Gotta Start Them Young
Introduction
Well, here is an interesting topic regarding education that I more or less have experience in. According to the Viet Nam central government, a proposed project pertaining to Decision No. 2371/QD-TTg has been approved with the aim to “[make] English the second language in schools for the period 2025-2035, with a vision until 2045.” The proposed project has rightfully raised both concern and support from the public, considering the massive scope, upheaval of the status quo, and the lack of confidence in such decisions in the past.
Background
Refer to the official publication of the governmental decision here
Skimming through the document, it seems like the decision has covered pretty much all the bases of this new integration: motivations, goals, KPIs, methods, and budget. Although the ambition of this project seems unattainable, the mindset is there.
My Two Cents
As someone who started learning English from kindergarten age, I think the biggest hurdle for a high probability of success depends on how much of a big spender the government is. Believe it or not, learning a language is a rather expensive endeavour that requires proper human resources, takes time, and gobbles up money. It was prohibitively expensive then when I started out, the price tag has definitely not deflated since. To have a good foundation (in terms of pronunciation, grammar, language usage, context, etc.) from the primary school age, one needs to have proper learning materials and to be taught by natives or by Vietnamese compatriots who have integrated themselves into the target language’s society. And even then, as with learning any other field, the chance of success is not guaranteed. There are bound to be students with a lower affinity for learning languages, who will be sifted through the net of educational advancement, but those students might achieve much higher success simply by sticking to what they’re good at.
Regarding a different aspect, the introduction of an English curriculum would need to harmonize with existing course loads, i.e., reduce the current load—while the grindset mindset of the familial environment must change to adapt to this deeper, more practical, and more comprehensive integration of English. These measures ensure that students still have time to be children: to have necessary downtime for holistic knowledge consolidation across subjects, and to explore topics that genuinely interest them. Building up from there, we may eliminate or at least lessen the pursuit of empty achievements that serve nothing but to inflate adult egos. In the end, it is a generational mindset that needs to change. But such change has been discussed and attempted without much success in recent years. If anything, society has veered for the worse, with students committing suicide to escape the insufferable pressures from their own parents.
My stance on this matter is solid: I raise both hands in accords. To become the regional rippling wake of the era that attracts foreign investments in critical industries and state-of-the-art technologies, the country must at least be able to communicate with such investors. Although Viet Nam has gradually become a destination of choice for top overseas players in their respective fields, the few bridges that have been built so far come from a small number of facilitators who can speak both languages and have a deep understanding of technical aspects, social nuances, and culture, all of which take decades to build. Being able to exchange ideas in the same language that everyone understands is the first crucial step towards international collaboration.
One may argue, “Why does it have to be English?” For what it’s worth, this line of thought has its own merits. Learning Chinese would open up channels with neighboring countries; learning French would make dipping toes into the European market a little less cold; and learning Spanish would boost agricultural exchanges with some European countries, many Central and South American ones, and especially the one we so dearly call brothers—the Cubans. But to achieve the highest efficiency, it invariably and undoubtedly has to be English. It is not difficult to prove that English is vastly more widespread: human resources, technical documents, research publications, media, heck even programming languages, are predominantly communicated in English. Even in regional countries that are more closed-off linguistically and culturally with homogenous demographics, e.g., China, Japan, Korea, etc., advanced and high-end topics are still communicated and published in English in scientific journals. This position does not seek to downplay the role of other languages, because knowing more than two makes for an even more valuable asset. When in doubt, fellow comrades, take another look at Ho Chi Minh.
Another argument might spawn from the taller grasses, “Why won’t the foreigners integrate instead?” This one is the easiest to dismantle. From a foreign investor’s perspective, market penetration is already a difficult and at times perilous journey, from lengthy market research to execution, to allocation of funds, not to mention the hurdles of navigating the judicial system of the host nation and the prevalent “fluid” situation of import/export taxes between the two participating countries. If we cannot at least remove one (language) barrier from the equation, then investors would need to expend more resources to train or acquire capable personnel, who are few and far between. This barrier could be a deal-breaker for many corporations with more limited resources than the F-100 ones. This scenario is exacerbated by the growing inflation in the global economy, where prices soar and the quality of goods and materials takes a terminal-velocity nosedive.
Personally, that is all I could say on a Saturday morning, snoozing in bed. I can only hope that the uncs on the hot seats have already considered these talking points and, even more, retained veterans with combat experience in learning and teaching English, and the firm grip to kubernate the project.
Signed off by: Anh
Revisions
Rev 1: I used chatgpt to do prose and spell check and it ended up replacing my commas with fkn mdashes. As much as an mdash enthusiast, this is fkn annoying; not only that, it also changed the personal characteristics of my proses.
Rev 2: improve wordings