Một bếp lửa chờn vờn sương sớm

Một bếp lửa ấp iu nồng đượm

Cháu thương bà biết mấy nắng mưa!

...

Giờ cháu đã đi xa. Có ngọn khói trăm tàu,

Có lửa trăm nhà, niềm vui trăm ngả,

Nhưng vẫn chẳng lúc nào quên nhắc nhở:

- Sớm mai này, bà nhóm bếp lên chưa?...

Provisional translation:

A Hearth Flickering in the Early Morning Mist

A hearth softly glowing with tender warmth

How deeply I love my grandma through sun and rain!

…

Now I have gone far away. There is smoke from a hundred ships,

There are fires in a hundred homes, joys in a hundred paths,

Yet never for a moment do I forget to wonder:

- Grandma, have you lit the fire this morning? …

These lines from the poem “Bep lua” by poet Bang Viet were carefully written by Dao Mai Linh (18), the eldest daughter of Nguyen Ngoc Ha, on a blank sheet of paper. The slightly slanted handwriting, along with sketches of a grandmother tending the fire beside her grandchild, imbues the page with the warm breath of a profoundly Vietnamese space.

Ha says that every time her daughter writes Vietnamese so beautifully, she feels warm for the entire day. She smiles softly and says, “I keep Vietnamese for my children because… in truth, my Czech and English are not good enough to explain everything. If I want my children to understand, only Vietnamese can do that.”

And from that very real need of a mother to speak to her children in the language she can express herself most completely, her story began.

Nguyen Ngoc Ha and her children.

Hà recalls that in 2003, she was brought to the Czech Republic by her uncle, a PhD holder who had studied and worked there for many years, to pursue her education. Ten years later, when her eldest daughter entered first grade, she decided to settle in Prague, the capital city with the best schools and a large Vietnamese community.

Her family lives in the very center of Prague - bustling and multicultural. She opened a restaurant specializing in Vietnamese dishes: pho, spring rolls, Southern-style beef noodle soup… The work allows her to meet Vietnamese people every day, making Vietnamese the default language throughout her daily routine.

Though she does not join community associations in the traditional sense, Ha is very active in online communities, especially the group “Vietnamese Mothers and Children in Czech,” which has more than 71,000 members. There, she and other members share and support fellow Vietnamese, especially women and children. Anyone facing difficulties at work, school, with paperwork, or in life, can turn to the group for advice.

“What keeps me connected to the Vietnamese community in the Czech Republic is probably the fact that I get to speak Vietnamese every day,” she said.

Dao Mai Linh, the eldest daughter of Nguyen Ngoc Ha, with poems she has rewritten in Vietnamese.

Ha’s three children - Mai Linh (18), Uyen Linh (14), and Nhat Linh (10), study in a multinational environment: Vietnamese, Chinese, Ukrainian, American, British… The language used at home has changed over time: when they were little, they spoke Vietnamese at home and Czech at school; as they grew older, the sisters began speaking English to one another. But with their mother, it has always been Vietnamese.

Ha explains: “My Czech and English are not good enough for me to explain everything clearly to my children. And if they can speak Vietnamese well, their job opportunities in the future will be much broader because the Vietnamese community in the Czech Republic is very strong.”

Dao Uyen Linh, Ha’s second daughter, speaks Vietnamese at age five.

Without formal lesson plans or fixed classes, Ha teaches Vietnamese to her children through daily conversations and text messages. Whenever they do not understand a word, she explains it in Czech or English, and sometimes relies on a smartphone to look it up.

Her children speak Vietnamese well, but “they do not use diacritics when writing, and their reading is still slow.” She admits that she has never taught them Vietnamese reading or writing in a structured way, fearing language confusion when they were younger, and later becoming too busy. “Perhaps I will enroll them in a Vietnamese reading and writing course this summer,” she said.

Nguyen Ngoc Ha with her children on family outings.

There were times when her children spoke less Vietnamese, especially when at school or when she was away. Ha never pressured them; she simply persisted in speaking Vietnamese whenever possible. When Mai Linh prepared for her high school graduation exams and had to read many classical literary works, she often asked her mother about deeper layers of meaning. Ha explained them in Vietnamese so her daughter could translate the concepts into Czech herself.

The biggest challenge, she says, is the lack of an environment to practice. Many Vietnamese families in the Czech Republic are so busy that their children cannot speak Vietnamese and are unable to converse with their grandparents. What Ha considers fortunate is that her daughters still love Vietnamese music, especially singer Son Tung M-TP, love Vietnamese food, enjoy returning to Vietnam, and every day still hug her and say “I love you” in Vietnamese.

Children of Ha’s friends in the Czech Republic singing in Vietnamese.

For Ha, Vietnamese cannot be separated from cuisine. “As long as Vietnamese remains, and Vietnamese food remains, my children will never lose their roots,” she said.

All three girls love bun dau mam tom, braised dishes, bun, pho, spring rolls… and they enjoy cooking Vietnamese dishes on their own. The two older girls also love weaving, embroidery, and sewing, just like Vietnamese girls in the past.

In 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, 13-year-old Mai Linh sewed face masks to give to neighbors, friends, and placed them at the school gate. “Every ten minutes, she finished a new one,” Ha recalled.

Dao Mai Linh, the eldest daughter of Nguyen Ngoc Ha, sews masks to give to neighbors and friends.

Ha believes that a bowl of hot pho, a pot of braised fish, or a simple family dinner can sometimes preserve Vietnamese more effectively than any lesson. When children can speak Vietnamese, they feel more connected to their grandparents and relatives and are not excluded from the conversations within their own families.

According to Ha, the family remains the most important environment for preserving Vietnamese for children: “If a family has a Vietnamese father, or mother, or both, there is no reason why the children should not know how to speak Vietnamese.” The community environment provides additional support, giving children opportunities to interact and practice more. The Vietnamese population in the Czech Republic is large and concentrated, so Vietnamese classes, both online and in-person, are widely organized, helping children develop all four skills comprehensively: listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

Traditional, flavorful Vietnamese meals help the children maintain their Vietnamese family heritage.

Since 2013, the Government of the Czech Republic has officially recognized the Vietnamese community as one of the country’s ethnic minorities. Policies supporting investment, business, residence, and education have expanded; cultural activities such as the ceremony of raising the Vietnamese national flag at the central square of Prague on National Day, diplomatic fairs, and food festivals have become powerful opportunities to promote Vietnamese culture.

According to Ha, Czech people are gentle, warm-hearted, and increasingly open to Vietnamese culture. Vietnamese people are hardworking, law-abiding, and devoted to their children, so they are regarded as good friends and neighbors. Vietnamese restaurants have become so widespread that the phrase “Westerners addicted to fish sauce” is no longer a joke.

Hà’s three children attend extra classes at the Sapa Trade Center, “a corner of Hanoi in the heart of Prague.” There, they can practice Vietnamese, meet Vietnamese friends, and take part in community activities such as birthdays, weddings, and Vietnamese-style family meals.

In the future, Ha hopes to help her children improve their Vietnamese reading and writing skills, and she wishes to work with the community to organize more activities where children can sing and recite poetry, as rhyme and rhythm are the quickest ways for them to develop a love for the Vietnamese language.

Ha’s children enjoy Vietnamese grilled duck noodles at the Sapa Trade Center (Prague, Czech Republic).

By: Thanh Luan

Design: Mai Anh