Well it has taken over a week just to get through the Vietnamese pronunciation part of the Foreign Services Institute course but I've done it.
Eight tapes - I reckon about 3 1/2 hours - just learning how to use the Vietnamese alphabet.
Of course the time to get through them takes at least twice that amount as you stop and start, rewind, and listen again because of how foreign this language really is to the ears of an English speaker.
I've spent at least an hour a day on this over 9 or 10 days.
The last part of the the pronunciation guide was just a ton of Vietnamese sentences to repeat after the man on the tape says them. It starts off with two syllable sentences and works up to six syllable sentences. At the beginning I was wondering why we needed to go over these again, but by the end I was grateful.
Try saying ̣'Đó không phạ̉i là trường học' at the speed of normal spoken Vietnamese (let alone type the bloody thing).
So I appreciate what this course has been trying to do. It has devoted 60 odd pages to pronunciation alone from what seems to be a 300 page volume - 20% of the course. Think about other language books - the pronunciation guide is usually only couple of pages.
It's very repetitive but frankly I can't even imagine starting this course without having gone through all of that. Any other language, possibly - but not Vietnamese.
And despite not knowing any actual words in Vietnamese after a week of study, which seems like a very strange predicament, I feel very well prepared and inducted to begin the course. I honestly believe pronunciation is probably the most difficult part of this language so it's good to get that out of the way first.
Plus you feel like a real pro once you're able to say 'Đó không phại là trường học' at speed - even if you have no idea what it actually means.
Eight tapes - I reckon about 3 1/2 hours - just learning how to use the Vietnamese alphabet.
Of course the time to get through them takes at least twice that amount as you stop and start, rewind, and listen again because of how foreign this language really is to the ears of an English speaker.
I've spent at least an hour a day on this over 9 or 10 days.
The last part of the the pronunciation guide was just a ton of Vietnamese sentences to repeat after the man on the tape says them. It starts off with two syllable sentences and works up to six syllable sentences. At the beginning I was wondering why we needed to go over these again, but by the end I was grateful.
Try saying ̣'Đó không phạ̉i là trường học' at the speed of normal spoken Vietnamese (let alone type the bloody thing).
So I appreciate what this course has been trying to do. It has devoted 60 odd pages to pronunciation alone from what seems to be a 300 page volume - 20% of the course. Think about other language books - the pronunciation guide is usually only couple of pages.
It's very repetitive but frankly I can't even imagine starting this course without having gone through all of that. Any other language, possibly - but not Vietnamese.
And despite not knowing any actual words in Vietnamese after a week of study, which seems like a very strange predicament, I feel very well prepared and inducted to begin the course. I honestly believe pronunciation is probably the most difficult part of this language so it's good to get that out of the way first.
Plus you feel like a real pro once you're able to say 'Đó không phại là trường học' at speed - even if you have no idea what it actually means.
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