Viet kieu try to hold onto mother tongue

VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnamese living overseas have special needs learning their language; thus one set of teaching materials is inadequate, according to Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Nguyen The Son.

Overseas Vietnamese study Vietnamese at Ha Noi University. Many Vietnamese communities in foreign countries want their offspring to speak Vietnamese to pass on the traditions of the home country.

Speaking at a workshop - reviewing the project on supporting overseas Vietnamese in teaching and learning the Vietnamese language - which was held by the Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) yesterday in Ha Noi, he also noted that books for those in the US needed to be more practical and focus on context and dialogues rather than grammar.

By providing material and teachers, the project aims to meet the increasing demand among overseas Vietnamese for learning their mother tongue, particularly among the third and fourth generations.

The National Institute for Education Strategy and Curriculum Development (NIESAC) has released two learning packages named Tieng Viet Vui (Play with Vietnamese Language) for young people and Que Viet (Viet homeland) for adults.

Each kit comprises student books, teacher books and work books at beginner and intermediate levels, and are accompanied by CDs, water puppets and pictures of landscapes and traditional scenes.

Books at A level compiled by scholars from universities, MoET and NIESAC were piloted in the US, France and Thailand.

The programme was initiated by observing that Vietnamese communities in foreign countries want their offspring to speak Vietnamese in order to pass on the traditions of the home country, said Tran Ba Viet Dung, the project’s director.

Dung went on to report that Marina Middle School in San Francisco had agreed to give room for teaching Vietnamese while the City College of San Francisco was considering the possibility of introducing Vietnamese language into the school’s curriculum.

The headmaster of Jean La Fontaine High school in France meanwhile wanted to set up an international Vietnamese section.

However, according to the Foreign Affairs Minister, Vietnamese living in Leipzig, Germany, said the books were too difficult for them to learn themselves.

About 150kg of books have been sent to Vietnamese teaching centres in the Thai provinces of Nakhon Phanom and Nong Khai. Books were also sent to many countries via Vietnamese embassies in Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Japan.

Based on the hard copies, Viet Nam Television’s VTV4 and the Voice of Viet Nam (VOV) have been running Vietnamese teaching programmes since the second quarter this year.

“Unfortunately, the fact that the audio and video programmes don’t match students’ books makes it hard for learners to follow,” said Professor Nguyen Minh Thuyet, one of the book’s writers.

Advanced level books and an e-learning programme are planned to be launched next year.

The project’s steering committee has suggested that teachers be sent to teach the language in Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, the US and some Eastern European countries.

They have also set targets to publish more bilingual books in French, Russian, German and Laotian.

The project is expected to continue till 2010.

There are about 3.5 million Vietnamese living in more than 90 countries and territories across the world, some for four or five generations since 1940s.

(Source: Viet Nam News)

Update from: http://english.vietnamnet.vn//education/2008/12/817946/