you know, because networking circles in Hanoi are small [5].

Cultural Atlas describes Vietnamese people as generally indirect communicators who commonly show less emotion on the face, and says not to read a sombre expression as unfriendly [30]. It also says etiquette follows an age hierarchy [31].

The Cultural Atlas pages carry an author line of 2016, so they describe general patterns, not any one person [30] [31].

What do Black people living in Vietnam say about meeting people?

We found no survey of Black people living in Vietnam, so this section rests on four dated accounts. They describe being stared at, some bias in English teaching jobs, and friendships that grew as one man learned Vietnamese. Each is one person's or one study's view.

Craig, a 29 year old from South Florida living in Ho Chi Minh City, told Travel Noire in August 2018 that staring was one of the biggest things he faced [32]. He said there are not many Black people in Vietnam compared with Thailand and Malaysia, and named feeling safe as the best part of living abroad [32].

Nadis, the Nigerian teacher quoted above, first came to Vietnam in 2008. He told VnExpress International in May 2023 that the racial situation is now vastly different from what it was [33].

He says many people of color tell him Vietnam feels safer and more comfortable, and he set up an online group of 600 Nigerians living in Vietnam [33].

Work is one way to meet people, and the accounts we found point to bias in English teaching hiring. Vietnam News reported in December 2024 that language centres in Vietnam prefer native English speakers, which limits job opportunities for others [34].

The article describes African workers in two Hanoi wards, Nhat Tan and Tu Lien, a community of at least 150 mostly from Nigeria, Ghana and Somalia [34]. It does not cover every Black or African resident.

A local resident who talks to the workers through a translation app called them friendly but said the language barrier makes communication difficult [34].

A 2022 academic chapter, based on interviews with three youth-run organizations in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, argues that subtle discrimination against darker skinned groups persists [35] [36]. It points to colorism, a preference for lighter skin, together with colonial legacies and little exposure to racial dialogue in a largely homogeneous population [35].

One informant in that chapter says English centers pay white teachers more than teachers of other races, if they hire them at all [35]. The chapter describes Vietnamese public attitudes more than expat daily life, so read it as context.

Our reading is that formats which do the introducing may help, because they do not depend on an employer's hiring. Toastmasters clubs say they are open to all interested parties [2], and Saigon Hash welcomes people of all ages and abilities [12].

We could not open any public group page for Black residents without a login, so we do not name one.

What does a social first month cost?

Most options in this guide cost nothing in fees. The regular costs we found are hash runs and Vietnamese classes. Four Hanoi Hash runs with the first timer add-on cost 650,000 VND, about 25 US dollars (our arithmetic) [3] [37].

Option	Cost	In US dollars
Toastmasters visit, Hanoi English Club, Mundo Lingo, free class events [2] [8] [7] [6] [9]	Listed as free.	0.
Hanoi Hash, four runs with the first timer add-on [3]	650,000 VND.	About 25.
Saigon Hash, four bus trips [12]	1,200,000 VND.	About 46.
Saigon Hash, four city runs [12]	600,000 VND.	About 23.
USSH language center, evening course, 40 hours [23]	3,600,000 VND.	About 139.
USSH language center, regular course [23]	7,200,000 to 8,400,000 VND.	About 279 to 325.

Source: organizers' own pages, read 2026-09-21; dollars at 25,820 VND per US dollar, the Vietcombank transfer rate [37]; the arithmetic is ours [2] [3] [6] [7] [8] [9] [12] [23].

The organizers do not say what a hash fee covers, so we cannot say whether it includes food or drink.

Is it safe to meet people from groups and apps?

The UK Foreign Office calls violent crime against foreigners rare and says theft and pickpocketing occur regularly [38]. It advises buying your own drinks and keeping them in sight, and using pre-arranged transport or official taxi apps such as Grab or XanhSM [38].

Gallup found in 2024 that 88 percent of adults in Vietnam feel safe walking alone at night where they live, against 73 percent worldwide [39]. Check each meetup's address and how you will get home before you go.