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Tertiary students shun foreign languages
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English is considered the global language but that doesn’t guarantee its continued existence as a university major in Ho Chi Minh City.


With fewer and fewer students opting to major in a foreign language, Ho Chi Minh City’s universities have been pruning their language courses and in some cases eradicating them altogether.

Public institutions like the University of Humanities and Social Sciences have responded to the subdued interest by lowering their English entry requirements, while some private universities have cut the number of classes or stopped their English courses entirely.

Van Hien University, for instance, opened four English classes for 135 students in 2000, but two years later it was down to one new class with 41 students.

There were no English classes whatsoever in 2005 and 2006 as very few students applied.

For the following year, Van Hien changed the name of the course to English for Business and Trade and enrolled 26 students.

At Hong Bang University, so few applicants passed the English entrance exam that they were transferred to other majors like tourism administration and accountancy.

Nguyen Thi Mai Binh of Hung Vuong University says her school is also having trouble attracting students interested in English or any other foreign language on offer.

Hung Vuong’s answer was to lower the entrance examination’s pass mark to the minimum regulated by the Ministry of Education and Training.

The same situation bedevils the HCMC University of Foreign Language and Information Technology.

“We are very nervous and worried that there won’t be anyone to enroll in our foreign language courses within a few years,” says Bui Khanh The, the university’s deputy head.

He attributes the situation to the dictates of the marketplace.

When they recruit university graduates nowadays, most companies are looking for people with more than just foreign language proficiency; they want job applicants with certain professional expertise, so having English skills is not the deciding factor in landing a job but merely an advantage, The explains.

Tran Chut, deputy head of Van Hien University, views foreign language qualification much the same way, and believes it is no basis for a career.

He points out that there is no need to do an intensive four-year course in English when language skills can be honed by completing a short course at a language school.

Moreover, most universities now simply aim for their English students to score 350 to 450 in the Test of English International Communication (TOEIC) exam – a global standard for measuring English language skills for business.

This means that fresh graduates can have internationally accepted English skills without majoring in the language.

Other languages too

It’s even worse where French and Chinese are concerned.

At Nong Lam University, so few students have enrolled in French since the course started that it has finally been dropped, according to deputy head Huynh Thanh Hung.

It’s the same at the University of Humanities and Social Sciences, where the number of students majoring in French has plummeted, says deputy head Le Huu Phuoc.

To keep the French course going, the university has started taking students who failed at other schools or other courses.

Ta Quang Lam of the HCMC University of Education says that last year his school was allowed to enroll up to 80 students in its French education and French language courses but only got 30, so the two courses were merged into one.

Some private universities have stopped all foreign language courses.

“We abandoned French five or six years ago,” says Binh of Hung Vuong University.

Likewise, Chut of Van Hien University says his school gave up on French years ago, but only after making every effort to keep the course going.

For Bui Khanh The of the HCMC University of Foreign Language and Information Technology, the courses at risk, besides English, are Chinese studies and Chinese language.

Last year, there were only nine applicants for Chinese, so those who passed the entrance test were transferred to other courses, says The.

At Van Hien University, would-be Chinese majors starting first year in 2007 and 2008 were transferred to English for Business and Trade.

Ton Duc Thang University only enrolled 20 students in its Chinese course this time around, or half the quota, says the university’s Nguyen Tuong Duy.

One reason why Chinese is shunned is the belief that it’s harder to learn than English.

That could well be true. Some students at the HCMC University of Education say their Chinese is still poor even after studying it since they were children and continuing at university.

Phuoc agrees, “They sure can’t speak Chinese fluently, even the students that complete fourth year.”

Reported by Thuy Vinh