[thelist] MSsql question

[Nan Harbison]

Hello,
I am a MySQL user, I am trying to figure out this SQL
statement:

CREATE TABLE [jfy_user].[assistance] (
	[assistance_id] [int] IDENTITY (1, 1) NOT NULL ,
	[assistance] [varchar] (15) COLLATE
SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS NULL
) ON [PRIMARY]
GO

Is this just creating a table in the db jfy.user called
assistance with the fields assistance_id and assistance?

What is COLLATE doing to this query? And why are there
brackets around everything?

Thanks for your help!
Nan