Vietnamese Language Studies Saigon (VLS), Ho Chi Minh City:
Based in Ho Chi Minh City, southern Vietnam, Vietnamese Language Studies Saigon (VLS) was formerly known as Saigon Vietnamese Language School. With 15 years of experience teaching Vietnamese for international students, VLS is a leading professional school in the field. At VLS we take pride in being one of Vietnam's oldest language schools for foreigners, in our experience and in our serious commitment to continuous development of teaching methodology and resources. Our many successful students are our proudest achievement, yet we are also among the premier training institutes for teachers of Vietnamese Language. We have been selected at the school of choice by universities, consulates and corporations alike, and members of our faculty have gone on to teach Vietnamese at prestigious universities both abroad and in Vietnam. Above all, we are proud of our teachers, who are among the best in Vietnam and committed to continual improvement of their methods.
Email: Contact us here
Core Courses offerred at VLS:
BCB 1 - 40 hours (Basic Conversational Vietnamese for Beginners)
BCB 1 is a streamlined and focused course designed to produce maximum functional fluency in a short time period. The course is taught with strong emphasis placed on listening and speaking. Course topics and vocabulary have been carefully complied to provide you with the language patterns that you will need to successfully “survive” everyday situations whil
e living, working & traveling in Vietnam. This beginning-level course helps you achieve a solid foundation not only in conversational Vietnamese but also in basic Vietnamese in terms of phonetics, grammar and structures for your further Vietnamese language studies.
BCB 2 - 40 hours:
Like BCB1, BCB 2 continues to help students improve conversational skills and achieve functional fluency in daily communication. Course units are also sequenced to deal with functional language patterns and vocabulary that students will typically use in situations encountered on a daily basis in Vietnam However, you are exposed to more developed conversations. During this course, teaching pronunication is strongly emphasized as an important segment of the curriculum. Your knowlegde of Vietnamese grammar and strutures will be strengthened.
Upper-Elementary Vietnamese - (80 hours):
This course helps you improve your Vietnamese grammar, functional patterns and vocabulary in various popular topics. Course contents continue the same focus on the Vietnamese typically used in situations encountered on a daily basis in Vietnam.Your speaking skill will be improved through conversational practice at a higher complex, skits and small discussions and presentations. In the course, you are required to practice small structured paragraphs. You also get started with reading comprehension that is a necessary segment of the curriculum.
Intermediate Vietnamese – 240 hours:
Students continue to develop higher proficiency in oral and written Vietnamese, and will be expected to conduct class primarily in Vietnamese. At this level, students will begin to encounter authentic materials in the classroom (Vietnamese news briefs, legends and folktales, idiomatic sayings...). Students’ knowledge of Vietnamese grammar will be strengthened. In the course, you are required to practice writing small essays. Reading and listening comprehension, discussion and oral presentation are also the basic segments of the curriculum.
Advanced Vietnamese – 160 hours:
Students will be exposed to a brief history of the Vietnamese language and factors influencing its evolution, especially the contributions of Chinese vocabulary and expressions. Basic Vietnamese linguistics and grammatical systems will also be introduced. Students will read and discuss selections from local newspapers, magazines, and modified literary excerpts. Expository writing will also be required.
Speciality Courses:
Vietnamese for Tourists - 6 hours:
Learn how to actually pronounce the words in your Vietnamese phrase book! This brief class gives an overview of basic Vietnamese phonetics, numbers, ways of greeting and addressing others, and provides simple vocabulary needed for day-to-day interactions such as shopping and ordering food in a rest
aurant. This class will help pave the way for some real interaction with local people while you travel through Vietnam.
Vietnamese for Heritage Learners:
A pre-intermediate Vietnamese course designed specifically for heritage learners who have high oral skills, but little exposure to the written language. VLS has many years of experience in teaching learners with uneven proficiencies, and our teachers are very skilled in adapting teaching methods to students with diverse needs.
Intensive Conversational Vietnamese:
Developed for intermediate and advanced students who want to focus exclusively on their speaking and listening skills, this course will engage students in frequent debates, skits, oral presentations on assigned topics, and topical discussions. In order to improve students' ability to interact with diverse populations throughout Vietnam, instruction will be given on different regional dialects, informal and colloquial expressions, slang, idioms, and common sayings used frequently by Vietnamese people in daily conversation. Intensive listening activities also play an important role in this course, and students will be exposed to Vietnamese plays, movies, TV shows, news programs and radio broadcasts.
Vietnamese Literature:
Conducted entirely in Vietnamese for advanced students, this course will explore the evolution of Vietnamese literature through the examination of various texts from feudal to modern times. The class will initially study examples of Vietnamese myths, legend, and folk literature. Students will then be exposed to the writings of medieval authors such as Nguyen Du (Tale of Kieu) and Ho Xuan Huong. Authors from the colonial and war eras such as Nam Cao and Vu Trong Phung will be introduced, as well as several poets from the New Poetry Movement of the 1920s. The modern period will also be touched upon with authors such as To Huu, Xuan Dieu and Le Luu. An exploration of ca dao, Vietnamese idiomatic sayings and folksongs will round out the literary curriculum.
Advanced Vietnamese Composition:
This course focuses exclusively on expository writing. Students will be introduced to stylistic devices seen in several different forms of Vietnamese texts, including newspapers, advertisements, academic expositions, and literary or descriptive works, and will practice writing brief samples of each. As this course will also involve some analysis of Vietnamese writing samples, interested students should have high proficiency in reading comprehension in order to enroll.
Practicum classes:
One distinguishing feature of VLS is our emphasis on immersion-based language techniques. Our practicum classes are designed to take full advantage of the local environment, enabling students to take what they've learned in the classroom and apply it to real-life situations in the community through a structured lesson plan and with instructor support. For our core courses, instructors usually supplement classroom sessions with a 2-hour practicum class once a week for intensive and short-term students, and once a month for long-term ones. For these outings, students are provided with a detailed syllabus designed by the teacher. Every effort is made to integrate the contents of practicum trips into the normal weekly classes, and much attention is paid to extension activities in the classroom so that students can get the most out of their practicum. Some examples of practicum class topics include: sending a fax at the post office, booking train tickets, asking for directions, ordering lunch, bargaining at the local market, and placing an order at the tailor. More advanced students will participate in practicum that introduce them to aspects of Vietnamese cultural life, historical locations, or require them to undertake street interview projects.
Language Immersion Field Trips:
VLS frequently organizes 1 or 2-day weekend Language Immersion Field Trips to locations outside of Ho Chi Minh. Our LIFT programs will immerse you in situations in which you must interact with the local people and use your Vietnamese to complete an exercise. Though students from several different classes will travel together on a LIFT excursion, the language exercises are level-specific, requiring that students work individually or in small groups and with the support of VLS instructors.
These programs have proven to be very popular with our students and are a fun way to improve your Vietnamese conversational ability. Past students have remarked that not only are LIFT programs a great chance to practice Vietnamese, but they are also a valuable opportunity to interact with Vietnamese communities that rarely meet foreigners, and to observe what their everyday lives are really like.
LIFT programs also provide students with a chance to meet and interact with other students enrolled at the school as they travel together outside of the city. VLS students are given priority in enrolling for LIFT programs, but students from other language schools are welcome to apply as well.
|
|
|
|
