[jackbl]

Vietnamese language won’t become extinct
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I am Czech but I speak Russian as fluently as my mother tongue. Besides, I also speak German, English, French, Korean and Vietnamese. Having learned Vietnamese for 50 years, every time I open a Vietnamese book to read I still find a word I do not know in every 2-3 sentences because Vietnamese vocabulary is very large.

Like the Vietnamese, we Czechs used to worry that our mother tongue was being corrupted. We wanted to claim an important position in Europe and always compared ourselves with neighboring countries like Germany, France or England. We used to focus on preserving the purity of our language and try to eliminate the use of any words of foreign origin in our language. We even created new words in Czech, words that no one wanted to use, and removed familiar, commonly used words which have their origins in German.

Nowadays in Vietnam, foreign words like “teen” or “catwalk” are more frequently used than their Vietnamese equivalents. However, the choice of words depends on each person’s social position, whether they are young or old, students or businessmen. Hybrid words are only popular among a certain group of people in the society and we do not know whether those words are here to stay. As a result, we should not worry about changes in our mother tongue. What matters is that we should know which position we are in to select the appropriate words to use.

Losing one’s mother tongue is a great concern of people in many countries. However, just think, if there are 86 million Vietnamese in the country and a few million more living overseas, why fear the language should become extinct? This could only happen to Vietnamese communities overseas who are surrounded by stronger communities speaking different languages. Vietnamese expats can forget their mother tongue if their family do not create an environment for them to practice the language. Then, they will use two or three languages at the same time to express their ideas.

Vietnam, like other countries, is influenced by external factors. However, globalization is an exchange of economic and cultural values rather than an invasion of the mother tongue. In a country where there are still people aware of preserving their language and culture, there is no need to fear the impact of globalization at all.

*Russian-Czech Professor Ivo Vasiljev was a translator of many Vietnamese literary works into Czech, including President Ho Chi Minh’s poem collection, Prison Diary, in 1985. He is a member of the European Language Association and Czech-Vietnam Friendship Association.