The woman who inspires love for mother tongue among young Vietnamese in US

Ngo Kim Viet at her home in the US. She has voluntarily taught the Vietnamese language since 1995. — VNA/VNS Photo

WASHINGTON DC — Teaching the Vietnamese language since 1995, Ngô Kim Việt, a Vietnamese woman living in the US state of Maryland for over 40 years, always perceives that the value of the mother tongue needs to be maintained and passed down to younger generations of the Vietnamese origin.

Preliminary statistics show that there are nearly 200 establishments and centres teaching the language in the US, mainly in the states housing large Vietnamese communities like California, Texas, and Washington, but most of them are of small scale and still depend on voluntary teachers.

Meanwhile, the US’s centres of foreign languages have just opened Vietnamese language courses for diplomats and nationals preparing to work in the Southeast Asian country.

Việt told the Vietnam News Agency that her decision to teach the language came from her love for the homeland, adding she doesn’t want the Vietnamese born and growing up in the US to be unable to speak the mother tongue due to the shortage of schools, teachers, or an environment for them to practice.

Given this, she decided to voluntarily help children of Vietnamese families to learn the language and open classes at churches.

In 2014, her nephews returned to Việt Nam on business trips. Despite their Vietnamese origin, they still had to hire interpreters during those trips. Therefore, Việt decided to teach them via Zoom so that they can communicate in Vietnamese in future returns.

The woman has also been teaching at language centres of the US whenever she has spare time. She has bought language teaching books along with those about the culture and history of Vietnam, and also referred to images and videos in the internet to compile her own lesson plans.

Though the part-time job brings her almost no income, Viet still wishes to maintain and popularise the beauty of the Vietnamese language, prompted by her love for the mother tongue,

Việt said she was happy that the Vietnamese Embassy in the US recently invited her to attend a Vietnamese language class held by the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs for expatriates. Due to the time zone difference, the class started at 5am in the East Coast of the US, but she didn’t miss any lessons because she considered this a precious chance for her to improve specialised knowledge and teaching skills.

Sharing some interesting stories about her students, she said the Vietnamese language has helped one of her nephews to confidently return to the homeland without an interpreter, another to assist his company in the US to sign a contract with a Vietnamese partner, a US priest to talk to his Vietnamese followers and understand more about the country’s culture, and many Vietnamese-origin people in the US to support those unable to speak English.

With their patriotism, Việt and those engaging in the teaching of the Vietnamese language in the US are inspiring the interest in the mother tongue among young people there, while helping the youth be further aware of the necessity and value of the language maintenance and learn more about the homeland’s culture. – VNS