[Vnbiz] The implications of bilingual education and the impact on Thai ethnic minorities

[Tran Dinh Hoanh]

Dear anh Tiep & CACC,

Thanks for the article an Tiep.

The issue of bilingual education is very interesting, and I agree with the
author of this article.  Bulingual education has great benefits:  First, it
helps preserve and strengthen the culture of ethnic minority groups (Dong
Bai Cac Dan Toc).  Second: It strengthens national unity by showing respect
to all cultures in the nation and therefore makes everyone happy.  And
third, it improves children's language and cultural skills  (I observe that
most Vietnamese children with two languages Vietnamese and English are
better in English than Enligsh-only children, and they are more well-versed
cultural nuances).  I hope that we do have bilingual education for all
ethnic minority children in Vietnam.  It would be tragic that, say, an Ede
child would not be able to learn Ede language in school.

The posted article, however, has a confusion point.  It talks about a Thai
student not doing well with Italian in a school in Italy.  That is really a
different issue.  That is the issue of learning foreign languages.  It is
not the bilingual issue of ethnic minority children, which is really about
mother's tongues and which is the main point of the article.

If we talk about international languages, we know that there are many
languages around the world to learn--French, German, Spanish, Italian,
etc...  What should we learn?

Languages are great, but learning a foreign language, especially when you
are older, is really a pain on the behind.  We need to come up with a
strategy that is (1) simple, (2) effective and (3) good for the nation.

I would say that English is the number-one international language of the
world today, so let's focus on English as the number-one foreign language to
learn.  If you have time to pick up other languages, great!.  But let's make
sure everyone master English to a degree of being able to communicate on
simple matters every day.

Learning a foreign language is not an easy thing to do.  So let's focus our
energy on one thing first--English--and treat other languages as secondary.
The French and the German may not like what I say, but as a nation we need
to know where to focus our energy and where to advise our citizens to go.

(In addition to Vietnamese and English, I have studied French, German,
Spanish and Chinese but, of course chu+~ tha^`y tra? la.i cho tha^`y --
teacher's words have been returned to teacher -- so now I remember almost
nothing of anything, except Vietnamese and English and a tiny bit of
French.  But English is sufficient to help me do work worldwide).

Great day, anh Tiep and all.

Hoanh
__________

On 10/23/06, Nguyen Khac Tiep <t.nguyen at unido.or.th> wrote:

>
> [Vietnam Business Forum]
>
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>              Dear CACE,
>
>
>
>             This might be interesting for the on-going discussions on
> education reform in Vietnam as well as on this forum.
>
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> Have a wonderful day.
>
>
>
> Tiep
>
>
>
> Nguyen Khac Tiep, (Mr.)
> Industrial Development Officer
> UNIDO Regional Office in Bangkok for
> Cambodia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar and Thailand
> 5th Floor, Department of Industrial Works Building
> 57 Phrasumen Road, Banglamphoo, Pranakorn
> Bangkok 10200, Thailand
> Tel. : (66) 02-280 8691 Ext. 104
> Fax: (66) 02-280 8695
> E-mail 1: T.Nguyen at unido.or.th
> E-mail 2: N.Tiep at unido.org
> Web: www.unido.org
>
>
>
> --
> Tran Dinh Hoanh, LLB, JD
> Attorney of Law
> Washington DC
>
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