Reflection of Week 2

LANGUAGE – AN ICON OR IDENTITY
OF A COUNTRY

I highly agree that linguistic landscape is related to the display of texts and images in public places. Why there is a monolingual policy in official signs in Vietnam except for some special occasions is a big question for me. At first, I thought it is because the Vietnamese political policy but later on I realize that language can function as an icon or an identity of a country. (Taylor-Leech. 2012: 16) Moreover, in the article: “The role of English in Vietnam’s foreign language policy: a brief history” by Thinh (2006: 1) I realize that Vietnam did not have its own language in a very long period. The foreign languages used to be used as the national or official language through the 4000-year history of the country. Vietnamese language has been the official language of Vietnam since September, 2^nd 1945 when president Ho Chi Minh declared the independence of Vietnam. I feel proud of my country because we now have our own system of language as a medium of instruction and as a way of communication. The time which we had to use a borrowed language to express ourselves passed away.

This national and official language can help shape the identity for Vietnam. Based on the writing in this language, people around the world can recognize the existence of this country-Vietnam. In other words Vietnamese is the symbol of national pride in this newly independent Vietnam. I think all of these reasons constitute to the answer of my very first question above.

Furthermore, in nowadays global village, the use of English in official signs in Vietnam as in the case of 2012 Hue Festival can be considered as an indication of the social development of the country. It will help the local people who are even at low literacy will be familiar with this foreign language. I feel that it is quite reasonable when the Vietnamese government has an overall objective of fully innovation for teaching and learning of foreign languages ​​in the national education system, as well as launching a new foreign language teaching and learning at all educational levels from 2008 to 2020.

In my own opinion, the spread of English language in Vietnam shows that this country has reached to the status of developed, globalization, international presence and modernity.

                         WORK CITED

Thịnh, Đỗ Huy (2006). The Role of English in Vietnam’s Foreign Language Policy. 19th Annual EA Education Conference 2006. www.englishaustralia.com.au/ ea_conference2006 /proceedings/ index.html

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.