On the occasion of the one-year implementation of the project of Vietnamese Language Honor Day in the Vietnamese community abroad, VNA reporter in China had a conversation with Ms. Nguyen Thi Lien Huong, lecturer of Vietnamese language at Taiwan University (China).
She is also the author and co-author of more than 17 books on Vietnamese language and culture published in Taiwan and the US, for ages from elementary school to graduate students; edited and published 2 Poker decks that can be played while learning Vietnamese and a book of 300 Chinese-Vietnamese idioms...
Ms. Nguyen Thi Lien Huong shared that in 2008, when she started teaching at Taiwan University, very few people knew about Vietnam. The majority of Vietnamese people in Taiwan at that time were labor export workers and married women. However, up to now, in addition to the two main groups above, the number of Vietnamese students studying here ranks first among international students on this island.
Ms. Lien Huong recalls that 16 years ago, when Taiwan University opened a Vietnamese class, each class had only 3-4 students, finding teaching materials for students was difficult. After 3-4 years of teaching, Ms. Lien Huong thought she had to compile her own materials because using domestic materials was not suitable for students. At that time, although she did not know what the future would be, she still had the intention of writing a Vietnamese textbook.
Do từng có nhiều năm làm nghiên cứu tại Viện Trung Quốc thuộc Viện Hàn Lâm Khoa học Xã hội Việt Nam nên cô Liên Hương rất thích viết sách và đứng từ góc độ không phải dân chuyên ngôn ngữ, cô lại có thể tìm ra cách viết để học sinh dễ hiểu hơn. Trong quá trình viết sách, cô cũng học hỏi được rất nhiều kinh nghiệm từ các thầy cô ở Khoa Việt Nam học và tiếng Việt – Trường Đại học Khoa học Xã hội và Nhân văn, mỗi lần có dịp về Việt Nam cô cũng đến thư viện ở Viện Ngôn ngữ học để tìm hiểu thêm cách viết, cách tiếp cận sao cho sinh viên tại Đài Loan, Trung Quốc đại lục, Hong Kong, người Hoa ở khắp nơi trên world và các bạn sinh viên đến Đài Loan học trao đổi ngôn ngữ đều có thể tiếp cận.
About 8 years later, Ms. Lien Huong's first Vietnamese textbook was published. The Vietnamese book market in Taiwan at that time was probably too rare, so after a week of publication, her textbook was ranked first on the list of best-selling foreign language books for Taiwanese people. What surprised her was that at that time, the main foreign languages in Taiwan were still English and Japanese, but Vietnamese books were so well received, and that was one of the motivations for her to continuously publish the next books. A friend in Taiwan jokingly called her a "book goddess" because of her passion for writing. Her books (including those as a co-author) are aimed at many audiences, from elementary school students to graduate students, to those who want to learn about the treasure trove of fables, literary works, or 100 questions about Vietnam, to even Chinese-Vietnamese idioms...
Ms. Lien Huong shared that the more Taiwanese people do not understand Vietnam, the more she wants to make them understand, not only about the culture and customs but also about modern Vietnam. She feels that writing books is her mission, since she was young she learned diligence from her parents who are also researchers. Every time she comes to the final editing stage, Ms. Lien Huong writes in her notebook that she will finish writing this time, but every time she breaks her promise to herself because when she sees a certain area that Taiwanese people do not understand about Vietnam, which she has not mentioned, she is urged to write again. Ms. Lien Huong shared that the biggest difficulty in the process of writing books is having to overcome health problems, and having to sacrifice some time for her family and herself.
Ms. Lien Huong said that in 16 years of teaching Vietnamese, she has not only taught the language to Taiwanese people and Taiwanese students, but also to students from other countries who come to Taiwan for exchange, most of whom are of the F2 generation.
Năm 2012, Đài Loan thực hiện chương trình phát triển tiếng Việt, cụ thể là kế hoạch “Ngọn Đuốc” tức là đưa tiếng Việt và một số ngôn ngữ Đông Nam Á vào giảng dạy ở các trường nơi có đông di dân, ví dụ như thành phố Tân Bắc và một số huyện thị. Sau khi đưa vào giảng dạy thí điểm ở những nơi này, chính quyền Đài Loan cũng tăng cường thêm giáo trình và kêu gọi cộng đồng người Việt tham gia đội ngũ giảng viên giảng dạy tiếng Việt. Năm 2019, cơ quan education Đài Loan chính thức đưa tiếng Việt thành tiếng mẹ đẻ ở cấp 1 cùng 7 ngoại ngữ khác, theo đó tính cả ở cấp 2 và cấp 3, theo con số thống kê chưa đầy đủ, số lượng giáo viên phải đến gần 2.000 người và cô Liên Hương cũng tham gia công tác bồi dưỡng cho giáo viên ở các huyện, thị theo chương trình 72 giờ. Nhiều trong số giáo viên đó là các chị em kết hôn với người Đài Loan. Khi chính quyền Đài Loan công nhận tiếng Việt cũng như 6 loại ngôn ngữ Đông Nam Á khác thì phong trào giảng dạy tiếng Việt trong các trường sôi động rõ rệt.
According to incomplete statistics, there are currently more than 40 universities in Taiwan teaching Vietnamese. More and more businesses are investing or banks are opening in Vietnam. There are 15 to 16 countries such as Norway, Finland, Australia, South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Brazil, China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, etc. that have exchange students at Taiwanese universities, including a group of F2 generation students who come to Taiwan to study Vietnamese.
In addition, as more and more Taiwanese traders enter Vietnam, the need to learn Vietnamese also increases.
Because the number of Vietnamese learners is increasing, while the Vietnamese curriculum is not as rich as other foreign languages, although teachers in the country have made great efforts. For that reason, Ms. Lien Huong wants to write books even more. She wants to target students from the F2 generation, who account for 30% to 50% of the students in Vietnamese classes at the universities where she teaches.
In addition to her main job as a teacher, Ms. Lien Huong also works as an editor for the Vietnamese News Department of Taiwan's PTS radio station and participates in the Forum for Preserving Vietnamese Language Abroad. Many students, who were indifferent to their mother tongue, after talking to her, have more motivation and confidence in learning their mother tongue.
The feedback from students has also motivated her to love her job more. A small example but made Ms. Lien Huong very happy when a student of the F2 generation, after a few months of studying Vietnamese, replaced the word "go" with the word "return" to Vietnam to visit his grandparents or Travel. Even though it was just a small thing, she somehow felt moved and touched when thinking about her mission. There was a friend who, from not knowing anything about Vietnamese, after 2 years of studying, was able to write a letter to her mother, and her mother cried and was moved when she read the letter. Or when she heard an American student passionately singing a Vietnamese folk song, she felt very happy because when he first came to class, he could only say the words "hello", "thank you"... Small things like that gave her more motivation.
Ms. Lien Huong shared that she only has the simple wish to continue writing, in parallel with doing the work of spreading Vietnamese, focusing on writing the intermediate Vietnamese 2 textbook that she is coordinating with another teacher.
She hopes to continue to have many opportunities to meet and teach many F2 generation students in Taiwan, as well as students from the Faculty of Law, Faculty of Medicine, Faculty of Social Work, etc. - those who will have a lot of contact with the Vietnamese immigrant community in Taiwan in the future and Taiwanese people who will come to Vietnam to work in the future. In addition, she also wants to share these experiences with teachers not only in Taiwan but also in other places in the world. That is the reason why she joined the Forum for Preserving Vietnamese Language Abroad to be able to share more of her own experiences.
As the Vietnamese community in Taiwan grows, more and more Taiwanese people want to learn about and travel to Vietnam, want to invest in Vietnam, want to interact with Vietnam in all aspects, so more and more people are learning Vietnamese.
Currently, there are 272.000 workers, about 120.000 women married to Taiwanese people and more than 27.000 Vietnamese students living, studying and working in Taiwan.
Baotintuc.vn
Source: https://baotintuc.vn/nguoi-viet-4-phuong/nguoi-truyen-lua-cho-tinh-yeu-tieng-viet-tai-dai-loan-trung-quoc-20240909125148374.htm
