bad intro to pronunciation, but...
Before you use ANY beginner's book on Vietnamese you should search the web for good free introductions to the sounds and work on that for 2-3 weeks. Vietnamese pronunciation is VERY difficult and you will need a few weeks to get used to them. None of the books on Vietnamese I've used have been good for initial sound practise so don't take all this as critique of this particular book. Consequently if you already have some rudimentary appreciation of the sounds this is a very good book to use. Each chapter has three dialogues with audio, tone practice with audio, and 20 (!) sets of grammar exercises. The exercises cover: translation, writing, building sentences, filling in missing words, etc. There are answers to all exercises in the appendix.It is this abundance of exercises that really sets this book apart from other books such as 'Vietnamese for Beginner's' and Teach Yourself, who have both fewer audio training and much fewer exercises. It is important that I mention that this book focuses on formal Vietnamese,i.e. respectful language, the sort of language you use when talking to businessmen, politicians and the like. If it is a more colloquial book you're looking for Catlett's 'Vietnamese for Beginner's' is more suitable. Lastly: don't forget to get the audio too !
