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Vietnam trys to preserve ethnic minority's languages
Vietnam trys to preserve ethnic minority's languages
9/6/18
Vietnamese Party and State have done many projects
to preserve and develop ethnic languages which is also work to protect ethnic
peoples’ rights.
In Vietnam, Tay is the mother tongue of nearly 2
million people and a second language for many other ethnic minority people in
Vietnam’s northwestern region. The language is starting to be displaced by
Vietnamese, and many Tay people are finding it harder to use their mother
tongue.
Some universities have introduced the Tay language
into their curricula in an effort to preserve the traditional Tay culture.
Dam Thi Tam, a teacher of ethnic minority cultures
at Thai Nguyen University of Sciences, said: “It’s extremely important for the
students because, first, it will help them adapt to life in Tay or Nung ethnic
areas when they go there on fact-finding trips. Second, it will facilitate
their work in those regions after graduation.”
She said the students study writing and speaking
skills and the customs of the Tay people.
Tam, who helped write a Tay language textbook and
has taught the Tay language for years, elaborated: “Each lesson in the book focuses
on a custom of the Tay people. Linguistics is combined with the group’s
culture. For example, in one lesson we introduce Tay dishes, their ways of
eating and drinking, and their food for ordinary needs as well as festivals and
holidays.”
Hoang Thi Thuy, a Kinh student, is new to the
language. She said: “This is the first time I’ve studied Tay, a tongue I have
never heard. At first I had difficulties with the pronunciation and meaning of
the words. With my teachers’ help, the subject has become easier. Now I can
write and speak Tay.”
Including the Tay language in university curricula
is one way to help the Tay preserve their culture.
The Mekong Delta province of Tra Vinh has spent over
2 billion VND (88,000 USD) each year to support the teaching and studying of
the language of the Khmer ethnic minority group in 134 Khmer pagodas across the
locality in the 2010-2017 period.
According to the provincial Department of Education and Training, the investment is part of the province’s efforts to realise the Government’s Decree 82/2010/ND-CP dated July 15, 2010 on policies on teaching and studying of languages of ethnic minority groups.
Pagodas in Tra Vinh welcome about 2,000 school students who come to learn to read and write Khmer language in every summer. Nearly 200 teachers and monks are now paid to teach the students.
Tra Vinh currently has 8 boarding schools for ethnic students, along with 121 primary and secondary schools and 8 Pali-Khmer schools that teach Khmer language with about total 19,000 students.
The province has delivered 123,000 textbooks to students at total cost of 1.5 billion VND, while presenting 7,700 scholarships to ethnic students.
Tra Vinh has sent 307 students to educational facilities for training, while focusing on improving capacity of management officials.
The locality now has 2,200 Khmer officials and teachers, of whom 126 are taking post-graduate courses./.
According to the provincial Department of Education and Training, the investment is part of the province’s efforts to realise the Government’s Decree 82/2010/ND-CP dated July 15, 2010 on policies on teaching and studying of languages of ethnic minority groups.
Pagodas in Tra Vinh welcome about 2,000 school students who come to learn to read and write Khmer language in every summer. Nearly 200 teachers and monks are now paid to teach the students.
Tra Vinh currently has 8 boarding schools for ethnic students, along with 121 primary and secondary schools and 8 Pali-Khmer schools that teach Khmer language with about total 19,000 students.
The province has delivered 123,000 textbooks to students at total cost of 1.5 billion VND, while presenting 7,700 scholarships to ethnic students.
Tra Vinh has sent 307 students to educational facilities for training, while focusing on improving capacity of management officials.
The locality now has 2,200 Khmer officials and teachers, of whom 126 are taking post-graduate courses./.
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All comments [ 20 ]
The protection of cultural and language diversity has become an urgent task in the context of industrialisation, modernisation and international integration.
We should call on ministries, agencies and organisations to coordinate with each other in communications work in order to raise public awareness of preserving and upholding cultural values of ethnic minority groups.
Vietnam is home to many ethnic minority groups, each with a different languages. Linguists say unless effective measures are taken, ethnic languages will die out.
The audio library provides users with information concerning the origin of the language, the pronunciation, and even recorded folk verses and songs of that ethnic group. Recordings of 11 minority languages with very few speakers such as the Odu, the Ruc, the Arem, the Ma Lieng are also available.
It's spectacular that 27 out of 53 ethnic minority groups in Vietnam have their own scripts.
As many as 20 cities and provinces nationwide have organised ethnic minority language courses, while many others have added ethnic minority languages in school curriculum.
Mong, Ede, Jrai, Bahnar, Cham and Khmer languages were first taught at school in the 2010-2011 academic year, with 740 schools, 4,789 classes and 110,862 students. The teaching was then expanded.
The government plans to approve many projects to help the country’s minority groups protect their own culture and customs in the future.
Vietnam is a multi-ethnic country with 54 distinct groups, each with its own language, lifestyle, and cultural heritage.
One of the critical tasks of Viet Nam linguistics was to ensure the clarity of the Vietnamese language and create the best conditions for it to fully develop.
more attention should be paid to preserving the diversity of ethnic minority's languages and enabling them to be used both orally and in the written form.
Viet Nam had set out good measures in mother-tongue education but more needs to be put in place, especially ethnic minority's languages.
Bilingual education is a highly effective method to strengthen the use of both the native and national language amongst ethnic minorities.
It was also essential that the government carry out more practical steps in ethnic language education so that the ethnic people recognise the government's efforts to preserve their native language and that Viet Nam was a country of language diversity.
Teacher training, curriculum design and pilot schemes were critically important and should be considered before the bilingual programme is put into practice.
While knowing the national language is essential, it is also very important to make locals fully aware of the importance of learning their mother tongue. More attention needs to be paid to this problem.
The better they understand the culture of a language, the more their understanding of the language itself will improve.
Localities in the Central Highlands region have taken many measures to preserve and uphold the languages of ethnic minority groups, such as Ede, M’nong, K’ho, Ma, Churu, Bana and J’rai. According to the Steering Committee for the Central Highlands, the localities have worked closely with relevant agencies to compile five different Vietnamese-ethnic minority language dictionaries.
The writing and speaking of ethnic languages is also being taught in primary and boarding schools in the areas where many people from ethnic groups live.
Documentaries and 3D books will be developed, each featuring the cultural identities, livelihoods and development of all 54 ethnic groups across the nation.
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