Illustrative image (Photo: VNA) Da Nang (VNA) - Small traders at several markets in the central city of Da Nang, including Son Tra night market, are now being provided with free foreign language courses, to improve service quality and woo more customers to their stores. Since running her business at the Son Tra night market, an emerging tourist destination in Da Nang city, Pham Le Na has been aware of the necessity of learning foreign languages as she has to talk to customers from around the world every day. “I can speak English, Korean, and Chinese, but just for communication only, just enough to get the customers to buy my goods,” Na said. Since the market was put into operation, the Son Tra authority has conducted training courses on communication skills and service quality. The free foreign language classes in particular, which only last for only 4-6 weeks but stick to material relevant to traders’ products, has proved popular, making positive changes to … [Read more...] about Traders in Da Nang learn foreign languages to woo more customers
Foreign language proficiency pay army
2nd Vietnamese language proficiency exam held in Japan
Candidates making procedures to enter exam rooms (Photo: vov.vn) The exam attracted over 560 candidates of different age groups, a surge from the previous exam, which drew 379 candidates. It included six levels, from basic and advanced. Candidates who were unsure of their level were allowed to register for two exams. Mr. Yanagisawa Yoshio, Chairman of the Exam Board, said candidates of the exam came from 27 localities across Japan, including prefectures near Tokyo such as Chiba, Saitama and Kanagawa, as well as northern and western prefectures like Hokkaido, Okinawa, Aomori and Kumamoto. The average age of the candidates was 40, with the oldest being 82 years old and the youngest 15 years old. Particularly, a significant number of Japanese people working in Vietnam returned to Tokyo to take the exam. Mr. Fujino Masayoshi, Chairman of the association of Southeast Asian nations’ foreign language exchange in Japan, said that Vietnam and Japan have a long-standing friendship. Aiming … [Read more...] about 2nd Vietnamese language proficiency exam held in Japan
Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant program offers at least 3 awards
(CPV) - The 2018 competition for the Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant (FLTA) program begins on May 19th. This is a nine-month, fully-funded, non-degree program for early career English teachers or professionals in related fields (American Studies, American/English Literature…). Participants have the opportunity to refine their teaching skills, increase their English language proficiency and extend their knowledge of the US society and culture, while being teaching assistants for their native language to US students and strengthening foreign language instruction at US colleges and universities. The Fulbright Program in Vietnam will coordinate to nominate up to 03 primary and 02 alternate candidates from Vietnam. It is anticipated that at least 03 awards will be made. Details on the eligibility requirements, expenses covered and application process can be seen at the website at http://vietnam.usembassy.gov/fulbright_flta.html, or contact Ms. Nguyen Thi Hanh, the … [Read more...] about Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant program offers at least 3 awards
Foreign language proficiency needed for job seekers
Viet Nam News Đào Quang Vinh, Director of the Institute of Labour Science and Social Affairs, speaks to the newspaper Kinh tế & Đô thị (Economic and Urban Affairs) about the importance of learning a foreign language for job seekers. Results of the recent high school graduation exams showed students' marks for English were very low. In your opinion, what can we do to improve English language skills? I should say that one of the weakest points of Vietnamese workers, in this time of deep international integration, is their foreign language capacity and ability. The only way to improve foreign language skills is to attend either formal or informal classes. Particularly, at general schools, the timetabling for foreign languages should be more intensive. Meanwhile, at colleges or universities, foreign language must be a compulsory subject with standard sets of input and output criteria. As we all know, Việt Nam is a member of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), we want our working … [Read more...] about Foreign language proficiency needed for job seekers
Teachers question very low marks on foreign language exam
VietNamNet Bridge - In 2015, the average mark students received on high-school finals was ‘abnormally low’. The same phenomenon is happening this year. Experts have warned that if the method of teaching foreign languages and creation of exam questions continues, the problem of exceptionally low marks will remain. Most examinees registered to take English tests for the 2015 high school finals (552,000). Only 580 took the Chinese test, 421 the Japanese test, 241 the Russian and 55 the German. Right before high school finals took place, teachers voiced their concern about the exam, which included foreign languages as one of the three compulsory exam subjects. Students were asked to write essays instead of doing multiple-choice only as in previous years. However, though anticipating that foreign languages would be a big challenge for examinees, the teachers were surprised that the exam scores would be so low, 49,715 exams got 3 scores only, while 49,358 had 2.5 scores. Experts … [Read more...] about Teachers question very low marks on foreign language exam