Colloquial Vietnamese: The Complete Course for Beginners

I should start off by saying that I already spoke Vietnamese pretty well when I picked up this course. In general, I thought the book was a pretty good introductory text (a fair amount of typos in the first half dozen chapters though).The one comment I did want to make was on the tapes. The hardest thing about learning Vietnamese is (by far) pronunciation. Some of the earlier reviewers complained about the tapes and I think that their complaints are somewhat unjustified. It took me (literally) years to be comfortable hearing and understanding Vietnamese -- it's not quite like learning Spanish. If the expectation was that the neophite could listen to these tapes (or any VNese tapes) in the car and start picking up words, then yes, these tapes (and any tapes) are going to be disappointing. On the other hand, the tapes follow the printed material very well, are professionally produced, and use speakers with good pronunciation.I guess my point here is that you really need to be prepared to spend a fairly considerable amount of time if you want to hear and speak VNese well. If the previous reviewers didn't find these tapes useful, I suspect there are no sets of tapes (or any other audio aids) out there that would meet their expectations.

(Japanese) CD de setumei-yaku o tutomeru John Moore sensei no eigo wa Nihonzin ni mo kikitori yasui Igirisu-kei no eigo desu. Syoho sae sunde ireba, Betonamu-go no iwayuru natural speed ni nareru ii rensyuu ni narimasu. Tada, hoka no kata mo kaite'rassyaru toori, syoho no hatuon rensyuu ga zyuubun de wa naku, mattaku Betonamu-go o siranai hito ni wa tottuki nikui kamo. Kono CD dake kara seityou (koe no age-sage; tones) no meikaku na imeezi o tukamu no wa hakkiri itte muri. Ta no kyouzai o riyou suru ka, sensei ni tuku ka site, syoho no syoho o mananda ato ni kono kyouzai ni torikakaru no ga yoi desyou. Torikumi-gai wa arimasu.

I disagree with an earlier posted negative review of this material. I feel that this book and 2 CD set is excellent. I have searched for many books to help me learn to communicate with my wife's family in Vietnamese in my annual visit to Vietnam. This is by far the most useful. This material is not designed for the traveller who wants to learn a phrase or two. It is designed for someone who truly wishes to learn to communicate in Vietnamese. The book and CD force you to think and learn to listen in order to comprehend real conversational Vietnamese. In real life, Vietnamese people speak quickly. One will never learn to listen and speak this language unless you are given a strong push. That is what this material does. This book and CD set will make you work harder, but in the end will give you practical speaking and listening abilities. Expect to make a serious time investment in learning this language. As an additional comment, except for a fortunate few, learning any language likely requires real life experience coupled with this material. The material teaches terms and grammar from the north. This is the official version of the language of the country and is understood everywhere.