LookAtVietnam – Teachers and lecturers are united in their fear for the Vietnamese language – but can it and should it be saved?

“I feel shocked at the the ‘excessive creativeness’ of students,” said Do Thi Cuc, Teacher of Trung Vuong High School in Hung Yen province when she talks about the use of Vietnamese at school. “Students invent words and sentences that I cannot understand,” she added.

Researchers have rung the alarm bell over changes in use of the Vietnamese language. “Vietnamese language must be safeguarded in the communication of the Vietnamese community,” said Ka So Lieng, a researcher.

“Some parents force their children to learn foreign languages even when they have not gone to the first grade. Foreign language centres are being established everywhere,” he added.

According to Dr Nguyen Cong Duc from the HCM City University of Social Sciences and Humanity, there is a so called “Internet Vietnamese language”. The language is now widely used in daily life and is threatening to permanently change the original Vietnamese language.

“There are six ‘variants’ of Internet Vietnamese language which can be created by changing phonetics; abbreviating; replacing with other words; using English to show a Vietnamese word; using exotic factors; and misspelling,” Duc said.

Experts, while persuading people that Vietnamese language has been used in a wrong way in many places, are suggesting a language act in order to rescue Vietnamese.

Dr Nguyen Duc Ton, head of the Linguistics Institute, said the State should begin building up the act on language use, and stipulate the position of language in the communication system of Vietnamese community.

In fact, since the 1990s scholars and journalists have suggested same proposal to the State.

Dr Duc said culture management agencies need to set up requirements and standards for using Vietnamese language on publications, including the use of Vietnamese language in online newspapers and websites.

Mass media, Duc said, needs to help persuade people not to use “Internet Vietnamese” in unreasonable environments.

VietNamNet/HNM, DT