It can be said that language is the “soul” of each ethnic group. Most ethnic groups have their own language, many ethnic groups have their own writing. However, a worrying issue is that the languages of ethnic minorities in Quang Ngai province are at risk of being lost. Therefore, preserving and maintaining the languages of ethnic minorities is an urgent issue.
Encouraging ethnic minority students to use their "mother tongue" in communication is a way to preserve the language.
Ethnic minority languages and writings are at risk of being lost.
Quang Ngai province has more than 200,000 ethnic minorities (about 15% of the province's population), including 3 ethnic minorities with large populations: Hre, Cor and Ca Dong. In recent years, the Party and the State have issued many policies and strategies to mobilize all resources for socio-economic development in ethnic minority and mountainous areas. Thanks to that, people's lives have been improved, traditional cultural values have been preserved and promoted. However, the biggest concern today is that ethnic minorities rarely use their own languages.
One of the reasons for the decline of ethnic minority languages is that the formation and transmission of ethnic minority cultural identity from the past to the present, mostly through speech and word of mouth. In addition, the rapid development, economic integration, and cultural exchange have had a strong impact on the lives of ethnic minorities. Many ethnic minorities rarely use their "mother tongue" in daily communication. This leads to the situation where many ethnic minorities, especially young people, cannot hear or speak their "mother tongue".
In addition, the policy on teaching and learning spoken and written languages of ethnic minorities in educational institutions has not been implemented in the province. This is because there is no curriculum for teaching ethnic languages in schools, and there are no ethnic minority language teachers who meet the requirements of the Ministry of Education and Training.
To preserve the languages of ethnic minorities in the province, the Department of Home Affairs of Quang Ngai province has coordinated with Pham Van Dong University to organize classes teaching ethnic minority languages (Hre and Co) for officials, civil servants, teachers, especially those working in mountainous districts.
Fortunately, currently, in the mountainous areas, there are a number of dedicated people who have devoted much effort to preserving their “mother tongue”. A typical example is Mr. Ro Dam Binh, in Ba To town, Ba To district, who has devoted much effort to researching and contributing to the publication of the book “Training and fostering materials for Hre language for cadres and civil servants working in mountainous areas and ethnic affairs in Quang Ngai province”. This is currently the only document officially used to serve the teaching of Hre language in mountainous districts in Quang Ngai province.
Teaching traditional culture, combined with the use of "mother tongue" is also a good way to preserve language.
Learn Hre, Co languages with electronic database
Quang Ngai province is implementing the scientific project: "Building an electronic database of the languages of ethnic minorities Viet - Hre, Viet - Co". It is known that this scientific project is chaired by Master Tran Duy Linh, Director of the Provincial Information Technology and Communications Center. Co-chaired by Master Tran Van Man, Director of the Department of Construction, former Head of the Provincial Ethnic Minorities Committee.
The electronic database of the Vietnamese - Hre, Vietnamese - Co ethnic minority languages is a software product of the Science and Technology Project of Quang Ngai province in 2023. This is an electronic dictionary of the Vietnamese - Hre, Vietnamese - Co ethnic minority languages and vice versa to support the teaching, learning and research of the spoken and written languages of the Hre and Co people.
Accordingly, the electronic database has over 1,120 Hrê words and 1,650 Co words, allowing searching, looking up dictionaries, all words are translated, pronunciation instructions, providing synonyms, illustrative examples, images and videos about customs, habits, and culture of the Hrê and Co ethnic minorities. Interface of the trial version of the Electronic Database of Vietnamese - Hrê, Vietnamese - Co ethnic minorities. In addition, there is also a tool to support typing in ethnic languages (Hrê, Co) on the interface; flexibly designed, with functions to add new, update, edit words, images, receive feedback and interact with users... At the same time, it allows exploitation and use on many different devices such as: computers, smartphones, tablets.
Members of the Scientific Project: "Building an electronic database of ethnic minority languages Viet - Hre, Viet - Co" discussed and contributed ideas to complete the Project.
Dr. Hoang Thi My Le, Deputy Head of the Department of Digital Technology, University of Technical Education, University of Danang, said: Because some tasks can be carried out in parallel without depending on each other, the host unit and the project implementation team have proactively accelerated the progress of the work content, specifically 03 tasks: programming and building functional modules of the web version of the Database, testing, calibrating the Electronic Database and updating data into the Electronic Database. As a result, these tasks were completed 3 to 4 months ahead of schedule.
"Up to now, the Host Organization has resolved the difficulties in 05 delayed tasks and accelerated the progress of other tasks, 04 tasks have exceeded the schedule. It is expected to complete the delayed tasks in the first quarter of 2024. Thus, the planned tasks will be completed on schedule in the second quarter of 2024," added Dr. Hoang Thi My Le.
According to Master Tran Van Man, Director of the Quang Ngai Department of Construction, the establishment of the Electronic Database of Vietnamese - Hre, Vietnamese - Co ethnic minority languages aims to support ethnic minorities in applying information technology, contributing to narrowing the development gap between ethnic regions, promoting socio-economic development; improving the effectiveness of state management of ethnic affairs in the locality. On the other hand, it helps ethnic minorities learn, improve their knowledge, integrate with the general development of the province and the country; at the same time, it also helps Kinh individuals working with ethnic minorities to understand and communicate more easily, thereby conveying knowledge, policies and guidelines of the government to ethnic minorities, absorbing the experiences and issues of ethnic minorities more deeply.
“In addition, the electronic database of ethnic minority languages of Viet-Hre and Viet-Co will be a place to preserve the language, traditional cultural values, images, customs and practices of ethnic minorities in the province, contributing to preserving and promoting the unique traditional values of each ethnic group, and joining the general development flow of the country,” Mr. Man added.
T.Nhan-H.Truong
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