In July of this year, a Russian Center opened in Hanoi, the first such center of the Foundation in Vietnam. On November 12, the second Russian Center in the country will open in Ho Chi Minh City at the University of Pedagogy. In honor of this occasion we spoke with Mai Pham Hiep, dean of the philology department at HCMC University of Pedagogy.
– Please say a few words about the situation with Russian language teaching in Vietnam.
– I would say that at present the situation with the Russian language in southern Vietnam is critical. There has been a noticeable decrease in interest toward the Russian language. There are many reasons for this, but the political reasons are predominant. When our countries belonged to the same socialist camp and were political and economic allies, Russian language was taught as the first foreign language in all public schools in Vietnam. In the 1990s state education policy moved toward promoting the teaching of English. The number of people studying Russian this decade sharply declined, reaching the critical point of 0.03% of all students in Vietnam. Russian hasn’t been taught in schools for many years now.
– You emphasized that the situation with the Russian language in the south is critical. Are things different in the north?
– Yes, there is a substantial difference. In the north there are major centers for the study of the Russian language, for example, the Institute of Foreign Languages at Hanoi State University, and the Russian language continues to be taught in some schools. However, in HCMC Russian is taught as a specialty only at two universities: the Institute of Social and Domestic Studies of the National University and at our university. The situation in the south truly is critical. Although I would note that in recent years interest has been on the rise again, which gives cause for optimism. This is primarily related to tourism. Of course, it remains early to speak of any particular success or real positive changes, but there is promise for promoting the Russian language in southern regions of Vietnam.
– What kinds of problems do Russian specialists in Vietnam encounter?
– The main problem for us is the lack of modern methodological literature and workbooks and the low level of material and technical infrastructure. I would also note the difficulties in raising the level of qualifications of teachers of the Russian language. The lack of information about life in modern Russia is also problematic.
We would like to believe that the opening of the Russian Center at our university will create a stimulus for the study of the language and a serious pillar of support us, Vietnamese Russian specialists. We hope that the Russian center will help address the critical problem of a lack of textbooks. The center aims to invite highly qualified teachers from Russia, organize Russian language courses for all the residents of the city and much more.
We believe it is necessary to hire as employees of the center graduates of Soviet universities who have preserved their love of Russia, and the language and culture of your country. And there is no shortage of such people in HCMC. We sincerely hope that they will be closely involved in the activities of the center. I think that one way of stimulating interest among youth toward Russia and the Russian language is organizing meetings with interesting people from Russia, for example, writers, musicians, artists…
In short, we have high hopes for the Russian Center. It will have much on its docket aimed at helping promote the popularity of Russian language and Russian culture in the south of Vietnam. Only by working all together, all of us who love Russia, Russian language and Russian culture, can we reignite interest toward the Russian language in our country.
We hope that the opening ceremony, at which we are expecting a number of high level guests, including from Russia, will have a wide resonance in HCMC and throughout all of Vietnam.
