Lookatvietnam – Twenty-year-old Ta Dinh Khoa and his younger brother Ta Dinh Son have come to visit Viet Nam after 15 years of living in Germany. Upon arrival, reality hit them hard and both were forced to grapple with significant obstacles.

Children at the Hung Vuong School in London, England are taught Vietnamese once a week. This is the first school teaching Vietnamese language for Overseas Vietnamese children.

Khoa left Viet Nam when he was 3 years old. He can vaguely understand people when they speak Vietnamese, but he cannot speak it himself. Son only understands English, and shrugs his shoulders when people try to engage him in a Vietnamese conversation.

Ta Dinh Hai, the boys’ father, says that his sons have only been exposed to German and English culture and language since they were little boys. “My sons’ life-style is very different from my generation,” he said.

“We are too busy and do not have the time to teach them Vietnamese. We always speak German at home. If I ask them something in Vietnamese, they just don’t understand.”

Khoa says he actually wants to learn Vietnamese but complains that there are no classes available to him where he lives in Germany. He hopes someday he can speak and read Vietnamese, so he can learn more about his native country’s culture.

Khoa and Son are just two of the many young Vietnamese living in foreign countries who cannot understand Vietnamese. They both agree that this is a great pity.

MoET’s plan

The Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) plans to complete an official set of textbooks for learning Vietnamese to help Viet kieu (Vietnamese living abroad). The textbooks will not only teach language, but also the culture of the country, according to Deputy Minister Banh Tien Long.

Long said the ministry would be conducting an experimental programme teaching Vietnamese on television, radio and the internet, as well as starting several training courses for teachers. Qualified teachers would be sent to teach Vietnamese to Viet kieu in Laos, Thailand and Cambodia.

“With efforts and targets set so clearly, we expect that Vietnamese language – our mother tongue - will not fall into oblivion in foreign countries,” said Long.

The State Committee for Overseas Vietnamese estimates there are about 3.5 million Vietnamese people living, studying and working in more than 90 countries and territories around the world.

Teaching Viet kieu is being labelled an urgent task because many youth are the fourth and fifth generation living in the foreign countries and losing touch with their native culture.

In 2000, the ministry sent three delegations to the US, France and Thailand to do field research on Viet kieu’s demand for learning Vietnamese. Based on the findings, the ministry’s Institute of Educational Science has created two programmes and two sets of textbooks for adults and youth.

According to Director of the Institute for Educational Science Nguyen Huu Chau, Vietnamese people living in the US have said they value the programme for its quality.

“The ministry has set up a network of teachers for the project. We have worked with some schools in foreign countries to put the Vietnamese language into the list of official subjects,” said Chau.

“Interest has not only been shown in the three targeted countries, but also many Viet kieu in other countries have asked Vietnamese embassies there to provide them with textbooks and documents for learning the language,” said Director of the ministry’s International Co-operation Department Tran Ba Viet Dung.

According to Chau, a survey conducted in the US, where more than 1.5 million Vietnamese people reside, showed that first-generation Vietnamese-Americans expressed a desire to communicate, read, watch television and listen to the radio in Vietnamese. However, second-and third-generation Vietnamese-Americans tended to not be as interested in their heritage language.

Many families tried to remedy this by bringing their children to Vietnamese classes in their community, while others brought children to their homeland during summer vacations.

Fact findings

The demand for Vietnamese educational materials for overseas Vietnamese stems mostly from parents, according to a survey by MoET. Opportunities for learning existed in some foreign countries, but they are piecemeal and inadequate. Effectiveness was found not to be very high because teachers lacked necessary skills and conditions.

In the US, there are more than 200 centres teaching Vietnamese in communities, concentrating on the states with the most Vietnamese residents such as California, Texas and Washington. Each centre has between 100 and 1,000 students.

In California, there are about 16,000 students taking part in training courses opened at 90 centres. There are about 1,600 teachers, 1,000 of them volunteers.

Researchers from MoET have recommended culture offices be opened to provide classes, reading rooms with Vietnamese-language materials, and to host performance and seminars on Vietnamese culture. The ministry’s programme is expected to help Vietnamese people, especially the second and third generations, learn their native language and culture in order to keep them in touch with their roots.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News