An elementary school in Changhua County has launched a Vietnamese language study program aimed at helping children of immigrant families learn their parents’ mother tongue, a county official said yesterday.
“Dacheng Elementary School [大誠] has been offering a semester of Vietnamese-language courses for its 30-plus students of Vietnamese heritage since the start of the academic term,” said Lin Tien-fu (林田富), director of the county’s Department of Education, which helped the school organize the program.
The courses include Vietnamese conversation, legends, folk culture and arts, dance, nursery rhymes and ballads, Lin said.
The students are required to attend the classes once a week, he said.
The program is just the beginning and the county government hopes Dacheng will become a model for similar modules in other schools, he said.
“At the end of this semester, we will review the results and make any necessary changes,” Lin said.
He expressed the hope that students participating in the program could help foster communication and exchanges between Taiwan and Vietnam when they grow up.
Lin said there are currently more than 155,000 students who are offspring of immigrants at elementary and junior high schools around Taiwan. The majority — 36 percent — are children of immigrants from China, while children of Vietnamese descent are the next biggest group at 31 percent, he said.
Most of the new immigrants in Changhua County are from Vietnam and Indonesia, Lin asaid.
The Ministry of Education has been encouraging city and county governments to help set up classes for intercultural students in public schools so that they could learn the language and culture of their parents' countries, Lin said.
“We believe this kind of program will help intercultural children gain more self-esteem and adapt better to life in Taiwan," he said.
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