Igniting a passion for the Tay language in highland students.

Driven by the desire for the younger generation to continue preserving and promoting the cultural beauty of her ethnic group, for many years, Ms. Duong Thi Ben (born in 1982), a History and Geography teacher at Van Son Secondary School (Bac Ninh), has diligently taught the Tay language to her students.

The journey of spreading the voice of our roots.

Upon arriving in Van Son commune, many are surprised to hear the sound of Tay language lessons being read aloud from a special classroom at Van Son Secondary School. This is a class taught by teacher Duong Thi Ben herself, where the love for their mother tongue is instilled from the teacher's heart into the young minds of the students.

Ms. Ben was born and raised in Ga village, a village with a large Tay ethnic minority population. From a young age, she was deeply imbued with the cultural values ​​of her people. She realized that every song, every melody, every folk tale of the Tay people contained life experiences, labor knowledge, health preservation skills, and profound concepts of love for humanity, homeland, and country.

With a dream of becoming a teacher, she had to travel nearly ten kilometers to attend the District Ethnic Boarding School. In 2001, she passed the entrance exam to the History Education Department at Ngo Gia Tu College in Bac Giang (now Bac Giang College). After graduating, she returned to teach at An Lac Secondary School in the former Son Dong district. In 2011, Ms. Ben transferred to Van Son Secondary School.

Ms. Ben was deeply concerned that the voice of her people was fading away.

As a member of the Tay ethnic group, Ms. Ben has always been deeply concerned about the gradual decline of her mother tongue. She has noticed that most students, even young and middle-aged people, no longer use the Tay language in their daily communication. Driven by this concern, she longs to teach the Tay language to children, so that the language of her ancestors can be preserved and developed.

Starting with simple tasks, Ms. Ben diligently wrote down the words she knew, learning more through communication with relatives. What's remarkable is that from her parents' family to her husband's family, everyone is Tay and always speaks Tay. Thanks to this, her knowledge of the local language improved daily. This is rare in modern society, where many young families no longer maintain this tradition.

With a desire to spread love for her ethnic language, Ms. Ben initially taught the Tay language to her relatives. After only a short time, the children could converse fluently in Tay. Seeing this, many families in the village sent their children to learn.

Her free Tay language classes are growing in popularity, attracting young people with a passion for traditional culture. In her small house in Phe village, Van Son commune, for nearly five years now, maintaining tradition, she always wears traditional clothing when teaching the Tay language to young children.

Ms. Ben diligently teaches the Tay language to her students.

Starting from the 2023-2024 school year, the Tay language has been officially included in the local education curriculum at Van Son Secondary School. This has further motivated Ms. Ben and her students.

Mr. Pham Van Si, the school principal, added that the school has established a Tay language preservation and development club with 30 members including staff, teachers, and students. Ms. Ben has been entrusted with the responsibility of teaching the Tay language to the club.

To enhance the effectiveness of her teaching, in addition to printed materials, she meticulously compiled electronic lectures with illustrative images and videos . With her engaging voice, she inspired and guided her students to enthusiastically learn pronunciation, listening, and speaking skills on various topics. Through this, she not only taught the language but also introduced the history and culture of the Tay ethnic group, closely linked to the lives of the people in Van Son.

Preserving and promoting the beauty of traditional culture.

Not content with just teaching, Ms. Ben also embarked on a challenging journey of collecting and compiling teaching materials. Initially, she created a simple, easy-to-learn, and easy-to-remember textbook covering basic topics such as greetings, counting, forms of address, and introducing everyday objects.

She noticed that the Tay ethnic language is very rich and expressive, but it has not been compiled into books. The available materials only exist in the memories of the elderly, shamans, or are expressed through patterns on clothing and in traditional rituals.

Students can now easily communicate with Ms. Ben in the Tay language.

With unwavering perseverance, Ms. Ben traveled throughout the villages and hamlets inhabited by the Tay people in Son Dong district to collect materials. She even ventured to the western slopes of the Tran Voi mountain range to learn about the Tay language in neighboring Lang Son province. She meticulously recorded information, expanding her vocabulary on various topics, while also searching for and collecting poems, songs, folk tales, rituals, and traditional remedies.

After a long period of research, she successfully compiled a textbook on teaching the Tay language from basic to advanced levels, containing in-depth knowledge about the culture, customs, and rituals of the Tay people. This is not only a valuable resource for students but also a foundation for researchers to study the culture and language of the Tay ethnic group.

In addition to teaching and compiling, Ms. Ben is also a prominent figure in the arts, playing a crucial role in the village's Then singing club. She actively participates in cultural and artistic movements, contributing to the club's success in numerous high-ranking awards in Then singing and Dan Tinh playing competitions among the northern mountainous provinces.

With her outstanding contributions, teacher Duong Thi Ben has received much recognition from all levels of government. In 2023 and 2024, she was awarded Certificates of Merit by the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee and the Chairman of the Provincial Fatherland Front Committee respectively for her excellent achievements in emulation movements contributing to the socio-economic development of ethnic minority and mountainous areas in Bac Giang province (now Bac Ninh province).

With her deep love for the language and culture of her ethnic group, Ms. Ben has ignited a passion in the hearts of generations of students in the highlands.

Her topics and initiatives have also been applied to teaching practice, such as: "Research, introduction, and compilation of Tay language learning materials for use in teaching the local education program for students at Van Son Secondary School"; "Research and preservation of Tay folk songs in Son Dong"; and "Some indigenous cultural features of the Tay people in Van Son commune".

In 2024, Ms. Ben was selected by the Provincial Ethnic Affairs Committee (now the Department of Ethnic Minorities and Religions) as a member of the translation council for the Tay ethnic language in Bac Giang province, participating in research, preservation, and development of the culture of ethnic minority communities in the province.

With her deep love for the language and culture of her ethnic group, Ms. Ben has ignited a passion in the hearts of generations of students in the highlands. She not only imparts knowledge but also instills in them a sense of pride in their heritage. Her work actively contributes to the preservation and promotion of traditional cultural values, while also fostering community tourism and building a progressive Vietnamese culture rich in national identity.

Source: https://phunuvietnam.vn/thap-lua-dam-me-tieng-tay-cho-hoc-sinh-vung-cao-20250818214738786.htm