At the opening ceremony

This is an annual activity held by the PragueVietnamese Language Centre in order to help overseas Vietnamese learn moreabout their mother tongue and national culture.

Students were tested for language proficiency,then split into three classes: Grade A1 for beginners, A2 for intermediatelevel and Grade B1 for advanced.

The classes will last for two months usingtextbooks of the Vietnam’s Ministry of Education and Training and materials ofthe Prague Vietnamese Language Centre compiled by Nguyen Quyet Tien.

At the opening ceremony for the classes, Tienpresented the centre with six Vietnamese – Czech dictionaries.

Director of the centre Nguyen Van Son said thecentre has run Vietnamese classes for 17 years, helping thousands of childrenunderstand the language and Vietnamese culture

He added that the success of the classes was possiblethanks to support from the Vietnamese State and the Czech Republic’s Ministryof Education.

Dao Thi Loi, who has been living in the CzechRepublic for 10 years, said her seven-year-old son is studying at the centre.

The Vietnamese classes are very useful to helpchildren speak, read and write Vietnamese fluently, she added.

As one of the students at the centre, Bui VietHieu, 14, born and raised in the Czech Republic, shared that he has been learningat the centre for seven years.

He said he learns Vietnamese to communicate withhis parents and grandparents and preserve Vietnamese culture.

The Czech Republic recognised the Vietnamesecommunity as one of its ethnic minority groups in 2013.-VNA