This paper compares the tone systems of Vietnamese and English, with emphasis on the teaching of English as a second language. Rising, level, high, low, and falling tones are identified for English. Vietnamese has all of these except the last. While in Vietnamese, tones are predictable in the sense that tones and words go together, English tones vary and have more than a lexical function. It is thus quite difficult to teach the placement of tones in English. A method of taking the Vietnamese tone markers from Vietnamese words and applying them to words in the target language is outlined, as a means of teaching tone in English. Comments are made about tone usage in different regional varieties of Vietnamese. (CLK)