Overview of the seminar (Photo: quehuongonline.vn)
Speaking at the event, Mr. Nguyen Cong Hinh, Head of the Continuing Education Department under the MOET, said that the seminar aimed to listen to overseas Vietnamese’s opinions reflecting on the reality of teaching the mother tongue to overseas Vietnamese; and exchange solutions to further improve the effectiveness of teaching Vietnamese language to overseas Vietnamese.
The situation shows that the number of Vietnamese people in foreign countries is very large and they want to preserve Vietnamese language for future generations.
In some communities, teaching and learning Vietnamese language is well organized. However, it is a difficult thing for some other communities because they lack teachers, materials as well as investment, and awareness of learning Vietnamese is limited.
The Government of Vietnam attaches great importance to Vietnamese language teaching to overseas Vietnamese in order to preserve the national identity, solve disagreements and inadequacies in lives of overseas Vietnamese in host countries.
Over the past years, Vietnam has approved three projects, including two sets of books “Tieng Viet vui”, “Que Viet” and Vietnamese teaching programs on television, which has been broadcast for several years. The books are common materials for the overseas Vietnamese community.
The Prime Minister has also approved an Online Vietnamese Teaching Project and a portal will be built to help overseas Vietnamese learn Vietnamese language at any time and place.
Mr. Luong Thanh Nghi, Deputy Head of SCOV, said that teaching and learning Vietnamese language has long been an essential need of overseas Vietnamese communities. Due to objective and subjective conditions, Vietnamese teaching and learning takes place at different levels and with different effectiveness, depending on each locality. It is more favorable in countries where the Vietnamese language is recognized and respected.
According to preliminary statistics of the SCOV, there are about 200 Vietnamese teaching centres/facilities in the US; 39 Vietnamese teaching classes in Thailand; 33 Vietnamese teaching schools in Cambodia; and 13 Vietnamese teaching schools/centers in Laos. In addition, there are dozens of Vietnamese teaching centres in France, Germany, Czech and Russia. However, these institutions are usually small, spontaneous, lack regular funding and adequate facilities, and have only a small number of students./.