I signed up for an international AI hackathon… and the entire orientation was in Vietnamese!
Wait, what? Nobody told me that!
I thought I'd be fine as long as I could communicate in English. But suddenly, I couldn't understand what was going on.
"Maybe this is too much for me. Should I just drop out?"
That's how this hackathon experience started.
But then things took a completely unexpected turn!
Instead of giving up, I ended up recruiting my own teammates and forming a two-person team with an AI engineer.
Here's the story of how I joined the Vietnam Japan AI Hackathon 2026 and somehow went from almost quitting to becoming a team leader!
It All Started with a Suggestion from ChatGPT
The event I joined was the Vietnam Japan AI Hackathon 2026, an international hackathon involving participants from Vietnam and Japan.
The theme was "Agentic AI for Sustainable Goals."
It's a competition-style hackathon where teams submit their ideas and, if selected, move on to the pitching and development stages.
How did I find out about it?
ChatGPT suggested it to me!
I'd already participated in a few AI hackathons, so I thought, "An international hackathon? That sounds fun!"
There was an initial screening, so I had no idea how far I'd make it.
But hey, why not give it a try?
That was pretty much my mindset when I signed up.
Little did I know that the very first orientation would throw me a huge curveball.
Wait… The Entire Orientation Is in Vietnamese!?
All the event information I'd seen was written in English, and the event was called "Vietnam Japan."
So naturally, I assumed at least some of the orientation would be conducted in English or Japanese.
But when I joined the online orientation…
Everything was in Vietnamese!
And I couldn't find any English or Japanese support during the session.
I barely understood a thing.
Eventually, I figured out how to turn on translated subtitles, which helped me follow along a little.
But reading subtitles nonstop while trying to understand everything was exhausting!
Then came another surprise.
Apparently, the final presentation had to be in Vietnamese. Even the Idea Proposal for the first screening needed to be submitted in Vietnamese.
Wait. Hold on.
I don't speak Vietnamese!
I can communicate in English, but Vietnamese is a completely different story.
At that point, the language barrier felt way too high.
I seriously considered withdrawing right then and there.
What If I Became the Team Leader and Recruited My Own Team?
I wasn't sure what to do, so I talked to ChatGPT.
And it came up with an unexpected suggestion:
"Why don't you become the team leader and recruit your own teammates?"
Wait… ME? A team leader?
Well, I did have a project idea I wanted to work on.
And I'd been hoping to find someone to build it with.
At a previous AI hackathon, I'd also started with my own project idea, looked for teammates, and successfully found someone who wanted to join.
But this time felt different.
How could I possibly lead a team when the presentation had to be in Vietnamese?
ChatGPT drafted an English recruitment message for me and suggested posting it in the hackathon's Discord community.
Still, I wasn't ready to jump right in.
"Okay, let me think about this…"
Honestly, posting that message took some courage.
But in the end, I did it!
I figured I could at least give it a shot.
At the time, I could only see about three other team recruitment posts.
Was this even the right place to look for teammates?
I wasn't sure at all!
I Posted on Discord… and People Responded Right Away!
As soon as I posted my message, I started getting responses!
The first interested participant actually called me on Discord.
I could hear someone saying, "Hello? Hello?"
But then I ran into a tiny technical problem.
My Discord microphone wasn't set up properly, so I couldn't speak!
I was still pretty new to Discord.
In the end, I couldn't get the call working and had to send a chat message asking if we could talk another day.
What a great start, right? Haha!
But shortly afterward, another participant messaged me saying he wanted to work together.
I was so happy!
The next day, we had a video meeting on Discord.
I explained the project I had in mind, and we talked about what we could build together.
I'd expected the meeting to last about 30 minutes.
Somehow, it turned into a full hour!
We even ended up chatting about traveling in Vietnam.
I'd actually taken my first trip to Vietnam two years earlier, visiting Ho Chi Minh City and Hue.
It was a solo trip, and I had such a great time!
After talking for a while, I finally asked him:
"So, would you like to work on this project?"
And he said yes!
I was genuinely excited.
That's how we decided to take on the hackathon together.
And that person became my current teammate.
But here's another surprise.
Even after that, more people kept messaging me about joining.
Eventually, around eight people expressed interest in joining my team.
About seven of them were AI engineers, and five were Vietnamese people living in Vietnam.
I never expected that many responses!
At first, I'd been worried about whether I'd even find a team.
Now, suddenly, I was the one deciding how to build a team.
How did that happen!?
A Two-Person Team? Or Should We Add a Third Member?
Even after finding someone I wanted to work with, I spent quite a bit of time thinking about whether we should add another teammate.
Among the interested participants were a Vietnamese university student living in Japan and AI engineers who wanted to join remotely from Vietnam.
One candidate was still a beginner in AI but could speak both Vietnamese and English.
And in this hackathon, where the final presentation had to be in Vietnamese, that was a huge advantage.
It made me realize something.
Technical skills aren't the only way someone can contribute to a team. Language skills matter too!
But adding more people also means more coordination.
If three people need to have a meeting, you have to find a time that works for all three.
And if everyone has different opinions, making decisions might take longer.
Both my teammate and I have regular work commitments, so scheduling was an important consideration.
I also wondered whether adding another person would help reduce the workload for the technical side of the project.
On the other hand, my teammate preferred working together in person rather than doing everything online.
So we talked it through.
And eventually…
We decided to go with just the two of us!
With two people, discussions and decisions can move pretty quickly.
Of course, larger teams have their own advantages.
But for our particular situation, a two-person team seemed like the right fit.
I learned that having more teammates doesn't automatically mean having a better team.
Suddenly, I Was the One Encouraging Someone Else to Become a Team Leader!
Once we decided to continue as a two-person team, I had to let the other interested participants know.
I felt a little bad about turning people down, especially since they'd taken the time to contact me.
One of them was a woman who had lived in both Japan and Vietnam.
Her English was great, and she seemed really motivated to participate in the hackathon.
But we'd already made our decision.
Then something occurred to me.
There were still a few days left before the team formation deadline.
Why couldn't she start her own team?
During a roughly 10-minute Discord call, she'd told me that she was still new to AI and didn't think she had many technical skills to contribute.
It was also going to be her first AI hackathon.
So I suggested something.
"Why don't you become a team leader yourself and recruit some AI engineers?"
Sound familiar? Haha!
I even shared the English recruitment message I'd used on Discord and told her she was welcome to copy it as a template and adapt it for her own team.
And since she'd lived in both Japan and Vietnam, I thought she might have noticed challenges or problems that people living in only one country wouldn't necessarily see.
I told her that experience could be a great starting point for a project idea.
You don't need a perfect idea from the beginning.
Why not start by identifying one problem you've noticed through your own experiences?
That might be enough to get things moving.
I don't know whether she eventually formed a team.
But that conversation really stayed with me.
Because just a little while earlier, I'd been worrying:
"Will anyone let me join their team?"
And now I was telling someone else:
"Why don't you start your own team?"
Talk about a complete role reversal! Haha!
Meeting People from Other Countries Was Part of the Fun
Another thing that surprised me was how some of the participants responded after I told them we couldn't add any more teammates.
Several people sent me incredibly thoughtful messages.
They thanked me for considering them and even wished us success with our project.
If it had been me, I probably would have just replied, "Got it! Thanks!"
So I was pleasantly surprised.
I don't know whether that's part of Vietnamese culture or simply those individuals' personal communication styles.
But it's interesting to notice these little differences when interacting with people from other countries.
It reminded me that AI hackathons aren't just about building technology.
They're also about meeting people, sharing experiences, and making connections across borders.
And honestly, that's one of the things I enjoy most about them.
Our Two-Person Team Is Official! Now the Real Project Begins!
And just like that, we officially registered our two-person team about two days before the team formation deadline!
At the beginning, I was seriously thinking about dropping out because I couldn't understand Vietnamese.
Who would have thought I'd end up becoming a team leader and forming a team with a Vietnamese AI engineer?
You really never know what might happen until you give something a try!
One of the biggest things I learned from this experience is that you don't have to give up on joining an AI hackathon just because you're not an engineer.
Of course, people who build the technology are important.
But so are people who identify problems, bring a business perspective, or help organize and lead a team.
And sometimes, taking one small step outside your comfort zone can lead to connections you never expected.
If you're thinking about joining an international AI hackathon or struggling to find teammates, I hope my experience gives you a little encouragement! ♪
So, our team was finally ready!
But the real surprise was still to come.
Next time, I'll share what happened when I started working on the project with my AI engineer teammate.
I'll talk about how an AI agent prototype came together much faster than I expected after I shared real data from my work, and how I got involved in the development process even though I'm not an engineer.
My international AI hackathon adventure is far from over!
This article is based on my experience as of October 11, 2026. At the time of writing, the results of the first screening for the Vietnam Japan AI Hackathon 2026 had not yet been announced.