two weeks to master as much Vietnamese as possible - tips?

I would apply the same principles as when you first set about learning Chinese, going there and immersion in the local culture is always the best way. Actually, with certain words you will find a few similarities between Cantonese and Vietnamese, spotted that a few times. Good luck and why the rush by the way ?

When I was trying to brush up my incredibly rusty Spanish for an upcoming trip, I stumbled across a Spanish learning book that included stickers for a ot of common nouns. The idea was that you would put the sticker on stuff all over your house and every time you saw, say, your shoes, you would also see "zapata" and come to associate the word with the item.

Although I am an auditory learner, rather than a visual learner, it really worked for me. So, when I was teaching myself Turkish, I did the same thing, using sticky notes. I also made some posters that I hung over my desk at work. One was numerals, with the Turkish word written next to them. Another was stripes of colors with the names written next to them.

It didn't help with pronunciation (which is a lot easier in Turkish or Spanish than in a tonal language),or grammar, but it did help me get a vocabulary of things that might be important to a traveler. I could at least say "want water" or "is toilet?" and be understood, even if I were laughed at.

Flash card apps on smartphone/tablet/computer. Google Anki and Mnemosyne, also check this site http://nihongoperapera.com/mnemosyne.html , though most of these things were designed with Japanese in mind, I am sure they can be used for any language. Basically you enter your own database of words/characters/phrases (or download someone else's but much better to make your own) and then do tests every day. I've been trying to learn Japanese on and off and found these methods to be much more powerful than traditional learning (whatever that means) or conventional flash cards. You can even add audio if you can find a reliable source for how to pronounce the words correctly.

Thanks for your reply.

Yes, there seem to be many words in Vietnamese that will be related to Chinese, so I'm looking forward to that.
I'll sticker my house.

No need to follow my 'Chinese path', as that didn't really work, I think I wasted a lot of time getting where I am now, Chinesewise.

Why the rush? Finally decided we're going to go to Vietnam on a holiday.

thanks for the tips and keep em

Buy a LP phrase book when you arrive in Vietnam, it's a useful start. Bookshops also have text books to learn Vietnamese, but the ones I have seen are not designed for self-learning.

I suggest you start with basic pronouns, numbers, shopping, catching a bus or taxi, greetings, thank you, please

Although there are tens of thousands of Chinese loan words in Vietnamese, I suggest that most of them sound nothing like the pinyin pronunciation. Standard Vietnamese, as spoken in Hanoi, has six tones, which mostly are also different from Chinese tones. Knowing a tonal language already will crtainly help. Vietnamese does not have tone sandhi as in Chinese, which will make it easier for you. And the best part is that Vietnamese now uses a modified Latin alphabet and NO CHARACTERS!

Good luck.

Just had my first class. It's difficult to keep it structured, even though the teacher was nice.
I'm afraid there's too much information in one class, too much to retain it all and then I'll forget it which will slow me down.

I'd rather learn 6 words well plus one or two sentences than 30 words half and then forget them.

Any tips, what would be a reasonable goal for every day...????

By the way, I found some memory games online, numbers and colors and such...

go to youtube and look up learnvietamese (oneword). Donna, the attractive presenter, speaks clearly in a southern accent. There is a mirrof url at www.everydayviet.com. You should find Donna helpful and you can set your own learning pace.

Thanks, I'll check out that everydayviet.com
Unfortunately we can't access youtube here.

I've started making my own memory came cards and other card games that will help me memorize basic words and I'm planning to watch a lot of movies in Vietnamese, so I can get a feeling for the language. At least that's what I'm hoping for.

Unfortunately the movies are in youtube, any non youtube recommendations?