Two sets of books teaching Vietnamese to overseas Vietnamese

It has been more than 5 years since the last book of the two series Tiếng Việt Vui and Que Viet was published and taught experimentally in many countries.

Currently, the Ministry of Education and Training has assigned the Vietnam Education Publishing House to republish these two sets of books.

At this time, these are the first two sets of textbooks compiled by domestic experts to support the teaching of Vietnamese to Vietnamese people abroad, in the same direction as teaching a foreign language.

Professor Nguyen Minh Thuyet - editor of the book series Happy Vietnamese, and also the person in charge of building the program to teach Vietnamese to Vietnamese people abroad - said: Implementing the Government's project on supporting teaching Vietnamese to Vietnamese people abroad, with the deputy prime minister at that time, Mr. Pham Gia Khiem, as head of the steering committee, in 2005, we completed the construction of two programs.

One program is for teenagers from 9 to 18 years old and one program is for adults over 18 years old. After the program was evaluated, we compiled two sets of books, Happy Vietnamese and Vietnamese Homeland, starting in 2006 and completing them in 2010. Each set of books has 18 books, divided into 6 levels.

Each level includes a student book, a teacher book, and a workbook. In addition, some of the content of the two sets of books is also presented on CD.

Through practical training and feedback on teaching in other countries, we have revised the book series once. But until now, the book has been assigned to the Vietnam Education Publishing House to publish and distribute in the form of e-books and printed books for people and teachers participating in teaching Vietnamese abroad to access and use for free.

Professor Nguyen Minh Thuyet. Photo: Tuoi Tre.

- Could you please tell us what is different about the Happy Vietnamese and Vietnamese Homeland books compared to Vietnamese textbooks taught to students in the country?

- The target audience for these two sets of books are Vietnamese people living abroad. Among the teenagers aged 9-18 who study the Fun Vietnamese series, many were born and raised abroad and only know a little or no Vietnamese at all.

The number of Vietnamese people over 18 who learn Vietnamese are also those who cannot speak Vietnamese. Therefore, books compiled for these groups are similar to foreign language teaching books. Fun Vietnamese and Que Viet both focus on teaching communication, not grammar.

From the lessons to the system of exercises, all put learners into specific communication situations, thereby developing vocabulary and communication skills. Both sets of books are built according to specific topics and themes, close to the lives of the Vietnamese community at home and abroad.

- Is there any difficulty in compiling Vietnamese books for Vietnamese people abroad?

- The most difficult thing about Vietnamese for people who don't know Vietnamese is the tones. If in Vietnam, Vietnamese textbooks can teach all 6 tones at the same time, then for those studying abroad, they have to calculate carefully to give words with easy-to-pronounce tones first, difficult-to-pronounce tones later, with only 2 tones per lesson.

In addition, there is the complexity of Vietnamese forms of address. If other foreign language books all put the topic of getting acquainted first, the Vietnamese Fun series cannot do so. In the Vietnamese Fun series, we first teach a lesson about family. The second lesson teaches how to address people according to their positions in the family. From there, we expand on how to address people in society.

- Do the content and form of the two above-mentioned books aim to integrate the introduction of the country's image and arouse the feelings of overseas Vietnamese towards their homeland, sir?

- Vietnamese language books need to introduce Vietnamese landscapes, customs, economy and culture. Including familiar stories and images of Vietnam in books also suits the wishes of overseas Vietnamese.

However, to suit learners, especially children born abroad, when choosing communication situations to include in the book, we also consider how to make them not too unfamiliar to learners.

In addition, the book is a common document for Vietnamese communities in many different countries to use as a reference. Each Vietnamese community abroad has different characteristics, so we also choose to include in the book content and images that represent the common values ​​of Vietnamese people in all communities.

Two book series: Happy Vietnamese and Vietnamese Homeland. Photo: Tuoi Tre.

- In your opinion, what is the situation of teaching Vietnamese abroad? Are these two sets of books consistent in teaching Vietnamese people abroad?

- The program and book compilation team was assigned to conduct surveys in several countries such as the US, France, Thailand...

Later, we also had teacher training courses in Eastern European countries, the US, Thailand and Laos. Most of the teaching of Vietnamese to overseas Vietnamese is done by non-professional teachers.

Many teachers are not trained in pedagogy nor are they trained to teach Vietnamese. Teaching materials are mainly self-collected. Some teachers bring Vietnamese textbooks to teach primary school students in the country, which is not effective.

When Tiếng Việt Vui and Que Viet were compiled, the project printed more than 1,000 copies, mainly distributed to Vietnamese teachers from other countries who came to Vietnam for training. After that, many people used photocopies or took pictures of the books and put them on CDs as teaching materials.

Teaching conditions in each Vietnamese community in each country are different, so the two sets of books above are only documents for teachers to refer to, flexibly use, or to compile official documents for teaching.

The Ministry of Education and Training assigned the Vietnam Education Publishing House to perform the tasks of editing, designing, publishing, creating files to put on the Internet, printing and publishing two sets of books, Tieng Viet vui and Que Viet. Specifically, Tieng Viet vui printed 437 sets with 2,622 books and 2,622 workbooks, Que Viet printed 387 sets with 2,322 books and 2,322 workbooks.

In addition, the Ministry of Education and Training also assigned the Vietnam Education Publishing House to print books to serve the training of Vietnamese language teachers for overseas Vietnamese until 2020.

Vietnam Education Publishing House is responsible for handing over the soft copies of the two edited books Tieng Viet Vui and Que Viet to the ministry office to post on the website http//www.moet.gov.vn. Total implementation cost: 1,639,098,903 VND.

According to Zing.vn