Introduction

This project is intended as a Vietnamese language primer of sorts – a brief explanation of how the language works, including explanations of the things which tend to confuse people who are learning Vietnamese as a foreign language. At initial time of writing (September 2011) I am an Australian uni student studying my second year of Vietnamese. I have a keen interest in analytical linguistics, and I know first-hand which aspects in particular can confuse a foreign student of Vietnamese.

I hope that this primer will allow adults (and suitably motivated adolescents) to more easily gain an understanding of the Vietnamese language. I see this primer as being best used in conjunction with a good bilingual dictionary or two (I recommend for a start the excellent and very cheap Collins Gem Vietnamese-English pocket dictionary), and followed by some practice with native speakers of Vietnamese. A particular target audience for this primer, should it turn out to be useful, will be the worldwide diplomatic community – it would of course be very helpful if diplomats were able to master a language such as Vietnamese to an acceptable fluency in significantly less time than the currently-required year or two.

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