The young man created a website and fanpage to spread Nghe An language.

Preserving and spreading Nghe An culture

Type the keyword “Nghe” in the Google search engine, and a series of website results, fanpages, YouTube channels… will appear, among which, the “channels” founded by Dang Duc Loc stand out. Born and raised in the land of Nghe An with the scorching Lao wind, for more than ten years now, Loc has lived and worked in Ho Chi Minh City. Talking to Loc, if you are not careful, you can easily mistake this young man for a genuine Southerner, because of his thick “Saigon brother” accent.

“I can speak with a standard Southern accent to facilitate communication with outsiders at work; but with relatives and fellow countrymen, or when I return to my hometown, I always use my native language. Because I think that with people from the same hometown, using my native language will express my emotions more clearly and honestly” - Dang Duc Loc shared.

Dang Duc Loc - founder of Nghe An channels on social networks. Photo: NVCC

Living far from home but always missing his hometown, besides regularly updating local news, Loc also participates in groups of fellow countrymen on social networks; in early 2019, Loc was a member of a group called "Nghe Ngu Club". There, Dang Duc Loc was happy to meet many Nghe people far from home, the common point of them is the love of Nghe dialect. They shared with each other poems, essays, stories, old and new sayings in the beloved Nghe dialect.

Loc confided: “I still clearly remember the feeling of excitement when I first joined this “only Nghe An accent” group. At that moment, I felt like I was “reviving” in the close, warm atmosphere of hometown love - something that after more than 10 years living in the Southern city, I thought I had forgotten.”

However, after a while, the group “Nghe Ngu Club” with more than 100,000 members was hacked and renamed. Regretting the loss of a healthy forum connecting with fellow countrymen, the young man came up with the idea of ​​building a website, a fanpage and other channels such as Youtube, Twitter to preserve the intangible values ​​of Nghe language - which are easily “lost” on social networks.

Loc said that when he established the “Nghe Tieng” channels, he had no other wish than to connect the people of Nghe An, to preserve and spread the Nghe language. The young man was concerned about the reality that the Nghe language seemed to be gradually fading away, young people who left their hometowns to make a living rarely, or even did not speak Nghe language anymore, and the elderly who followed their children and grandchildren abroad also gradually “popularized” their language. Furthermore, Dang Duc Loc hoped that through the “Nghe Tieng” channels, he could introduce more about the land and people of his homeland to residents from other provinces.

On the “Nghe An” channels, it is easy to see the diversity in content. In addition to Nghe poems, Loc is also particularly creative in “catching the trend” of social network users. Such as “Top 50 flirting sentences in Nghe An”, “Top 8 basic Nghe An sentences for people from other provinces”, and “Learn Ha Tinh quickly”… Not only the language, Loc also posts content about Nghe culture and cuisine, such as “3 ways to preserve shallots from spoiling of Nghe An people”, “How to cook fish braised with turmeric leaves in the standard Nghe taste”… which attracts many visitors.

Nghe Tieng website interface founded by Dang Duc Loc. Screenshot.

Connecting hometown love

“Honestly, when I started, I didn’t have a clear plan for the development of the “Nghe Tieng” channels. I just started with an emotion, a thrill, a stirring when reading and listening to the voice of my hometown” - Loc confided. There was even a time when, because of personal work, Dang Duc Loc had to “neglect” that plan, but then, it seemed like “the Nghe accent came back on its own”, Loc felt he couldn’t leave “Nghe Tieng” unfinished anymore. So Loc spent more time on the “Nghe Tieng” channels, focusing on collecting, writing, taking photos, interviewing and sharing with those who were interested.

In addition to the self-motivation from love for his homeland, the affection of Nghe people far from home has given Dang Duc Loc more motivation on his journey to preserve and spread the beloved Nghe language. Loc said that in the past year, he has received many messages and emails exchanging about Nghe language. What is special is that in addition to Nghe people living in his homeland, there are also many Nghe people far from home in Europe, America, Russia, Germany, Japan... who have sent messages to ask about their hometown. For example, an uncle currently living in Russia confided that "it has been a long time since I heard my hometown language. Moreover, on here, I also encountered images from my childhood such as "cay cuoi", "chac mui", "doi nhut mit"... which are very touching". Or an uncle from Hue, for each Nghe language article posted, he sent a message: "I understand and can translate everything, because Nghe and Hue languages ​​are similar". But one day, he texted back saying, "I give up on this Nghe An poem. Nghe An is so beautiful and rich."

Nghe dialect is simple and rich, reflecting the character and people of Nghe An. Illustration photo: Quoc Dan

In addition, there are some young readers in many provinces and cities who message, ask for… Nghe An translation, or ask to learn Nghe An to understand words like “man du”, “lay gậy”… because they have a lover, or wife/husband who is from Nghe An. More happily, on the Fanpage “Nghe An”, many young Nghe An people have tagged their friends and lovers to ask, exchange, and connect…

From the “Nghe Tieng” channels, Dang Duc Loc also had more joy when connecting with authors who wrote poems in Nghe dialect. Loc shared: “I had the opportunity to chat with Mr. Thinh Lai (in Vinh City, Nghe An), a very good author of Nghe dialect poetry. When I asked why he wrote poems in Nghe dialect, he replied: “Our hometown dialect is friendly and expresses exactly what I want to say. For example, when writing a poem with the image of my father getting up to plow, my mother cooking a pot of sweet potatoes to eat with eggplant, perhaps only Nghe dialect can speak for me, helping me relive a distant time.”

“The more I learn about Nghe dialect, the more I see hidden within it the personality, life, and image of the people of Nghe. In some cases, only by using Nghe dialect can I find it pleasing to the ear and rich to the ear” - Dang Duc Loc shared more. The richness in the language and personality of the Nghe people is clearly evident in Loc, further affirming his determination to preserve and spread a cultural aspect of Nghe to all directions…