Vietnamese brides teaching mother tongue language

According to statistics, Taiwan (China) is home to around 100,000 Vietnamese brides whose children number 200,000. Vietnamese women are very keen on teaching their mother language to children. Local authorities are also placing importance on Vietnamese language training for younger generations of Vietnamese brides.

Mother – first teacher of Vietnamese language

Nguyen Thi Lien Huong, a Vietnamese language and culture lecturer of Taiwan University, has taken part in the “New Immigrant Torch” programme for seven years.

Huong married a Taiwanese man, and has three children who are taught Vietnamese language by their mother.

She said her children are learning to speak Vietnamese and her husband, Ngo Chi Vi, has spent years studying Vietnamese language and traditional culture. “We often talk in Vietnamese so that our children can learn Vietnamese daily,” Huong shared.

Nguyen Thi Lien Huong

Huong’s children stay proactive in joining exchange programmes organised by the Vietnamese community in Taipei (Taiwan) to improve their Vietnamese language skills.

“My children have participated in an exchange programme with famous singers Ho Ngoc Ha and Cao Thai Son. Many Vietnamese-Taiwanese young people attended a ceremony to welcome the 2014 lunar New Year in Taipei. Their traditional costumes, music and dance performance received great applause from audiences,” she elaborated.

Huong considers music and literature effective channels for younger Vietnamese generations in Taiwan to learn Vietnamese language. “When I was pregnant I sang Vietnamese folksongs to my would-be babies. I also told Vietnamese legends and fairy tales to my little children,” she confided.

Huong’s children performed at the 2014 lunar New Year celebration

Tran Lam Phung, who is teaching her native language to Vietnamese expatriates in Taiwan, said she moved to Taiwan in 2000 to marry a Taiwanese man. She has two children. Phung is working at a primary school and teaching Vietnamese for kids and students in Kaohsiung and Tainan cities.

Phung said many Vietnamese women voluntarily teach Vietnamese for “F2” generations of Vietnamese-Taiwanese families.

“Parents are encouraged to take their children to free-of-charge Vietnamese teaching centres. Younger generations will play an important role in strengthening Vietnam-Taiwan relations and make contributions to their homeland,” she added.

Vietnamese fairy tales are translated into Taiwanese for bi-lingual publications

Positive impact by “New Immigrant Torch”

Since 2012, the Vietnam Ministry of Education and Training has cooperated with the Taiwan Immigration Department to implement the “New Immigrant Torch” programme, targeting younger generations of overseas Vietnamese which provided an excellent opportunity for them to study their mother tongue language.

As a member of a group compiling Vietnamese teaching programme, Nguyen Thi Lien Huong, said expatriates have many textbooks to study Vietnamese. These textbooks include  chapters introducing Vietnam and Taiwan, as well as bilateral ties. Most Vietnamese language teachers are Vietnamese women who are working or residing in Taiwan, she added.

Many young people want to study Vietnamese

Huong said all Vietnamese students are provided with free-of-charge courses. “It’s my honour to teach my mother language to younger generations of overseas Vietnamese in Taiwan.  The “New Immigrant Torch” programme offers Vietnamese brides in Taiwan a chance to teach their native language and introduce Vietnam’s traditional culture,” she said.

Bridge linking to homeland

Bui Trong Van, Chief of the Vietnam Culture and Economics Office in Taipei, said Taiwan has offered many incentives for Vietnamese brides and their children to improve their lives and integrate into their current residence country.

Vietnamese now becomes one of the key foreign languages taught in Taiwan-based universities, which attaches importance to developing the “New Immigrant Torch” programme to popularise the Vietnamese language. All Vietnamese brides wish their children can speak their mother tongue, he added.

Bui Trong Van

“There are many advantages for students in Taiwan to study Vietnamese, it is another foreign language besides English at tertiary level and will help them seek jobs more easily after graduation. Mother language will help Vietnamese younger generations in Taiwan to get closer to their home country”, Van noted.

At present, approximately 20 universities in Taiwan teach Vietnamese as the second foreign language, while around 10 high schools teach Vietnam as the first foreign language.