SGGP
Twelve years ago, in the Asian Center of Budapest (Hungary), Mr. Tran Anh Tuan and his wife also had a small stall, business was the main thing. But when witnessing the weekends, the compatriots and their children chattering away, the children uttering clear and faint Vietnamese, Mr. Tuan and his wife came up with the idea of rowing a boat to "carry" Vietnamese across the Danube River.
Mr. Tran Anh Tuan still remembers: “There have been many models of teaching Vietnamese that were quite popular, but they did not last long. My wife and I discussed that we should boldly organize classes and collect tuition fees at a moderate level to proactively maintain teaching. Parents who participate in contributing will be more responsible, and children will be more aware of their studies, only then can we go the long way.”
As the Head of the Vietnamese Business Representative Board in the Budapest Asian Center, Mr. Tran Anh Tuan and his colleagues negotiated with the center's board of directors to borrow a classroom there. The first person invited to teach in June 2010 and has been consistently teaching until now is Ms. Phuong Hong. Having been a piano teacher for Vietnamese children in Budapest, Ms. Phuong Hong also shared the desire to find more ways for students to approach and speak Vietnamese more.
From then on, every Saturday afternoon, no matter how many customers came to buy, Mr. Tran Anh Tuan and his wife took turns going to the fourth floor to "carry" the class with Ms. Phuong Hong. Just like that, one person took care of teaching, one person tried to find enough students, one person organized the class, one person created extracurricular activities..., the Vietnamese class gradually became the Budapest Vietnamese Center in Hungary with the scene of adults bustling about buying and selling downstairs, and children competing to study upstairs.
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Mr. Tran Anh Tuan (right cover) and teachers of the Budapest Vietnamese Center in Hungary |
Originally an agricultural engineer, before going to Hungary, Mr. Tran Anh Tuan used to teach animal husbandry at the Agricultural University 4 in Ho Chi Minh City. His profession “has nothing to do with teaching Vietnamese”, but when he was away from home, Mr. Tuan still enthusiastically took on the work of the Vietnamese Language Center. The feelings of the person “carrying” words across the river are so in line with the verses of Luu Quang Vu: Who wanders in the corners of the world/Does he silently call out Vietnamese every late night?
Up to now, the important things that help the boat "carrying" Vietnamese on the Danube River flowing through Budapest to sail smoothly are considering teaching and learning Vietnamese as one of the practical community activities, income is not the main purpose and costs are always prioritized to support from other activities, teachers are people who are both qualified and prestigious in the community and have perseverance with the love of Vietnamese.
Among the 6 teachers directly teaching the class, there are also professors and university lecturers. Although the center does not operate for business purposes, it always balances its income and expenses so as not to depend on funding from any organization or individual.
At the beginning of this school year, the Budapest Vietnamese Center enrolled 80 students, a remarkable number in the community of more than 5,000 Vietnamese people residing in Hungary. In addition, the recent opening of a teaching location at Thang Long Trade Center has helped parents somewhat solve the problem of picking up and dropping off their children. Instead of having to go out to recruit students, parents now come to the center themselves to register their children.
These persistent efforts are also strengthened by the attention of the Vietnamese Embassy in Hungary as well as Vietnamese organizations and associations here.
According to a survey, the age of Vietnamese learning for children abroad is usually from 7 to 16 years old. After 16 years old, children tend to stop learning Vietnamese to focus on high school with many new subjects. However, recently, the Vietnamese Center in Budapest has opened a B1 class for children who already know Vietnamese relatively well and now want to improve their listening-speaking-reading-writing skills in communication, document drafting and expand their knowledge of Vietnamese culture.
This is a positive signal to help expand the purpose and meaning of learning Vietnamese abroad. Not only preserving the mother tongue, learning Vietnamese is also an opportunity to orient and develop future careers.
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