Reviews for BEGINNER'S VIETNAMESE

The average rating for BEGINNER'S VIETNAMESE based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2011-09-05 00:00:00 Aaron Friedman Positives: ABUNDANCE of grammar drills, clear explanations of grammar, equal to a one-year course at Uni Negatives: no audio material The obvious problem is that it does not come with any audio, so you need to know how to pronounce Vietnamese before you even start with this book, any dialect is fine. I used one of those 'Talk Now! Vietnamese' multimedia softwares, but any material that teaches you pronunciation is good (Pimsleur, youtube etc.) When you eventually get into the book the first thing you will notice is the large number of grammar drills, they take up most of the space in each lesson. So the book is quite similar to the FSI materials if that tells you anything. If Vietnamese grammar terrifies you, then this is the book to get. The large number of drills will make sure that you master it without frustration. Quinn's explanations are easy to understand, and there are other excercises too besides drills - reading, translations, answering questions, etc. I never felt bored using the book. Quinn focuses on more formal Vietnamese and not so much on Colloquial "street" language. Personally I prefer this since I believe it is better to sound polite in a foreign language than risk sounding disrespectful or even offensive. The vocabulary is general and practical, it does not focus on business or "college-talk". As a self-learner I have of-course used other books besides this one (Colloquial, TY, Paiboon) but Quinn's book is by far my favourite because I learned the grammar so smoothly with it, and this allowed me to focus more energy on getting the pronunication right.

Review # 2 was written on 2015-02-25 00:00:00 James Santini Now i am studying vietnam so i want to speak this book