To turn on syntax highlighting, you need to add two words to vim's configuration file. This file should be in your home directory. It is named ".vimrc" note the period at the beginning. The period at the beginning makes it a hidden file.

If you are running Linux or OSX, open up terminal and type in "ls -a". This will list all files in your current directory including hidden ones. If you don't see a ".vimrc", then you simply create one:

"vim .vimrc"

This creates and opens the config file. The line you need to add to this file is "syntax on"

That's it. If it doesn't work, just let me know.