Basic HTML Version
timeout
12
A
s a group of young Vietnam-
ese students take on the role
of reporters for an afternoon,
passing tourists have the
chance to feel like superstars.
It’s 5pm and the students are sitting
around Hoan Kiem Lake with a small
contingent of foreign visitors. They are
asked what they’re doing in Hanoi as a
conversation starter, but the chats quickly
move on to a variety of discussion points.
The atmosphere is friendly and there
are smiles all around; interviewees move
between students, feeling like celebrities
as they field the endless questions.
While it’s an odd feeling for the
tourists to have to think of so many an-
swers, they are happy to know they’re
helping to teach English to Vietnam’s
next generation.
“They are keen to practice English
and they ask me how to pronounce
words when I don’t understand them,”
a Canadian tourist says of his experi-
ence by the lake, adding: “It was a very
nice thing that I have never seen done
before in Thailand or Laos.”
Duc Thuy is studying engineering
at a state university and joins his friends
sometimes to chat to the passers-by.
While they often struggle to understand
the language, nobody makes fun of
each other. “I know my English pronun-
ciation is not good as I didn’t study at
an international school or private uni-
versity,” he says.
Duc Thuy studies English for four
hours a day, mostly with Vietnamese
teachers although occasionally with
foreign volunteers, and while his Eng-
lish writing is good, he struggles with
speaking and listening.
“Vietnamese English teachers teach
you excellent grammar, but it is not the
same as speaking English in real life,”
he says.
Ministry of Education and Train-
ing’s National Foreign Language 2020
Project senior fellow, Dr Diana L Dudzik,
says most Vietnamese students begin
studying English in middle school, with
many starting as early as elementary
school or kindergarten, but few can
speak the language fluently on leaving
high school.
“Students who have learnt English
for seven years beginning in grade six
are often not able to use English be-
yond simple greetings and questions
such as ‘hello’, ‘good-bye’, and ‘what’s
your name?’,” she says.
Myriad reasons have been suggest-
ed as causes of the problem, but it all
seems to boil down to unqualified teach-
ers and an outdated testing model.
This helps to explain why Duc Thuy
heads out in public to practice his English.
“At first I was shy about speaking
English as I was scared my friends would
Much effort is made by Vietnam’s youth to learn English, but an outdated
education system means many young people are still struggling.
Ounkham
Pimmata
reports on the state of English language learning on the streets of
Hanoi.
In pursuit of fluency
A group of young
students practice their
English with tourists