Welcome to Hue City, Vietnam!
Hue City is nowadays also called the Festival and Royal City of Vietnam. I returned to Hue at the end of March, 2012 when this whole city was eager to prepare for the Festival from April 7 to 15. A lot of billboards were hanging along the streets. Among them, the banner above catches much of my attention because of its significantly informing and greeting. It tells the audience that 2012 is the National Tourism Year in the Northern Central Coastal Area- Hue City “Chào mừng năm du lịch quốc gia duyên hải Bắc trung bộ-Huế 2012”. I however find out that the conversion from Vietnamese to English has the preposition “in” missing. It might be just a word by word translation. Another assumption is that the translator does not use Standard English or s/he might not be a teacher of English. Besides, I experience that English preposition is used to be omitted in advertisements in Vietnam for text shortening. Another possible reason to accounts for this problem is that there is no preposition in the above Vietnamese text, the translator therefore might forget to use a preposition in the conversion.
Hue City is nowadays also called the Festival and Royal City of Vietnam. I returned to Hue at the end of March, 2012 when this whole city was eager to prepare for the Festival from April 7 to 15. A lot of billboards were hanging along the streets. Among them, the banner above catches much of my attention because of its significantly informing and greeting. It tells the audience that 2012 is the National Tourism Year in the Northern Central Coastal Area- Hue City “Chào mừng năm du lịch quốc gia duyên hải Bắc trung bộ-Huế 2012”. I however find out that the conversion from Vietnamese to English has the preposition “in” missing. It might be just a word by word translation. Another assumption is that the translator does not use Standard English or s/he might not be a teacher of English. Besides, I experience that English preposition is used to be omitted in advertisements in Vietnam for text shortening. Another possible reason to accounts for this problem is that there is no preposition in the above Vietnamese text, the translator therefore might forget to use a preposition in the conversion.
This linguistic landscape is not just information announced; meantime it is also a greeting to all of the visitors coming to Hue this season. Much more than that, this sign can be seen as congratulation to Hue people because among 64 provinces and cities of Vietnam, only Hue City is chosen to celebrate the 2012 Festival. It is no doubt that there are a great number of tourists will come to Hue City in 2012 due to its destination of Vietnam. Based on these reasons, it can be inferred that the target audience of this banner are Hue local people, Vietnamese and foreigner visitors.
As Taylor-Leech (2012) states, to understand a sign or a billboard, we need to recognize the social and cultural context in which it is placed (p.15). Vietnamese people have to struggle hard to be free from the two colonies of French and American for over one hundred years. And Vietnamese language can be officially in use in the whole country since the independence in 1975. It is the reason why the Vietnamese people prefer to use Vietnamese language in public space. In terms of politics, the Government also requires using this language in official signs to indicate that Vietnam is an independent country. It thus really makes me happy when seeing English language can be used in public space in my city where Vietnamese language is highly and officially appreciated. The bilingualism in this poster can be seen as the link to “progress and globalization.” (Rosendal. 2009. p. 36) The fact that English language, which is put in a lower position and in smaller size, does not mean that Vietnamese people do not respect it but as Taylor-Leech( 2012) argues the language can function as “an icon of nationalism.” (p. 16) Vietnamese language is, therefore written in larger size and in red color as it is the emphasis on the national and official language. In other words, this language is the icon of Vietnam or the country’s pride. For me, the Vietnamese language is put in a large size so that it can catch attention of majority of the target audience: Hue people and local visitors. From the perspective of an English language researcher, I think English is very powerful around the world. When it comes to Vietnam especially in Hue city, it immediately becomes a less powerful one or a second language in this place. It cannot be used in the first place here due to the problem that not all Vietnamese can understand English. In terms of color, red refers to victory or success. It thus can be interpreted that it is a wish to have a very successful national tourism year of 2012 for Hue in specific and for Vietnam in general.
The Festival sign also makes me happy about my city due to the reality that English becomes not only a familiar language to the local people but a Lingual Franca to foreigners as well. With these kinds of billboards, I do not think the local people become good at English or they know how to communicate in English after this occasion but they will at least have a basic impression on how the English language looks like. More than that, some of them might know the equivalent conversion of the text above in English. So the spread of English in linguistics landscape in Hue can be indexed as the arrival of globalization and modernity (Taylor-Leech, 2012: 28). To welcome a lot of visitors, from a very ancient, royal, tradition city, the city has to be rebuilt and restored in ways which can comfort and adapt the new challenges and environment, it is therefore becomes modern. The foreign languages which are used in the official signs also contributes to the modernity and makes the city becomes high culture. And I think Hue becomes familiar to many domestic and abroad visitors by the chances of Festivals. All of these reasons contribute to its factor of globalization of the city mentioned above.
On the right side of the poster, the audience can see the term VIETINBANK which means Vietnam Industrial Bank and its diamond symbol. The fact that VIETINBANK sponsored ten billion Vietnam Dongs for this Festival made it achieve the title “2012 Hue festival Diamond sponsor” which is stated at the lower right corner of the billboard in Vietnamese: “Nhà Tài Trợ Kim Cương-Huế 2012.” Bank is an English word which is pronounced [bænk] but it is vietnamized into bank [băng] reffering to places where monetary transactions can be done. It is where globalizationa and locality is intwerwined or intersected because a foreign word becomes a “Vietnamese” term which is accepted by every Vietnamese person who even doesnot know how to speak English.
The blue-color background can be symbolized as peace in this city. It is peaceful in the sense of climate, environment, human nature and politics. During the festival, it was not so cold or too hot with some slightly rain which creates a mild temperature for tourists going around the city. The clean, clear and green urban contributes to the perfect tourism environment for domestic and international visitors to enjoy their vacation here. And Vietnam is a communist country so the political system is stable and my country is famous in South East Asia for its politic security. On the left side of the poster, its background is the image of the Imperial Palace where Nguyen Kings and Emperors used to stay before 1945. This is one of the destinations of Hue Festival with a lot of performances implementing there. The palace is not only famous for its royal life but for its architecture as well. Furthermore, it is the destination of many tourists when visiting Hue City because they can take their pictures in the King, Queen, Prince and Princess ’ costumes sitting in the golden throne. So visitors may feel excited and interested when having a tour to this historical place.
Besides, the white round circle with the three-store house image appears over the Imperial Palace background at the left side of the poster is the logo of the national tourism 2012 in Hue city. The purple S shape of the logo is the shape of Vietnam inwhich Hue is in the middle coast area. Purple is the special color of Hue female in the long tradition dress called “ao dai”. In oder words, they usually wear the purple “ao dai” in some specially cases as festivals. This traditional color simbolizes for faithfullness according the view point of Hue local people.
Have you ever wondered why this logo is placed on the left side of this festival linguistic landscape whereas the sponsor’s name is set on the lower right side corner? From the viewpoint of a Vietnamese target audience, I think we start to read from the left to the right, so the left is considered as the starting point and the right is the ending point. In other words, the nation tourism year festival is celebrated in Hue which is placed on the left is able to be successfull or to come to the end-“the right side” successfully or not is dependent so much on the sponsor’s fund. This can be seen as one of the possible reasons accounted for their positions in this above festival linguistic landscape.
As Taylor-Leech (2012) states, to understand a sign or a billboard, we need to recognize the social and cultural context in which it is placed (p.15). Vietnamese people have to struggle hard to be free from the two colonies of French and American for over one hundred years. And Vietnamese language can be officially in use in the whole country since the independence in 1975. It is the reason why the Vietnamese people prefer to use Vietnamese language in public space. In terms of politics, the Government also requires using this language in official signs to indicate that Vietnam is an independent country. It thus really makes me happy when seeing English language can be used in public space in my city where Vietnamese language is highly and officially appreciated. The bilingualism in this poster can be seen as the link to “progress and globalization.” (Rosendal. 2009. p. 36) The fact that English language, which is put in a lower position and in smaller size, does not mean that Vietnamese people do not respect it but as Taylor-Leech( 2012) argues the language can function as “an icon of nationalism.” (p. 16) Vietnamese language is, therefore written in larger size and in red color as it is the emphasis on the national and official language. In other words, this language is the icon of Vietnam or the country’s pride. For me, the Vietnamese language is put in a large size so that it can catch attention of majority of the target audience: Hue people and local visitors. From the perspective of an English language researcher, I think English is very powerful around the world. When it comes to Vietnam especially in Hue city, it immediately becomes a less powerful one or a second language in this place. It cannot be used in the first place here due to the problem that not all Vietnamese can understand English. In terms of color, red refers to victory or success. It thus can be interpreted that it is a wish to have a very successful national tourism year of 2012 for Hue in specific and for Vietnam in general.
The Festival sign also makes me happy about my city due to the reality that English becomes not only a familiar language to the local people but a Lingual Franca to foreigners as well. With these kinds of billboards, I do not think the local people become good at English or they know how to communicate in English after this occasion but they will at least have a basic impression on how the English language looks like. More than that, some of them might know the equivalent conversion of the text above in English. So the spread of English in linguistics landscape in Hue can be indexed as the arrival of globalization and modernity (Taylor-Leech, 2012: 28). To welcome a lot of visitors, from a very ancient, royal, tradition city, the city has to be rebuilt and restored in ways which can comfort and adapt the new challenges and environment, it is therefore becomes modern. The foreign languages which are used in the official signs also contributes to the modernity and makes the city becomes high culture. And I think Hue becomes familiar to many domestic and abroad visitors by the chances of Festivals. All of these reasons contribute to its factor of globalization of the city mentioned above.
On the right side of the poster, the audience can see the term VIETINBANK which means Vietnam Industrial Bank and its diamond symbol. The fact that VIETINBANK sponsored ten billion Vietnam Dongs for this Festival made it achieve the title “2012 Hue festival Diamond sponsor” which is stated at the lower right corner of the billboard in Vietnamese: “Nhà Tài Trợ Kim Cương-Huế 2012.” Bank is an English word which is pronounced [bænk] but it is vietnamized into bank [băng] reffering to places where monetary transactions can be done. It is where globalizationa and locality is intwerwined or intersected because a foreign word becomes a “Vietnamese” term which is accepted by every Vietnamese person who even doesnot know how to speak English.
The blue-color background can be symbolized as peace in this city. It is peaceful in the sense of climate, environment, human nature and politics. During the festival, it was not so cold or too hot with some slightly rain which creates a mild temperature for tourists going around the city. The clean, clear and green urban contributes to the perfect tourism environment for domestic and international visitors to enjoy their vacation here. And Vietnam is a communist country so the political system is stable and my country is famous in South East Asia for its politic security. On the left side of the poster, its background is the image of the Imperial Palace where Nguyen Kings and Emperors used to stay before 1945. This is one of the destinations of Hue Festival with a lot of performances implementing there. The palace is not only famous for its royal life but for its architecture as well. Furthermore, it is the destination of many tourists when visiting Hue City because they can take their pictures in the King, Queen, Prince and Princess ’ costumes sitting in the golden throne. So visitors may feel excited and interested when having a tour to this historical place.
Besides, the white round circle with the three-store house image appears over the Imperial Palace background at the left side of the poster is the logo of the national tourism 2012 in Hue city. The purple S shape of the logo is the shape of Vietnam inwhich Hue is in the middle coast area. Purple is the special color of Hue female in the long tradition dress called “ao dai”. In oder words, they usually wear the purple “ao dai” in some specially cases as festivals. This traditional color simbolizes for faithfullness according the view point of Hue local people.
Have you ever wondered why this logo is placed on the left side of this festival linguistic landscape whereas the sponsor’s name is set on the lower right side corner? From the viewpoint of a Vietnamese target audience, I think we start to read from the left to the right, so the left is considered as the starting point and the right is the ending point. In other words, the nation tourism year festival is celebrated in Hue which is placed on the left is able to be successfull or to come to the end-“the right side” successfully or not is dependent so much on the sponsor’s fund. This can be seen as one of the possible reasons accounted for their positions in this above festival linguistic landscape.
In short, all of the analysis mentioned above can anchor me to clarify the purpose of this official sign, to identify its target audience, to explore the semiotic resources used and to unveil the reflection of local realities.
Bibliography
Taylor-Leech, K.J. (2012). Language choice as an index of identity: linguistic landscape in Dili, Timor-Leste. International Journal of Multilingualism 9 (1): 15 – 34.
In this research, Taylor-Leech tries to explore how the language choice reflects social and national identity in the linguistic landscape of Dili, Timor-Leste. The author tries to explore the concepts of iconicity, indexicality and visual grammar of official and non-official public signage in this city. More than that, he studies further on the language use in public space to find out the implications on language policy in social marketing and mobilization.
Tove Rosendal (2009). Linguistic markets in Rwanda: Language use in advertisements and on signs. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 30, 1, 19-39.
In this article, Rosendal examines the changes in mass communication advertisements, especially newspaper, linguistic landscape as shop signs and billboards in Kigali and Butare. The essential assumption of this research is that there is a competition of language use in linguistic market which affects Rwanda and the other non-African official languages. The researcher suggests that there should be more researches on the field to set the foundation for the roles and usages of the three official languages of Rwanda.
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