Students study with a foreign teacher at Tran Dai Nghia High School for Gifted Students in HCMC, 2019. Photo by VnExpress/Le Nam
After English, the most learned foreign languages in Vietnam are French and Japanese, according to a report from the Ministry of Education.
Reporting on education reform in the period 2013-2023, the Ministry of Education and Training said that foreign language studies have seen positive developments.
English teaching for kindergarten children has started in 61 of the country’s 63 provinces and cities.
Besides English, 41 localities also teach their students other foreign languages, and 60,000 of them choose to take them. The most popular is French, studied by 30,800 students, followed by Japanese and Chinese.
They are taught at the primary, middle and secondary levels, while German, Korean and Russian are not taught in primary school.
Since 2018, I have been studying foreign languages is compulsory from third to twelfth grade.
One is designated as the “primary” language and its learning is compulsory. A second optional foreign language, designated as a “secondary” language, is also offered.
Most schools choose English as their “main” language, although in some areas of the northern border they choose Chinese instead.
French, Japanese and Korean are mainly taught in large cities.
Nguyen Thi Nhung, deputy director of MV Lomonossov Middle and High School in Hanoi, said most foreign languages other than English are considered “secondary,” meaning they are optional.
In her school, besides English, German, Japanese and Korean are taught, she said.
“We want students to have the opportunity to know more foreign languages so that they can more easily access knowledge of the world and become global citizens capable of working in many fields.”
