Nowadays, less common foreign languages are being taught everywhere, as the demand for learning these languages has been increasing.

Duong said that after graduating university, she will leave for Italy to follow training courses in fashion design. She needs to prepare for the training courses, and therefore, she needs to learn the Italian language right now.

Duong has found out that in Italy, there are many training courses for bachelor and MA degrees on architect and design, sponsored by the Government of Italy. With a sponsor, the tuition proves to be ‘soft’ at approximately EU1,000 a year.

Hung, a 3^rd year student of the Portuguese language faculty in the Hanoi University, said that though the language proves to be less common in Vietnam, he knows that it ranks 7^th among the most spoken languages in the world. Hung said that speaking Portuguese will be an advantage when he looks for jobs, especially when the number of companies from South America making investments in Vietnam has been increasing.

Not only foreign language students, but more and more students of economic study branches and high school students are also rushing to learn less common languages.

Thuy Trang, a student of the finance-banking faculty of Thang Long University, sad that she is learning Italian at the same time with the main foreign language, English. “As the investment of European countries in Vietnam has been increasing, I believe that the Italian language skills will bring big advantages,” she said.

If you go to less common foreign language centers these days, like Dante (Italian) and Goethe Institute (German), you will see the trainees and teenagers. Tung Anh, a student of Hanoi-Amsterdam gifted school, said that he learns German to serve his plan to study abroad in Germany.

The country, according to Anh, with political certainties and high quality education, has always been attracting students from all over the world.

Moreover, it would be cheaper to study in Germany than in other countries, like the UK and US, even if the Government does not grant a scholarship.

Vietnamese students decide to learn less common foreign languages not only because they love the languages, but also because they can see a lot of opportunities with the learning.

As foreign investors have been making more and more investments in Vietnam, foreign language skills will help Vietnamese students find good jobs. Especially as the students who can speak less common languages have higher opportunities to seek good jobs because they do not have to compete as fiercely as the ones who speak English.

Learning the Japanese language has become a trend as the students learning Japanese can easily find good jobs after they graduate. In September 2007, FPT University decided to put Japanese into the official curriculum of the university.

Hanh, Italian teacher, who is now also the interpreter for Italian Embassy, said that students learning Italian can work as tour guides after one year of learning, and get salaries 3-4 times higher than those who speak languages like English or French. Big Italian companies, which have investments in Vietnam, always prefer candidates who can speak Italian.

VietNamNet/SVVN