Singaporean school curriculum to include Vietnamese from next year

The Ministry of Education (MOE) plans to introduce this and other changes to help students adapt to an increasingly complex, interconnected and tech-driven world, especially with Southeast Asia being one of the world's fastest growing region, a press release said earlier this week.

It would also help schools undertake age-appropriate trips to Southeast Asian countries with a language and cultural exposure component as part of pre-trip preparations.

Parts of that component would include age-appropriate digital resources for learning Thai and Vietnamese, while conversational Chinese and Malay training programs would be offered for interested students to learn additional languages beyond English and their mother tongues to provide "rich overseas learning experiences in ASEAN countries," the MOE said.

The Vietnamese language program will be available for students between 12 and 18 years of age.

While Vietnamese is mostly used in Vietnam and by Vietnamese, the language is being learned more and more by expats in the country.

Vo Thi Thanh Binh, director of HCMC-based Vietnamese Language Studies, had said last year that the number of foreigners coming to her center was increasing year after year. Besides those who come to learn Vietnamese for work, there are also research students who need to understand the language for their projects, she added.