Lesson One - Reading

My book of bible stories, story one. The class learnt a new language learning technique - backwards buildup. Backwards buildup is a technique used by Pimsleur and is based on the Primacy and Recency rule. The thinking behind the Primacy and Recency rule is that we often remember the first and last word said, but forget all the middle. Starting with the last word then the second last word and the last word, then the third last word, second last word, last word etc we increase the repetition and increase our retention. The class learnt the first sentence of story two together, then broke into pairs and with native speakers or more advanced learners, learnt the next sentence using the backward buildup method.

Reviewing the ULG from last week, the class had to construct some sentences in Vietnamese. We then moved on to this weeks ULG - Questions! Please note: This ULG does not include the question How? This is more complicated and will be its very own subject in a few weeks time.

This ULG on questions has 4160 possible combinations - you will be able to ask many, many questions. The class learnt that asking closed questions in Vietnamese is much like asking questions in French - She is very beautiful, no?

Answering closed questions. Although Vâng is technically 'yes' in Vietnamese, it is seldom used and not often understood. To answer a closed questions we affirm the verb. i.e. Do you want to eat? want.

The class also learnt the inclusive and exclusive 'we'. 'We' including the person you are speaking to is chúng ta, but 'we' excluding the person you are speaking to is chúng tôi.

In a circle the class had to pass a ball to each other and say the numbers in order, up to 12. Using the same method, the class practiced days of the week and months of the year.

The class received five handouts of difficult pronunciations, and for the rest of the lesson, the class worked through the handouts.

The class got balloons and in pairs practiced as many books of the bible as they could remember.

Lesson Six - Less basic conversation

The class received a handout with a less basic conversation and after practicing it were asked to complete the sheet as well as they could over the coming week. Practice with anyone you can!

We added something new this week, introducing the person you are working with. 'Và đây là'

Standing up and facing each other the class practiced this addition to their presentation.