Elementary Vietnamese: Let's Speak Vietnamese, Third Edition

Elementary Vietnamese: Let's Speak Vietnamese, Third Edition by Binh Nhu Ngo

This is a complete Vietnamese language course designed for college or high school–level classroom use or self–study.

Since its publication in 1998, Elementary Vietnamese has become the leading book for anyone wishing to learn Vietnamese, and an invaluable resource for people travelling, studying or working in Vietnam. This bestselling book was originally developed for classroom use at Harvard University, where it has been field-tested for many years. This revised Third Edition has been thoroughly updated to reflect recent developments in Vietnamese speech patterns and culture over the past decade.

The main focus of Elementary Vietnamese is to assist learners in developing basic skills in listening, speaking, writing and reading the language. It serves a secondary function as a general introduction to modern Vietnamese society and culture, with dialogues, cultural notes, exercises and readings drawn from contemporary life and popular media there. Elementary Vietnamese is designed for effective self-study as well as for use in a college-level classroom.

Features of the Third Edition include:

• Many hours of new audio recordings by native Vietnamese speakers.
• Innovative pronunciation drills to help you to achieve near-native pronunciation ability.
• New usage examples, cultural notes, and exercises along with photos showing life in Vietnam today.
• A guide for instructors ("New Edition Notes") detailing changes made in the Third Edition.

The MP3 audio recordings which accompany this book are of native Vietnamese speakers. These recordings cover:

• All dialogues, narratives and vocabulary.
• Grammar and usage notes.
• Everyday Vietnamese idioms and expressions.
• A unique set of pronunciation drills to help you speak like a native.
• Commonly-used proverbs, to help you speak and understand colloquial Vietnamese.

Elementary Vietnamese: Let's Speak Vietnamese, Third Edition - About the Author

Dr. Binh Nhu Ngo is the Director of the Vietnamese Language Program in the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University and has been teaching Vietnamese there since 1992. He was born and educated in Hanoi, and earned his Ph.D. in linguistics from the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow. He has taught Vietnamese and linguistics at Moscow University, and since 1992 he has taught at the Southeast Asian Studies Summer Institute (SEASSI) and at a number of universities and colleges in the United States. He was the Vice-President of the Council of Teachers of Southeast Asian Languages (COTSEAL) and represents Harvard University at the Group of Universities for the Advancement of Vietnamese Abroad (GUAVA), whose Chair he has been since 2003. His other books include Speak & Read Vietnamese and Continuing Vietnamese.