This is coming from someone who has completed the full elementary Vietnamese track, who did not grow up in a Vietnamese household. Elementary Vietnamese at UCR is catered almost entirely to students who already grew up speaking Vietnamese. I have been told so many times "just talk like you would at home" or "you should already be familiar with this". These are not courses to learn Vietnamese, this is for people who know Vietnamese to get a larger, more complex vocabulary. Even for Vietnamese speakers the content is incredibly arbitrary. I do not know most basic verbs, any words to convey any kind of emotion, or the names of any hobbies or animals, and I still can't have a meaningful conversation with my grandparents. However, I've been taught enough vocabulary to open a bank account, exc...read more