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CULTURES - VIETNAMESE
Classroom Implications for Teaching
Vietnamese Students
Differences in the education systems
in Vietnam and the United States
- A major difference in the educational systems of the U.S.
and Vietnam are that the latter's system is driven also by the
tenets of socialism. According to the Ministry of Education,
"Education and training plays a leading role in formulating
citizens and laborers with their love for the country and consciousness
of the socialism."
-
While these last two points have emphasized
the differences, the Ministry of Education and Training recognizes
Vietnam's place as part of a global society. While Vietnamese
education is rooted in national concerns liks industrialization
and modernization, there are also global issues that education
should address.
The globalization process requires human beings
to together put efforts to address global issues which relate
to the existence and non-existence of not only an individual,
a social class or a nation. Those are the issues of peace
keeping, war and racial/religious conflict avoidance, environment
protection, limiting the population explosion, AIDS, drug
and criminal prevention. Education and training plays its
key role in raising the awareness and sense of responsibility
of present and future generations to together address those
common issues.
Ministry of Education and Training
Factors in the home that are critical
for a teacher to know
-
Vietnamese families place a major emphasis
on education, and therefore support the public educational
system wholeheartedly. Parents see education as the means
toward social and economic advancement and a better life for
their offspring. But for Vietnamese families, true education
means academic competence as well as character development.
Parents believe that children should learn social responsibility,
and respect, in addition to intellectual development.
-
While Vietnamese families place such a high
value on education, Vietnamese families are not typically
involved in a visible way at schools. Because of the great
respect that Vietnamese parents have for teachers and administrators,
they typically leave educational matters to the schools. In
addition, the language barrier may as well as the preoccupation
with economic survival as recent immigrants to the United
States may also be factors limiting parent involvement.
The California State Department of Education Office
of Bilingual Bicultural Education (1982) in its work A Handbook
for Teaching Vietnamese Speaking Students lists ten strategies
to promote parent involvement at schools.
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Informing parents of their children's
school program, its goals, and activities.
- Convincing parents that their involvement is necessary to
achieve the quality education they want for their children.
- Encouraging parents to express their views regarding their
children's education.
- Maintaining frequent contacts and occasional visits with parents
- Offering parents services such as helping them prepare for
the United States citizenship and giving orientations to life
in the United States.
- Including parents on advisory committees.
- Encouraging students to ask their parents to participate in
school activities and programs.
- Promoting home activities between parents and students that
better prepare children for school studies.
- Explaining the role of Vietnamese in the educational development
of Vietnamese-speaking students.
- Describing the process of English language acquisition to
parents.
Cultural Challenges/Issues that may
emerge
Within the Vietnamese culture, family is the most
important social unit, and it is the responsibility of every
member to help the family survive. The family structure is a
well-defined hierarchy of layers consisting of the immediate
family and the extended family. Children in the Vietnamese culture
are taught to place the family above the individual. Children
defer to their parents, allowing them to make decisions on their
behalf and always showing respect for their authority. Respect
is very important to Vietnamese people. When they greet each
other, the Vietnamese bow their heads. In Vietnamese culture
it is polite to look away when speaking to someone and rude
to look directly at them. This can often cause misunderstandings
as this is in opposition to American behavior, and many refugees
are often accused of being rude or unfriendly. In Vietnam expressing
oneself is not acceptable and public display of emotions are
taboo. Children in Vietnam do not question authority, where
children in American culture tend to be encouraged to be independent
and out spoken.
Although many Vietnamese refugees want to learn
as much as possible about American culture and how to adapt
to American life, many also want to keep their customs and language
of homeland alive. Their goal is to become American without
losing touch of their ethnic identity. The Vietnamese refugees
have endured one of the most tragic and traumatic ordeals of
any group of immigrants this country has had in the last half
of this century, yet the Vietnamese have been able to find their
niche and establish themselves as Americans without loosing
their heritage or the memory of those who died trying to get
here.
Basic
differences of Vietnamese versus English
- Vietnamese
words do not change to show grammatical changes such as
gender, numbers, tenses, or mood.
- There are
no prefixes, suffixes, or conjugation with Vietnamese words.
- The modifying
adjective or noun usually follows the modified element,
i.e. car blue instead of blue car.
- The possessive
relationship follows the noun, i.e. "car I" means
my car.
- The Vietnamese
writing system tries to represent the pronunciation of the
Vietnamese language. The writing system is based on the
Roman alphabet, with additional symbols to represent tones
and sounds not existing in the romance languages.
- The Vietnamese
alphabet consists of 12 vowel letters, 26 consonants or
groups of consonant letters, and five tone marks.
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