Rise of Chinese language in Vietnam hinders plans to bring back Russian

There is a Russian-Vietnamese plan to bring the learning of Russian back to Vietnamese schools. But the reality is that English and Chinese are the most popular languages in the country.

In a joint statement issued at the end of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Hanoi last month, a plan to bring the Russian language back to Vietnamese schools was announced. While some Soviet-trained academics in Vietnam welcomed the plan, others doubted its success. For example, Kim Van Chinh, a retired economist who was trained in the Soviet Union, expressed his fondness for Russian on Facebook, but also regretted that it is no longer considered a prestigious language “because of Russian politics and poor economy”.

The economist’s lament underscores the challenges that the two governments face in reviving the Russian language in Vietnamese schools. It is unlikely that Vietnamese students will show much interest in learning Russian, as they now prioritise English and other foreign languages, particularly Chinese, which offer them better job opportunities and prospects for studying abroad.

Since Vietnam’s adoption of economic reforms in 1986, English has become the most popular language for education in the country. It is also the primary foreign language of choice for international trade, state administration, and diplomacy in Vietnam. This is reinforced by a government circular issued in January 2014, which requires all candidates for civil service to have a minimum proficiency level of A2 in English (which is equivalent to 400 TOEIC, or 3.0-3.5 IELTS).

In addition to English, Russian also faces competition from other foreign languages in Vietnam. Currently, it lags behind not only English but also Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and Spanish, which are the top five foreign languages sought after by job seekers in the country. The growing popularity of the Chinese language is particularly noteworthy, as it has surpassed Russian and may even challenge English’s top spot in certain localities and business sectors due to the high demand for Chinese-speaking staff. Last September, VietnamWorks, a recruitment website, reported that students with Chinese proficiency had a nearly 100 per cent chance of securing a job after graduation.

There are three main factors contributing to the recent popularity of Chinese language learning in Vietnam: strong bilateral economic relations, educational exchanges, and the widespread use of social media.

Vietnam’s trade with China has been steadily growing, reaching US$171 billion in 2023. Additionally, China’s cumulative investment in Vietnam had reached US$27 billion by November 2023. Taiwan and Hong Kong, two major Chinese-speaking jurisdictions outside mainland China, are also among the top five foreign investors in Vietnam. The rise in business opportunities has created a high demand for individuals proficient in Chinese, leading to the popularity of Chinese language courses at local universities. Currently, more than 50 universities in Vietnam offer Chinese language programmes. In comparison, Vietnam’s trade with Russia in 2023 was only US$3.6 billion, and cumulative Russian investment in Vietnam stood at a mere US$966 million as of end-2022. This has resulted in a low demand for Russian language courses among Vietnamese job seekers.

The affordability of studying in China and Taiwan, with living and tuition costs 70-80 per cent cheaper than in the US and the UK, has also contributed to the growth of Chinese language learning in Vietnam. Between September 2022 and September 2023, 50,700 Vietnamese students were reportedly studying in China and Taiwan. This number is significantly higher than the approximately 5,000 Vietnamese students studying in Russia as of 2023. This suggests that the demand for Chinese language learning is much stronger than the demand for Russian language learning among Vietnamese students.

Moreover, the popularity of Chinese language learning in Vietnam has also been influenced by the rise of social media platforms, virtual classrooms, and language groups. For instance, the Facebook group “Học tiếng Trung mỗi ngày” (Learning Chinese Everyday) has more than 1.6 million members, and many similar groups have 700,000 to 800,000 members each. It is not uncommon to find individual teachers livestreaming Chinese lessons on platforms like TikTok, with subscriber counts ranging from 100,000 to 170,000. The demand for Chinese language learning in the post-Covid19 era in Vietnam has also created a lucrative market for Vietnamese teachers.

… a new generation of Vietnamese is now showing a strong interest in learning Chinese, not necessarily due to China’s political and cultural influence, but rather because of their practical consideration for career opportunities in the job market.

Historically, the teaching of foreign languages in Vietnam has been tumultuous, influenced by the political and economic climate in Hanoi as well as its foreign relations. During the Maoist era (1955-76) Chinese was a popular language in North Vietnam’s colleges, while French and English were discouraged as they were seen as languages of Western imperialism. However, after the Sino-Vietnamese border war in 1979, the Chinese language was seen with hatred and banned. In its place, Russian was being promoted instead. Soon afterwards, Vietnam’s economic opening and the demise of the Soviet Union prompted the decline of Russian and the concurrent rise of English, as well as Korean and Japanese.

The recent rise of Chinese language learning in Vietnam has also faced challenges. In 2023, the Vietnamese Ministry of Education swiftly rejected rumours that they were “replacing English with Chinese” in schools to quell nationalist sentiment. The ongoing disputes in the South China Sea between Vietnam and China have caused a segment of the Vietnamese public to maintain a cautious attitude towards the spread of Chinese political and cultural influence in the country, including through the Chinese language.

However, a new generation of Vietnamese is now showing a strong interest in learning Chinese, not necessarily due to China’s political and cultural influence, but rather, because of their practical consideration for career opportunities in the job market. Against this context, it is reasonable to predict that the popularity of the Chinese language will continue to grow in Vietnam, while the trajectory of the Russian language may be different. Despite the recent Vietnam-Russia joint statement, the declining economic status of Russia and weak bilateral economic ties suggest that Vietnamese youth are unlikely to embrace Russian as enthusiastically as they have embraced Chinese.

By Nguyen Thanh Giang & Le Hong Hiep – Fulcrum.sg / Yusof Ishak Institute – July 12, 2024