- Do you have any toppings?
Knowing that the girl asked if she wanted to add things to the milk tea like tapioca pearls, jelly... but I pretended not to know and asked again:
- What is topping?
- Those are the things that come with milk tea! As she spoke, the little girl showed me the box containing tapioca pearls and plan cakes.
- I see. Why don't you speak Vietnamese so I don't have to ask again?
The girl glanced at me as if I were a person from heaven and said nothing. Holding my cup of milk tea, I kept thinking about the way many young people use words. It is so half-fat, half-lean, half-Vietnamese, half-Western that it is annoying. Because of this way of using words, many old people like me are afraid to go out, because when checking in for a train, boarding a plane or using a service, they have to listen to sentences with a few foreign words that they don't understand.
The situation of language being used in a messy and distorted way is becoming more and more common. Not only in daily communication, but also in many pages and sales groups on digital platforms, the situation of Vietnamese being "mixed" with foreign languages is widespread, not only losing the purity of Vietnamese but also causing unpleasantness and discomfort to the recipient. Information lines on online sales pages, even on notice boards at stores such as: "Cheap combo packages for students, anyone who needs please inbox"; "The biggest sale of the year, don't miss it"... are everywhere. Words such as team, topping, combo, inbox, sale... with the meaning of group, type of food that comes with other food/drink, form of shopping that combines many items in one product package or discounted sales... are replaced by many people using equivalent English words, which is both awkward and meaningless. In tourist and resort areas such as Phan Thiet, Phu Quoc, Hoi An, Da Nang, the endless signs in foreign languages seem to "crush" the Vietnamese signs. Some people even think they are in Russia when talking about Mui Ne (Phan Thiet)!?
In coffee shops, cinemas or public places, many groups of young Vietnamese people talk to each other and people think they are speaking a foreign language because they often insert many English words such as check mail, cool, pro, good, crazy, crazy or also means too cool to believe, shipper, ship, out date, out meta... Some public places in big cities such as post offices , train stations, private hospitals... have signs written in English without Vietnamese notes. What a paradox! Even in places where there are only Vietnamese people or in remote rural areas, there are still many shops that only write in English as a way to show the class of the shop and the sophistication of the owner. This situation has been common for many years and it is difficult to imagine our language life in the future.
But not only in communication, in life but also in newspapers and television, the situation of mixing foreign languages with Vietnamese is not rare. On entertainment TV shows such as Paradise Island, Beautiful Sister Who Rides the Wind and Waves, 2 Days and 1 Night... actors, models, MCs with strange and revealing costumes to the point of being offensive, stuttering and speaking in a half-Vietnamese, half-Western way, always annoys the older audience. Ironically, this is the group that spends a lot of time watching TV. In newspapers, especially online newspapers, the abuse of English in news is not rare. Many newspapers have headlines: "Issues of concern for teenagers" or "Company A develops VIP tours". Some words such as: fan, hot, scandal... are also often used in news.
Vietnamese is one of the richest languages, especially rich in vocabulary, with specific and beautiful semantics in the world . Many foreigners have come to study and research the Vietnamese language. Because of the richness of sounds, many foreigners praise that listening to Vietnamese is like listening to birds singing. Not only beautiful and special, Vietnamese also has an eternal life. Despite having to endure more than 1,000 years of Chinese domination and being strongly influenced by Northern feudalism, our ancestors did not accept Chinese as the national language but worked hard to create Nom script. Since the country's independence (September 2, 1945), Nom script has become the national language, capable of conveying all the beautiful words and ideas of the Vietnamese people without having to borrow any hybrid languages to mix into Vietnamese!
In the trend of integration and globalization, having one or more foreign languages is not only encouraged but also a very important condition for each individual to have more opportunities in work and income. Following the trend of using foreign languages in communication, we can accept the way of adding English notes along with Vietnamese in documents or naming goods, stores, and brands when necessary, but we cannot mix foreign languages with Vietnamese in a chaotic, haphazard and unreasonable way like today. The abuse of foreign languages in communication, in life and in the press does not make us "more classy" or more classy, but on the contrary, it only shows contempt for our mother tongue, lowering the value of our beautiful Vietnamese language!
Source: https://baobinhphuoc.com.vn/news/9/173381/xin-dung-tron-tieng-nuoc-ngoai-vao-tieng-viet
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