16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Pimsleur Is the way to go..., November 20, 2006
This review is from: Vietnamese, Comprehensive: Learn to Speak and Understand Vietnamese with Pimsleur Language Programs (Audio CD)
I have always had good luck with the programs. I used Pimlseur to brush up on my French. This program, as with just about all Vietnamse language courses, is based on the Northern Vietnamese language. I have several friends from southern Vietnam and said that even with the (slight) differences, people will still understand you. You learn quite a bit about the language, and will end up with enough knowledge to take what you have learned and form your own phrases in conversations.
This program is not by anymeans sexest. What it does is place you in several situations such as: You are a young man greating a young woman, you are an older woman greeting an older man...e.t.c... One reviewer said that "chi" is used to address a younger woman...that is the northern way of addressing a woman. In southern vietnam, "em" is used and "chi" is used for older and "bac" for the grandmother type. These programs are wonderfull and I would highly suggest that if you want to learn a foriegn language, go with this program..you will not be sorry.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great course - Now we need Comprehensive Vietnamese II, June 16, 2011
This review is from: Vietnamese, Comprehensive: Learn to Speak and Understand Vietnamese with Pimsleur Language Programs (Audio CD)
Pimsleur Comprehensive Vietnamese I is the best self-study method I've come across so far (I'm fluent in English and French and getting there in Vietnamese). It requires dedication and concentration, but the amount you learn is truly inspiring. The course contains thirty 30-minute lessons, plus short, simple reading lessons at the end.
You learn the language much as an infant does - by hearing words and very short phrases and trying to imitate and use them. The amount of rote repetition is almost nil - right from the first lesson, you learn several words and very simple sentence structures and then are asked repeatedly to use them, not just repeat them. I can't stress enough how important this is. With only a few sentence structures and maybe thirty words of vocabulary, the number of questions that the instructor can ask you is almost limitless. The time that they leave for your response is critical: they don't give you enough time to slowly translate out a response; instead, they give you just enough time to reach hard with your mind and pull up a correct response as best you can. They then give you the correct response, which you repeat, sometimes twice. This is where the dedication comes in. If you slack off, don't try too hard, and just repeat the answer they give you, you're selling yourself short, and you'll learn very little. The key is to listen intently and try to quickly formulate answers to the instructor's questions. It's astonishing how quickly you can pick it up.
A typical lesson starts with ten minutes of review of previous lessons -- in particular, the lesson you just completed. The instructor will pepper you with questions and ask if you remember how to say such and such; he'll ask you to say in Vietnamese a short phrase that he says in English. Sometimes they'll insert a new word or two during the review, but usually not. After ten minutes, the new material is introduced. You get anywhere from 5 to 15 new words per lesson, and at least one new structure. Each lesson builds on the previous ones. A new structure might simply be a variation on a sentence structure you learned five lessons ago. Sometimes, it'll be something completely new. It's very reassuring to build on the previous material; you never have that feeling of having already long forgotten what you'd learned two months earlier.
Incidentally, there is no direct grammar instruction. No mention of verbs, nouns, objects, etc. I actually prefer some of that stuff, but most people hate it, and lucky for them, you just pick it up intuitively as you go through the Pimsleur lessons. (You have to love a language where pretty much every verb is in the infinitive all the time.)
They instruct you to move on to the next lesson when you've mastered about 80% of the material in a given lesson. "Mastering" the material, to me, means being able to respond correctly before the demonstrator gives you the response. I generally spent anywhere from three to five days per lesson. That is, I did the full thirty-minute lesson every morning for at least three days in a row before moving on. It's best if you can do a thirty-minute session seven days per week. Whenever I managed to do that, my confidence soared.
The cultural material was appropriate; the vocabulary, pronunciation and cultural references are from the Hanoi region. When I was in Hanoi, it was a thrill to realize I was standing on one of the streets mentioned in the course. It was also very surprising to see the spelling of the street name.
Which brings us to the reading lessons. The reading lessons, while short, are actually quite critical, as they reveal to you the spelling of all the words you have learned and practiced throughout the course. As anyone knows who has begun to read Vietnamese, the alphabet looks fairly similar to the Roman alphabet, but the similarity stops with the appearance. I had already begun reading online Vietnamese newspapers, so I wasn't too shocked by the spelling of the words. In any case, you don't purchase Pimsleur for the reading lessons; while they are critical to alert you to basic spelling, they are in fact a very minor part of the course.
Of course, nothing is perfect. The whole business about addressing people is somewhat problematic, as pointed out by other reviewers. Pimsleur obviously decided early on not to get too bogged down with the proper addressing of people according to their age, family, station in life, relationships, etc. It's a very complicated topic. If I were Pimsleur, I would add an entire thirty-minute lesson on the subject.
As far as "You are an older man, asking a younger woman to go for a beer," well, what of it? The course is full of older/younger man conversing with older/younger woman in a wide variety of situations. I have a feeling that criticism comes mostly from people who only did the first ten lessons.
Bottom line: I've started learning Asian languages three times using various methods. Each time I stopped, until I got Pimsleur Comprehensive Vietnamese I. I just really wish they'd do Pimsleur Comprehensive Vietnamese II. I can't believe they don't get enough demand for it.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Way better than Rosetta Stone, May 4, 2010
This review is from: Vietnamese, Comprehensive: Learn to Speak and Understand Vietnamese with Pimsleur Language Programs (Audio CD)
Pimsleur is way better than Rosetta Stone if you want to learn to speak natively.
I own both Vietnamese I on Pimsleur and Rosetta Stone. And I have tried both. (And I have tried BYKI as well.) Rosetta Stone is nice, but time-consuming as it require me to sit in front of the computer. Also, it's hard to feel like I am immersed in the language simply by looking at a computer screen.
Pimsleur creates that immersion process. The native speakers are speaking in real time. And it is repetitive; perfect for someone like me to learn easily. It also is step-wise in that it allows me to learn in 30-min bite-sized chunks.
Overall, if I want to learn how to write in Vietnamese, I would go with Rosetta Stone...but in terms of native speaking, there is none better than Pimsleur.
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