Nearly 50 instructors of the Vietnamese language from 16 countries and territories got together at a training session in teaching Vietnamese provided by the author of the 'Hello Vietnamese' book series in Hanoi on Sunday.

This activity was organized by the State Committee for Overseas Vietnamese (SCOV) in collaboration with the Vietnam Education Publishing House (VEPH) as a move to further promote the use of Vietnamese among overseas Vietnamese communities.

Dr. Nguyen Thuy Anh, the author of the book series, directly taught about 50 Vietnamese trainees who returned from England, Germany, France, Thailand, Laos, Taiwan, and others.

Many of them have been teaching Vietnamese for more than five years.

Some of them are teachers at schools while the others voluntarily teach at cultural centers for both adults and children.

The biggest challenge to Vietnamese language teachers abroad is the lack of materials and methods to teach Vietnamese as a foreign language to Vietnamese who grew up abroad and have little access to their mother tongue or Vietnamese culture.

The 'Hello Vietnamese' series is designed according to the story and journey of the character ‘Miu Nguyễn’ and comprises six books covering levels one to six, respectively named ‘Ra Khơi’ (literally ‘Out to Sea’), Khám Phá (‘Discoveries’), Thử Thách (‘Challenges’), ‘Kết Nối’ (‘Connection’), ‘Cống Hiến’ (‘Devotion’), and Trưởng Thành (‘Maturity’).

Many trainees commented that the book is designed attractively, helping children enjoy learning Vietnamese with interesting stories.

These books also help Vietnamese children look back to their roots and arouse among them the love for their homeland through the lessons featuring the love for family members and for Vietnamese communities, as well as through beautiful landscapes, delicious traditional dishes, and national cultural characteristics, some trainees said. 

At the session, the SCOV, VEPH, and the Consulate General of Vietnam in Fukuoka, Japan jointly announced the launch of a Vietnamese bookcase located at the consulate.

The bookcase has more than 50 Vietnamese titles with about 450 books for both overseas learners and teachers of Vietnamese, as well as for researchers of the Vietnamese language abroad.

Currently, such books published by VEPH have reached Vietnamese communities in many countries around the world, including Germany, Austria, Hungary, Slovakia, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Russia, Qatar, South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, and China.

According to official statistics, there are currently about 5.3 million Vietnamese living and working in 130 countries and territories, with the U.S. hosting about 2.2 million Vietnamese, the largest Vietnamese community abroad.

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