Westernized children shock Vietnamese parents

Many Vietnamese children can speak English better than Vietnamese and they lead lives much closer to that of westerners.

When Linh returns home from school, the girl always waves and says “Hello me” (Hello, mum) and “Hello ba” (Hello, grandmother). She speaks English very well, but she cannot speak Vietnamese fluently. Le Chau, Linh’s mother, brought Linh to an international kindergarten when she was small and her daughter began learning English in kindergarten. Now she speaks English very well. 

Chau sent Linh to an international school because she wanted the child to speak English fluently as an adult. Now Linh goes attends first grade at an international school. She speaks daily with foreign teachers and friends in English. 

As a result, Linh finds it more difficult to read and write in Vietnamese than in English. Chau is worried that Linh cannot speak Vietnamese. “Now I have to bring Linh to extra classes to study Vietnamese intensively so that she can speak her mother tongue,” Chau admitted. Thu Truc, a mother in HCM City, feels similarly. 

Truc wanted her daughter to access the western lifestyle and culture, and learn in a western environment that allowed her to become dynamic and independent. Truc has sent her daughter to international school since the first grade. Truc took pride in her daughter’s very independent lifestyle. 

However, recently she has become concerned because her child is too independent. She does not listen to her parents and she always argues to defend her ideas. “Maybe she has been too influenced by the western lifestyle. In all cases, she always demands equality and she always demands exact answers from her parents.

I am getting scared when my child behaves like an adult of the same rank and age of her parents,” Truc lamented. She fears that her daughter, who is now in the fourth grade, will forget her national traditions and familial order and discipline. Truc purchases a lot of music disks and books in Vietnamese for the child to read so that she does not forget her mother tongue. “I cannot rely on the international school to educate my daughter. She also needs education from her family,” she concluded. 

More and more Vietnamese parents want to send their children to international schools, so they can become familiar with western lifestyles and new methods of learning, plus practice their English. These same parents have also become worried about the westernization of their children, saying that the kids are gradually forgetting Vietnam’s traditional lifestyle. There are 36 international nursery schools in HCM City and most do not teach in Vietnamese. 

Many schools receive both Vietnamese and foreign students and the use the English language for instruction. Nguyen Thi Kim Thanh, Head of the Pre-school Education Division under HCM City Education and Training Department, responded that, currently, the Ministry of Education and Training does not allow international nursery schools to admit Vietnamese children, so there is no concrete regulation that schools must teach children in accordance with Vietnamese curricula.

“I know that parents want their children to learn and speak English well to prepare for international integration, but they should also think of teaching Vietnamese to their children. Only by doing so, will the children love their country and the Vietnamese language when they grow up,” Thanh asserted. 

Source:http://english.vietnamnet.vn/education/201005/Westernized-children-shock-Vietnamese-parents-912232/