Vietnamese

Courses in Vietnamese

There are about eighty million native speakers of Vietnamese, of which about three million live outside Vietnam. In terms of native speakers, that makes it about the eleventh most populous language in the world, just ahead of French. It is a highly musical six-tone language that has affiliations both with Cambodian (Khmer) and Chinese, as well as a recently acquired sprinkling of French loan words. It has had a written script for about a thousand years. For most of that period the script was a highly complicated extension of the Chinese writing system, but in the past century this system has been replaced by an easier one that uses letters of the Western alphabet in combination with diacritics and tone marks. The Vietnamese have a strong affinity for scholarly and artistic pursuits. Most Vietnamese, whatever their ostensible profession, are at least "closet" artists, poets, scholars, or musicians.

The Department of Asian Studies offers four semesters of instruction in Vietnamese, which allows students to take Vietnamese in fulfillment of foreign language requirements. The elementary and intermediate classes are normally offered in alternate years. The regular Vietnamese courses were not offered in 2005-06, and contrary to our previous expectation, they will not resume in 2006-07. The next time beginning Vietnamese is offered will hopefully be fall 2007, though this is not absolutely certain.

Courses in Vietnamese

VIET 101 [001]: Elementary Vietnamese (4). Introduction to modern standard Vietnamese, providing practice and instruction in basic grammar and vocabulary. Five hours per week, including two recitation classes that meet in small sections. Fall of alternate years. FL [GC Foreign Language perspective].
VIET 102 [002]: Continuation of Elementary Vietnamese (4). Prerequisite: VIET 001. Spring of alternate years. FL [GC Foreign Language perspective].
VIET 203 [003]: Intermediate Vietnamese (4). Prerequisite: VIET 002. Second-year level of modern standard Vietnamese. Five hours per week including two recitation classes. Fall of alternate years. FL [GC Foreign Language perspective].
VIET 204 [004]: Continuation of Intermediate Vietnamese (4). Prerequisite: VIET 003. Spring of alternate years. FL, FI [GC Foreign Language perspective].

For related courses taught in English, please see the complete list of courses.