Language Competition: Promoting Vietnamese Language in Land of Rising Sun
In recent years, Vietnamese language contests in Japan, such as speech competitions, photo contests, and proficiency exams, have been flourishing. These activities not only help improve language skills but also contribute to preserving and promoting the mother tongue within the community of around 600,000 Vietnamese people living, studying, and working in Japan. They also serve as a platform for international students studying Vietnamese to practice and demonstrate their understanding of the Vietnamese language and culture.
From Chartres (France), Teaching Children to Speak Their Mother Tongue
In the ancient city of Chartres, just over an hour’s drive from Paris, Hoang Thi Nhi, a woman from Quang Tri Province, Vietnam, faithfully teaches her two children to speak Vietnamese, read Vietnamese books, and sing Vietnamese children’s songs. Nhi shared that preserving the Vietnamese language for her children is not a “task,” but a small daily joy. “As long as Vietnamese is spoken in our home, I feel that my homeland is still very close.”
AI Accompanies Overseas Vietnamese Children in Nurturing Their Love for Vietnamese Language
From the online classes of the Yeu Tieng Viet (Love Vietnamese) School in Australia, artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming a “companion” that helps hundreds of overseas Vietnamese students explore the beauty of their mother tongue in a more lively and creative way. Thanks to AI, every lesson, every story, and every picture has become a journey that connects the children more closely with their homeland.
Learning Vietnamese: First and Most Important Communication Environment Is Family
These are the insights shared by Prof. Dr. Nguyen Minh Thuyet, Chief Editor of the 2018 General Education Curriculum, aimed at enhancing the effectiveness of teaching Vietnamese to children of overseas Vietnamese communities.
Preserving Vietnamese Language through Music and Cuisine
Teaching tones through traditional instruments, speaking Vietnamese while cooking familiar dishes, the mother tongue is being preserved and spread abroad through the most intimate, everyday activities. With creativity, emotion, and affection, Vietnamese continues to grow alongside younger generations across the world.
Dr. Nguyen Thi Thanh Ha: Two Decades of Nurturing Vietnamese Language in Taiwan (China)
Amid the modern rhythm of life in Taiwan (China), every morning, residents of a small alley in Tainan City have grown familiar with the sight of a woman carrying a one-of-a-kind handmade bag filled with teaching materials as she heads to class to teach Vietnamese. She is Dr. Nguyen Thi Thanh Ha, born in 1980 in Gia Lam District, Hanoi - a woman who has devoted two decades to sowing the seeds of language and nurturing the love for Vietnamese on foreign soil.
Mikhail Osin: “I cannot imagine what life would be like without Vietnamese language.”
On an autumn afternoon in Moscow, in a small room of the Institute of Asian and African Studies at Moscow State University (MGU), third-year student Mikhail Osin was deeply engrossed in reading his favorite Vietnamese book, Southern Forest Land. “I chose to study Vietnamese not merely to learn another foreign language, but to understand a culture. It is the key that opens the door to the hearts of my dear Vietnamese friends,” said Mikhail Osin.
Nurturing Vietnamese in the RoK
At the land of kimchi, in Gyeongsangnam province, a Vietnamese language class has been maintained regularly. It is taught by Nguyen Thi Thanh Dung (35 years old, from Da Nang) - a Vietnamese woman married to a Korean man. For her, teaching Vietnamese is not only about passing on a language, but also about preserving the memories, culture, and love for the homeland in the hearts of Vietnamese-origin children.
“Vietnamese Class” in Small House in Yamagata
In Yamagata Prefecture, northern Japan, Pham Thi Huyen Trang continues to maintain a special class consisting of only three people: a mother and her two small children. Every day, she teaches her children to speak and write Vietnamese and tells them stories about their homeland. For her, it is not only about teaching and learning a language, but also about “planting seeds” of a Vietnamese origin in the souls of the young.
Promoting Vietnamese as Accessible and Friendly Language
This is the perspective shared by Dr. Tran Huu Tri, Head of the Faculty of Vietnamese and Southeast Asian Linguistics and Culture at the University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, regarding efforts to make Vietnamese a “bridge language” in the region and the world.
Overseas Vietnamese Mothers Preserve Mother Tongue
Dr. Tran Hong Van, a translator and interpreter at Western Sydney University and a member of the VietSpeech project, an initiative by Charles University aimed at enhancing language skills and preserving the mother tongue for Vietnamese children in Australia, once shared emotionally: “It is such a wonderful feeling to live abroad and hear my child say 'Me oi' (Mom).” For her, every time her daughter Ivy speaks Vietnamese, it brings an indescribable joy, a sacred bond between generations, and a connection to their roots.
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