Courses
VIET 110/510: Elementary Vietnamese I;
VIET 120/520: Elementary Vietnamese II
(See Online
Course Information site for class times and other information)
The objective of this course is to help students acquire a basic working
ability in Vietnamese with attention paid to integrated skills such as
speaking, listening, writing (Roman script), and reading. To this end,
the lessons are centered around short dialogues on situations of daily
life. However, approaches and activities are varied, appealing to different
learning strategies. Students practice real communication using materials
that include newspaper and magazine articles, simple songs and poems,
games, maps, audio tapes, videos, books, pictures, etc. Each lesson in
the textbook includes dialogue, vocabulary, grammar practice and development,
task-based activities, narratives and situation dialogues to increase
comprehension, and exercises to help students develop reading and writing
skills. Participation is needed. No previous knowledge of or experience
with Vietnamese language is required.
VIET 130/530a: Intermediate Vietnamese
I; VIET 140/540b: Intermediate Vietnamese II
(See Online
Course Information site for class times and other information)
Designed for intermediate-level students who have prior knowledge of the
Vietnamese language. This course attempts to present an integrated approach
to language learning and is aimed at strengthening students' listening,
speaking, reading, and writing skills in Vietnamese. Students are thoroughly
grounded in communicative activities such as conversations, performance
simulations, drills, role-plays, games, etc. The task-based activities
are meant to provide relatively safe settings where students can practice
Vietnamese, make mistakes, and learn from them. Students improve their
reading and writing abilities by developing their vocabulary, grammar,
and meaning-based knowledge.
VIET 150/550a: Advanced Vietnamese
(See Online
Course Information site for class times and other information)
Aims to enable students to achieve greater fluency and accuracy in the language beyond the intermediate level and to solidify their reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills. Topics include social, economic, and cultural practices; gender issues; and notions of power, taboo, etc. Prerequisite: VIET 140/540 or equivalent.
VIET 220b: Introduction to Vietnamese
Culture, Values, and Literature
(See Online
Course Information site for class times and other information)
This course is designed to introduce students to Vietnamese Culture, values,
and literature through the study of literary texts, with special attention
paid to Vietnamese modes of experience in thinking, feeling, valuing,
and perceiving themselves and the external world. Topics include cultural
and national identity, aesthetics, meaning of life, war, and death. Selected
readings from Zen poems, folklore, autobiographies, and religious and
philosophical writings.
* All readings in translation. No previous knowledge of Vietnamese
required. (offered alternate years)
VIET 470a/471b: Independent Tutorial
HTBA; Not Cr/D/F
For students with advanced Vietnamese language skills who wish to engage
in concentrated reading and research on material not otherwise offered
in courses. The work must be supervised by an adviser and must terminate
in a term paper or its equivalent. Permission to enroll requires submission
of a detailed project proposal and its approval by the language studies
coordinator. Please contact Dr. Quang Van for details.
PHIL 220: Eastern Philosophy
Yale Summer Session Only
This course is designed to introduce students to Eastern philosophy through the study of philosophical and religious texts, and serves to foster interest in philosophy in general and in Eastern philosophy in particular. It also offers students an alternative to Western perspectives. Topics include reality, knowledge, self, right and wrong, non-attachment, the meaning of life, death, and aesthetics.
Related Courses
ANTH 201b, Postwar Vietnam
Professor Erik Harms
Vietnamese society since the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. Focus on the effect of economic and political changes on cultural and social life. The challenges of postwar socialism; economic renovation; the intersection of market-oriented socialism with class dynamics, urbanization, gender, health care, and ritual life.
ANTH 244a, Modern Southeast Asia
Professor Erik Harms
Introduction to the peoples and cultures of Southeast Asia, with special emphasis on the challenges of modernization, development, and globalization. Southeast Asian history, literature, arts, belief systems, agriculture, industrialization and urbanization, politics, ecological challenges, and economic change.
HIST 323: SE Asia Since 1900
TTh: 11:35-12:50; WLH 119
Professor Ben Kiernan
Comparative colonialism, nationalism, revolution, and independence in modern Southeast Asia. Topics include Indonesia and the Dutch, Indochina under French rule, the United States in the Philippines and Vietnam, Buddhism in Burma and Thailand, communist and peasant movements, and the Cambodian revolution and its regional repercussions.
HIST 382, Vietnamese History from Earliest Times to 1920
Professor Ben Kiernan
Evolution of a Vietnamese national identity, from Chinese colonization to medieval statehood, to French conquest and capitalist development. Topics include the roles of Confucianism, Buddhism, gender, and ethnicity in a Southeast Asian context.