Bring Vietnamese to the world
In 2019, when she learned that Ca’ Foscari University (Italy) was recruiting Vietnamese lecturers, her family and friends encouraged Huong to participate. At that time, the Vietnamese language teaching program was still in its infancy. Ms. Huong and two subject teachers began collecting documents and books in English to make textbooks.
She teaches Vietnamese in both English and Italian, helping native students learn Vietnamese best.
The journey to spread Vietnamese at Ca’ Foscari University encountered many difficulties. In the early days, there were only 30 students in the Vietnamese class. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of students continued to decrease.
And, because the school stipulates that the number of lecture hours is proportional to the number of students enrolled, the Vietnamese subject only has 2-3 classes/week. Students studying Vietnamese must study Thai at the same time. Therefore, convincing and inspiring young people is very difficult.
When the country’s voice is brought into an international university, our country has a certain place.
Many Italian students, after a few sessions of listening to her lectures, rekindled their love for the language and country of Vietnam. Some students applied to switch to studying Korean, but decided to continue studying Vietnamese. There was a student who switched from Chinese to learning Vietnamese. Feeling interested, he invited more friends to study with him. This further motivates Ms. Huong and the Vietnamese lecturers.
Tale of Kieu opens the door
Seeing the students’ enthusiastic reception, Ms. Huong continued to organize a play for the children to recreate the Tale of Kieu. Student Giulio Perini hurt his leg and had to use crutches but still came to practice and perform Kieu. “Through Ms. Huong’s teachings, I understand the meaning of The Tale of Kieu, about Vietnamese cultural traditions. The virtues and good wishes of the Vietnamese people are clearly shown through the characters Thuy Kieu, Kim Trong, Tu Hai… We diligently practice for the performance Kieu, as a gift for her efforts. us and Ms. Huong’s enthusiasm”confided Giulio Perini.
Vietnamese class at Ca’ Foscari University.
Students love hands-on cultural activities, Ms. Huong is even more determined to bring Vietnamese identity to young people. The beauty, richness and diversity of the Vietnamese language lies in the folk songs, proverbs and folk songs that have existed for thousands of years.
All geographical, cultural, and linguistic distances seem to disappear. Through the Quan Ho melodies, students were surprised by the pronouns “I”, “you”, which are completely different from the common words “you”, “you”, “I”, “you”.
Born and raised in the ancient Quan ho village of Sen Ho (Viet Yen district, Bac Giang province), it was not difficult for Ms. Huong to bring Kinh Bac folk songs to the university lecture hall. Responding to Ms. Huong’s enthusiasm was the excitement and passion of Ca’ Foscari University students. She and 30 students spent a month staging a Quan Ho performance, with the “old brothers and sisters” being Italians.
