Cambodian girl good at 3 foreign languages chooses to study university in Vietnam

On October 14, Mey Mey joined more than 5,700 new students attending the Opening Ceremony of the 2025-2026 school year at the Military Zone 7 Gymnasium. She "rocked" herself in the vibrant atmosphere of dozens of Vietnamese songs, like a real Vietnamese student.

Sharing about her journey of learning Vietnamese, Mey Mey said it only took her 9 months to be able to communicate naturally with native speakers. “I especially like Vietnamese because this language is very soft, full of emotions, and has interesting differences between the Northern and Southern accents,” Mey Mey said.

Before that, she had studied Chinese since the age of 7, currently achieved HSK5 and is studying multilingual interpretation between Chinese, Khmer, English and Vietnamese. With Vietnamese, the most difficult things for her are tones and spelling, especially the pairs “hoi – nga” or “g – d”, “i – y”. However, daily communication and studying Vietnamese helped her progress quickly.

“Every language has its own beauty and challenges. For me, learning a language is a way to understand more deeply the culture and people of that country,” she added.

Mey Mey aims to work in the fields of translation, communications and hosting, where she can use her rich foreign language skills to connect cultures. “I invest in both language and culture. That is also the reason Mey chose Vietnam for her university studies,” she shared.

Not only Mey Mey, this year Ho Chi Minh City Open University also welcomed nearly 100 international students from Myanmar, Philippines, Cambodia, Mexico, Mongolia, Laos, China and Fiji.

Among them, Phyu Sin Moe Aung (23 years old, Myanmar) - a new student of the high-quality Finance - Banking major - said that she had traveled to Vietnam and was impressed with the living and studying environment in Ho Chi Minh City. "I was surprised that there are many good quality international programs here. Now I am a Vietnamese student," Aung said with a smile. She currently has a Vietnamese language certificate level 4/6 and IELTS 7.5.

Blanche (France) – a student of the joint program in Business Administration – is excited to be in the same class with Vietnamese students. “My class is half French students, half Vietnamese students. The students here are very friendly and dynamic, I have also started to learn a few Vietnamese sentences to communicate,” Blanche shared.

Awarding 50 billion VND in scholarships to students

Speaking at the ceremony, Prof. Dr. Nguyen Minh Ha - Rector of Ho Chi Minh City Open University, said that in the 2025-2026 school year, the school will train 51 bachelor's programs, 12 master's programs and 8 doctoral programs, with a scale of more than 40,000 students, 1,187 graduate students and 154 researchers. The rate of students having jobs within 12 months after graduation is over 95%, of which nearly 83% work in the right major.

Prof. Dr. Nguyen Minh Ha - Principal of Ho Chi Minh City Open University awarded entrance scholarships to excellent new students

At the ceremony, Ho Chi Minh City Open University honored and awarded certificates of merit and scholarships to nearly 500 new students with excellent achievements in the 25th enrollment period with a total scholarship value of more than 50 billion VND.

Accordingly, the school awards special scholarships to the top students in the entire school (based on high school exam scores) with 200% support for first-year tuition and 100% tuition for the following school years.

The student receiving this scholarship is Doan Hoai Khanh Ly, a freshman majoring in Sociology, who scored 27.75 points in the 2025 high school graduation exam.

The second place winner of the entire school will also receive a scholarship equivalent to 180% of the first year tuition and 100% of the tuition for the following years. In addition, 19 valedictorians will receive full scholarships for all four years of study, with the first year receiving 150% of the tuition.

The school currently has 39 programs that have been accredited domestically and internationally, including 16 FIBAA programs (Europe), 4 AUN-QA programs (Southeast Asia) and 19 MOET programs. In international rankings, Ho Chi Minh City Open University is ranked in the Top 6 in Vietnam and in the 1201-1500 group in the world according to Times Higher Education 2026, and ranked 119th in Southeast Asia on the QS 2025 table.

On this occasion, the school also expressed gratitude to nearly 30 businesses and individuals who have accompanied the scholarship fund to support students, with a total contribution of nearly 1.5 billion VND.

Source: https://tienphong.vn/co-gai-campuchia-gioi-3-ngoai-ngu-chon-hoc-dai-hoc-o-viet-nam-post1787231.tpo