Last post: The Mong people still love their writing

(Baonghean) - The Mong people in Nghe An have long used their ethnic writing as a means of communication. After a period of restriction, this writing is widely used again in the Mong ethnic community...

Mong language class at Ky Son District Continuing Education Center.

In recent years, every summer, the Ky Son District Continuing Education Center opens a Mong writing training class. The participants are Mong teachers who have learned their own ethnic language to improve their reading and writing skills. There are also those who have never learned Mong and are usually young teachers, even Kinh, Thai or Khmu teachers who learn Mong language and Mong script to communicate better with students and parents in Mong villages. This year's Mong writing training course is divided into 2 classes. The advanced class has students who are mainly Mong people who have learned their own ethnic language, the second class is teachers who teach in Mong areas to both learn the language and the script. Teacher Vi Thi Luan, Thai but has worked in the Mong area of ​​Nam Can commune for 20 years. She is the link between teachers and the village community. “Knowing the Mong language will help me understand their culture better,” said teacher Luan. As for teacher Tran Danh Hanh, a teacher at Huoi Tu Primary School, learning the Mong language will help him do his job more easily.

According to Mr. Le Van Hoa's instructions, the Mong script is still widely used in the Mong community, especially in the communes of Huoi Tu, Muong Long, Nam Can... We went to Trung Tam village, Huoi Tu commune to learn about the Mong script learning movement. Many Mong people here now go to university and college; many are teachers, doctors, soldiers, police... they still love the writing of their ethnic group. Vu Y Pa is one of those people. She is currently a medical student, still using the Mong script every day. Although she did not have a day to study the Mong script because when she was a student, this script was not taught, but through learning from her seniors, Y Pa was able to read and write the Mong script fluently. Vu Ba Cong, 28 years old, is proud because he still keeps the letters in the Mong script written to his wife when she was away studying and always considers them sacred mementos of the couple. Nowadays, many young people in Trung Tam village also go to school but no longer write letters to each other, instead they send their feelings through text messages. The Mong script is not as difficult to learn as the Thai script and uses Latin letters so they can text and type without having to install special software.

Because many people in the Mong community understand their own writing, there are some propaganda banners that the Ky Son district government uses both Vietnamese and Mong. In some villages of Huoi Tu commune, we still see banners along the road calling for: "Our Mong people do not illegally migrate to Laos" written in Mong. Mr. Denh Ba Long, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Huoi Tu commune, led us to visit these banners and said: People are very proud that their writing is still preserved and that the government is interested in preserving the writing as well as the cultural identity of the Mong people.

Then Mr. Denh Ba Long introduced us to visit his cousin, Mr. Denh Chenh Cong, in Huoi Kha village, one of the first people in the village to know how to write Mong. He is nearly 40 years old this year, and has been able to read Mong for over 30 years. At that time, learning Mong was still limited, so during a visit to Laos to visit relatives, he learned Mong here. For a long time, he wrote down songs and folk songs of his people in a small notebook, including a few poems he composed himself. Having lost his parents at an early age, the topic of orphanage has always been what he loved to write about the most. He read us the poem "Orphaned Tet" and then translated it with sad, melancholy sentences. He said: The poem is sad but it always reminds him of his parents' hard work, which makes him more attached to his loved ones and relatives!

According to Mr. Denh Ba Long, in addition to Mr. Chinh Cong, in the Mong villages in Huoi Tu, there are many other people who use Mong script to record folk songs, poems, and even make deals in social relationships. There are families that used to have conflicts with each other, but then their children fell in love and wanted to become husband and wife. Before the wedding, the two families had to make a deal to put aside their conflicts and become in-laws.

However, according to our research, there are currently 2 types of Mong script being used by the people in Ky Son district. The most widely used is the Mong script created by Protestant groups, which people call the International Mong script. Another script is the Mong - Vietnam script, which originated from the Mong people in Lao Cai, and is being taught to students as well as teachers and armed forces officers throughout the province.

You Wei