First bilingual education system debuts in Đà Nẵng

First bilingual education system debuts in Đà Nẵng
VNS

A new school was established in Đà Nẵng. You might wonder, what makes this event so significant to be included in the news? This is because Sakura-Olympia school is the first school in Đà Nẵng to have a bilingual curriculum in Vietnamese and English. Moreover, the school also promotes its specialization in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) making the school better equipped to “train a generation of students to international standards” according to Dr. Nguyễn Thị Anh Đào, the founder of the school. (Viet Nam News)

A question one might ask after reading this article is what kind of a role does the ability to use English play in the Vietnamese society or to what extent does the Vietnamese society have to keep up with “international standards”? The new Sakura-Olympia school’s emphasis on teaching STEM subjects in English seems to suggest that to keep up with the “international standards” one must not only excel in STEM subjects but excel in them in English. This sudden need to adopt to the new modern social standards reminded me of my experience at Hồ Ba Bể two years ago when I was travelling around northern Vietnam.

In the past couple of years, Vietnam has certainly gained more popularity amongst international tourists. More importantly, however, rural tourism in Vietnam has now become a more attractive alternative to the rather ordinary city sightseeing in urban areas. With more international tourists coming to these remote rural areas, this sets up a new challenge to the local ethnic minority groups.  These groups now not only have to deal with the modernizing Vietnamese society, but they also need to keep up with the “international standards”. In terms of languages, the local ethnic minorities not only have to be able to speak modern Vietnamese to communicate with the government, but they now also need to be proficient in English to support the local tourist industry.

Source: https://vietnamnews.vn/society/465652/first-bilingual-education-system-d…