This book aims to safeguard an important aspect of the Vietnamese language as it reflects the society and the culture of Vietnam. Generations and generations of Vietnamese people grew up with proverbs and colloquialism.  In the task of bringing up children, in interacting with people, during the course of the conversation, a simple line from a treasure of proverbs or a simple colloquial expression would be uttered to say little but it says it all. It reveals a judgment, an opinion, a comment, a disapproval, a “I told you so”.  This colorful aspect of the language may disappear one day with older generations gone and with English being used frequently in Vietnamese homes. 

Thus, it is important to maintain and perpetuate this linguistic and traditional heritage among Vietnamese born overseas in English and French speaking countries by means of this project.  This book also provides the opportunity for non-native learners of Vietnamese to learn essential Vietnamese colloquialism which is not taught in traditional textbooks or language classes.

Colloquial Vietnamese - The Art of Saying Little But Saying It All is designed to teach both heritage and non-native learners of Vietnamese the essentials of Vietnamese colloquialisms in 18 lessons.  This self-teaching guide is geared to the learners who have had at least 2 or more years of studying Vietnamese.  The text can be used for self-teaching as a reference or supplemental materials for advanced level classes.  This step-by-step approach teaches the actual spoken language that is constantly used in TV shows, movies, and in everyday life as well as among family and members of native Vietnamese.  The text is organized to teach you first how to recognize and understand the use of colloquial language and in what situation. It includes sentence structures with plenty of examples, drill exercises, and word games.  The text is divided in three parts:

• Vocabulary:  This section introduces colloquial terms and idioms, their usage and their meanings in both English and French followed by several examples for each entry.  It also offers synonyms and special notes.
• Practice the Vocabulary:  There are different types of exercises ranged from matching, multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank exercises and open-ended questions for students to drill and test themselves on their comprehension.  This section also offers word games or word puzzles for both recognition and fun learning.
• Listening Comprehension: This section provides listening activities for students to test both their aural and listening comprehension.
  
  

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