Vietnam encourages diaspora to embrace language and culture in ‘soft power’ push
- Officials have declared September 8 as a day to celebrate the Vietnamese language, amid fears it is ‘at risk of fading’ in communities around the world, from Cambodia to France and the US
- As some overseas-born Vietnamese have grown up shunning the language and culture, ‘what’s at stake is the communication between generations’, a researcher says
Newly-arrived immigrants felt intense pressure to assimilate and learn “perfect English”, she said.
“There’s also a layer of discrimination if you speak a foreign language in public,” added Dinh, who is now 31 and works as a climate adaptation professional. “Those incidents of white people yelling ‘Speak English’ isn’t that uncommon.”
While her younger self was not ashamed of being Vietnamese, Dinh did not wear it proudly either.
But two decades after she left Vietnam, her birth country now has a policy to encourage the diaspora to embrace the language and culture. In August, officials declared September 8 as a Vietnamese language appreciation day for overseas Vietnamese communities.
This is part of an eight-year plan until 2030, to boost the learning and use of the language globally, particularly among youth in areas with large Vietnamese populations where the language and culture are “at risk of fading”, according to the signed document seen by This Week in Asia.
Deputy Prime Minister Pham Quang Hieu said the plan aimed to encourage overseas communities to “always look to and actively contribute to homeland Vietnam”.
