There have been many investors from different countries coming to Vietnam in recent times. Among those investors, South Korea is the biggest investor in Vietnam. Thus, many Vietnamese people want to learn Korean language to meet the demand from Korean investors for native labors with Korean language skills. Consequently, Korean studies courses have been offered at universities as well as at language schools.
In 2001, Cho Myong Suk already completed a thesis about the situation of Korean language teaching in Vietnam. At the time Korean was still uncommon in Vietnam; therefore there were many difficulties in both of the teaching and study of the language. However at the moment in 2008 after 7 years, the situation of teaching Korean language has a significant change. The thesis addresses this topic.
The target of the survey is focused on the students of the Korean Studies Faculty of three universities in Vietnam: University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Hong Bang University and University of Foreign Languages and Information Technology (HUFLIT). All the data used in this thesis, such as timetables, questionnaires, interviews, etc were collected from 20 students of the above universities. The survey information was used to point out the changes in the situation of Korean language study in Vietnam from 2001 to 2008. The thesis also presents the remaining difficulties and the subjective solution approach of the author to the problems. The below survey has been conducted among the students of three universities in Ho Chi Minh city ? Vietnam.
There are different ratings for each of the following questions in descending order. It?s devised to: Excellent (A+), Good (A), Average (B) and Poor (C). Most of the answers are chosen B- average. Here is the detail of resource:
Each lecture consists of introduction, main ideas presenting, practicing, applying and ending. These parts are not logical and well organized. The time isn?t assigned for a lecture enough to present all the necessary content. The purpose of each lecture is comprehensible. All the students do not have enough the opportunity to practice in the class.
The questions proposed by teachers depend on the language skills levels of students. The teachers do not have enough time to answer all the questions in each lecture. The questions are relevant to the main ideas of the lectures. The lectures are written on the board legible enough for the students. The teachers do not use enough noticeable color (e.g. red, orange, etc.) to emphasize important ideas written on the board. The students can not understand enough the main ideas of the lecture by reading the contents written on the board.
The students feel pleasant and comfortable during the lectures. The teachers do not communicate enough with the students in the class and give them the chance to express their opinions (e.g. discussing, talking, presentation, etc.). The teachers do not consider about social and/or family background of the students in the preparation of the lectures. The teachers do not use enough visual and/or multimedia teaching materials in the lectures (e.g. flash cards, pictures, magazines, audio, video, computer, etc.).
The students do not really find inspiration in the main ideas of the lectures and/or the demeanor of the teachers. The teachers do not make enough assessments about the accomplishment of each lecture. The following result is deduced from the survey among 20 students of the above-mentioned universities. The result also addresses the difficulties in Korean language teaching in Vietnam, especially in Ho chi minh city.
Teachers should organize more activities and educational circumstances for students to practice Korean language (conversation, language club, Korean movies, etc.). The atmosphere in the classrooms is not interesting enough to inspire the students in studying. The teaching methods of Korean language Listening and Speaking need to be improved. The students do not have enough opportunities to practice Korean language and cultural exchange with native students.
The timetables scheduled for studying Korean language are not well organized. The students have to study too many irrelevant foundation courses, such as philosophy, political economy, socialism, Communist Party history, Introduction to Politics Study, etc. These courses only contribute a little to the future careers of the students. Furthermore, the major relevant courses are not scheduled enough, so the students lack a lot of required knowledge (culture ? Society of Korea, Economy of Korea, Politics of Korea, International Relations, etc.).
The textbooks used in the classroom are not the original copy and students are made to study from photo copied pages which are inadequate in the aid of helping motivate the students to study Korean Language. The maintainability of teaching materials (documents room, computer rooms, etc.) is still inadequate. The teaching Korean language is not professional enough; the arrangement of the lectures does not follow any appropriate standards. Finally, the universities do not have enough outstanding Korean language teachers.
Korean language education is developing not only in Vietnam but other countries as well. It?s also a hot topic and increasing day by day, accompanied with the development of related areas. As a result, Korean is becoming an international language that attracts more and more attention.
In term of education, there have been a lot of improvement; however it still suffers from some limitation, this dissertation propose some new problems of current situation, such as the requirement of exchange students program between universities of Vietnam and Korean.
As well there is the original problem with copied textbooks limiting student from easily accessible resources for studying. Finally, there needs to be support from the Korean government for better teaching and studying Korean language.