Overview of the Vietnamese Course

The Vietnamese Course is divided into 15 units, many of which are composed of dialogues, notes, and supplemental vocabulary. The course assumes the student has no prior knowledge of Vietnamese and is fully self-instructional. This means that while an instructor/native speaker would be helpful, it is not imperative to learn Vietnamese with this course. Volume I contains 22 CDs and a 391 page textbook or 1 DVD with all lessons on MP3 with the textbook in a PDF file format. Volume II contains 10 CDs and a 328 page textbook or 1 DVD with all lessons on MP3 with the textbook in a PDF file format.

Unit 1: Greetings: Hello

Unit 2:

Unit 3:

Unit 4:

Unit 5:

Unit 6:

Unit 7:

Unit 8:

Unit 9:

Unit 10:

Unit 11:

Unit 12:

Unit 13:

Unit 14:

Unit 15:

The Vietnamese Course begins with a guide to pronunciation because Vietnamese is a "tone language" in which the meaning of a word can change when it is pronounced with a different musical pitch or pitch contour.

Preface

This text, included in the Foreign Service Institute's Basic Course Series, provides introductory teaching materials for the Vietnamese language as it is spoken in Vietnam. It is intended for general use by speakers of English of various occupational backgrounds who are living or expect to live in areas where Southern Vietnamese is used. While this course is designed for classroom use, special attention has been given both in the text and in the tape recordings to make them as useful as possible for self-instructional use.

The Vietnamese material in this course was provided by Nguyen-Hy-Quang, with the helpful assistance of Ly-Thi-Nga, Dan-Dan Ngo-Dinh-Tu, Nguyen Phuoc Long, Trinh-Van-Chan, Thu Lan Wu, and other members of the Vietnamese staff of the Foreign Service Institute. The linguists in charge were Eleanor H. Jorden, Chairman of the Department of East Asian Languages, and Charles R. Sheehan, supervising linguist in the Vietnamese Section. Carol Horwath Klecka offered general assistance in coordinating the preparation of the final manuscript, and the final copy was typed by Irma Ponce and Betty Painter. Picture Plates were drawn by Tomoko Tanaka Campen and Le Khac Bong.

The recordings which accompany the text were made in the Foreign Service Institute Language Laboratory by Gary Alley, under the supervision of Gabriel Cordova. Vietnamese voices on the tapes are these of Trinh-Van-Chan, Nguyen Phuoc Long, Dan-Dan Ngo-Dinh-Tu, Ly-Thi-Nga, Tran-Thi-Thu-Hue, and Peter Le Van Chau. Charles R. Sheehan was the supervising linguist for the recordings.

Introduction

Part I: Guide to Pronunciation

The purpose of the Guide to Pronunciation is to familiarize a student with the pronunciation of Southern Vietnamese to the point where he can recognize and reproduce with facility all its commonly occuring sounds and sequences of sounds.

The method underlying the presentation involves listening, contrasting, recognizing, and imitating. The material has been presented as simply as possible, always with the beginning student, rather than the professional linguist, in mind/ While some technical phonetic descriptinos are included for those who understand them, they can be ignored by the student with limited linguistic background.

This guide should be used in conjunction with the accompanying tape recordings. To try to learn Vietnamese pronunciation by reading the text without referenceto the recordings would be as useless as trying to learn to play the piano by reading music without ever touching a keyboard.

The student's ability to use this guide effectively will be determined largeley by his willingness to follow the specific instructions provided at each step. He must also be careful never to move ahead until he has thoroughly mastered what has already been introduced, by going over each section as many times as he requires.

The student's ability to use this guide effectively will be determined largely by his willingness to follow the specific instructions provided at each step. He must also be careful never to move ahead until he has thoroughly mastered what has already been introduced, by going over each section as many times as he requires.

A word of caution: While this guide uses conventional Vietnamese spelling, it aims primarily at teaching a student how to pronounce - not how to read - Vietnamese. Accordingly, all drills should be practiced first with the book closed. Those students who are also interested in develping a reading skill can use the guide to practice reading in addition to - but not in place of - pronunciation practice. AFTER mastering the pronunciation, such students can use the Familiarization Drills and Mimicry Drills for reading practice: by reading each item in these drills BEFORE it occurs on the tape, their reading can be confirmed (or corrected) by the tape.

This guide should be used not only as an introduction to pronunciation but also for remedial purposes later. Students having pronunciation difficulties should review appropriate drills repeatedly until the difficulties are cleared up.

Part II: Lessons 1 -10

Part II of this volume contains ten lessons, all of which have the same basic pattern and involve the same procedures. Each lesson requires many hours of study, in class and/or with recordings of the Vietnamese material.

The method underlying these lessons is guided imitation; the aim is automaticity. Ideally, there are two teachers: under the supervision of a scientific linguist, who talks ABOUT Vietnamese, the student learns to speak the language in direct imitation of a tutor tutor who is a native speaker of Vietnamese. The tutor drills on the Vietnamese in the text, providing an authentic model for the student to imitate. Statements on how the language is manipulated are included in the explanatory notes in the text, which may be supplemented, if necessary, by further discussions on the part of the linguist. AS a supplement to class hours with a tutor - or even, if necessary, as a replacement for them - students work with taped recordings which approximate the classroom situation.

Language learning is overlearning. Through memorization of whole utterance, and substitution within and manipulation of these utterances, a student achieves the fluency and automaticity that are necessary for control of a language. Language learning involves acquiring a new set of habits, and habits must be automatic. Just as the experienced driver performs the machanics of driving unconscioulsy - turning on the engine, shifting gears, applying the brakes, etc. - and concentrates on where he is going, so the fluent speaker of a language is concerned with what he is saying rather than the mechanics of how he is saying it.

The student should note the following general suggestions and warnings:

Always use normal speed. Do not permit yourself to speak more slowly than your tutor, and do not ask him to speak more slowly than is natural for him. The ability to understand slow, deliberate speech never heard outside of a classroom is of little practical value. The aim of the student should be to learn Vietnamese as it is spoken by the Vietnamese - not an artificial classroom dialect.

Drill hours with a native tutor should be conducted entirely in Vietnamese from the first day. A class which fluctuates between Vietnamese and English, where valuable repetition and drill aimed at developing fluency are constantly interrupted by English questions and comments, never achieves the desired results. It is recommended that a specific time be designated as discussion period and that interruption of drill at other times be avoided. A tutor who has not had technical linguistic training should not attempt technical explanations about Vietnamese. These are provided by the explanatory notes in the book and/or the scientific linguist.

Review constantly. Do not go ahead too rapidly. Remember that each new lesson presupposes thorough mastery of what has gone before.

Do Not assume that the patterns of Vietnamese will resemble those of English, or that distinctions made in English will be present in Vietnamese. Expect Differences and be surprised at similarities.