BY LOCALS, FOR LOCALS
4/2018
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#iAMHCMC
By Locals, For Locals
EDUCATION FEATURES 6. The Past and Future of Foreign Language Education in Vietnam 8. Going to School Without Leaving Home 10. Is the American Dream Turning Canadian? 12. An Education Apart: Alternative Schooling in Vietnam 16. “Foreign” Students Missing in Vietnamese Higher Ed 18. Foreign Universities Help Fulfill Core Vietnamese National Value 22. Pros and Cons of Raising Children in Expat Environment 26. Vietnamese Increasing in US Visa Program for Wealthy Immigrants 28. Can Overwork be Bad for Development? 32. In Vietnam, French Consul Seeking To ‘Reinforce The Links’ 36. Vietnam To Miss English Language Fluency Target
The Year of the Dog began with a loss: Keely Burkey, Content Manager of #iAMHCMC, returned home to Portland, Oregon. Fortunately for us, she continues to work remotely as a trusted editor and advisor. Our content department has recently seen a fair bit of shuffling in her stead: Mr. Jesús López-Gómez has been appointed as our new Content Manager; Ms. Hieu Tran, our staff writer in Hanoi, will assist; and our newest recruit, HCMC-based Mrs. Molly Headley-Benkaci, has signed on as our Senior Writer and Editor. Together they will continue working with our large pool of writers and experts, so that each month we can give you the pertinent and meaningful stories you’ve come to expect. Changes haven’t stopped in the content department. We also welcome the additions of Mr. Paul Espinas as our Marketing Director, and Mr. Leonard Lecoq as our Sales Director. To strengthen our operations, Mr. Son Nguyen will oversee our production team, while Ms. Hera Nguyen will shine as our Design Manager. Mr. Fabrice Turry will also lend a hand as a part-time film producer. And with new employees comes new surroundings. We’ve recently moved floors within the same building to increase communication and efficiency. In my humble perspective, this team is the best we’ve ever had, and we’ve come together right in time to celebrate Innovo JSC’s 10th anniversary! We’ll be focusing all creative energies on CityPassGuide.com and #iAMHCMC to solidify our place as Vietnam’s leading English language publisher for travellers and residents. Further, we’re embracing our role as a 360-degree creative marketing agency with an emphasis on the hospitality and F&B industries. Plus, we’re embracing the digital revolution—stay tuned for the #iAMHCMC app, launching in June. All of these changes and positive steps forward were made possible thanks to our dedicated team, clients and readers. Please enjoy our third-annual education issue, which we hope will provide you with valuable insights, as always. And finally, we give you our sincere good wishes at the start of this new year. Your feedback is most valued.
HEALTH FEATURES 24. To Snuff Vietnam’s Smoking Habit Doctors Enlist Families, Spouses Patrick Gaveau CEO
ENVIRONMENT FEATURES 30. Food Bank Vietnam: Leading the Fight against Food Waste
TRAVEL FEATURES 38. Telling the Story of Vietnamese Women
FROM OUR PARTNERS 4. Thinking International Baccelaureate? AIS adopts innovative guidance tool 7. Innovation Through Construction: Next Steps at EIS 15. An International School with a Giving Heart 20. How to Create World-Class Education in the Heart of HCMC 27. The Art of the Brew: Cafe Show 2018 29. Your Next Trip: Cambodia 31. Party Provider Cuisine World 2 | iamhcmc.com/gazette
HAVE FEEDBACK? CONTACT ME AT SRWRITER@INNOVO.VN CEO Patrick Gaveau Co-Owner Benjamin Giroux Executive Assistant & HR Manager Thao Dao General Accountant My Nguyen Content Manager Jesús López-Gómez
Traffic Coordinator Huong Pham Marketing Coordinator Thomas Kervennic Digital Marketing Analyst Minh Tran Digital Marketing Assistant My Tran BD Manager Philippe Chambraud
Staff Writer Tran Thi Minh Hieu Sr. Writer Molly Headley-Benkaci Copyeditor Keely Burkey Sr. Technical Officer Stefan Georg IT Manager Albus Ha
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EDUCATION (nhiều tác giả)
Thanh Niên Publishing House 64 Ba Trieu - Hanoi - Vietnam | Tel: (+84 0 24) 3 943 40 44 - 62 63 1719 Publishing Liability: Director - Editor in Chief: Nguyen Xuan Truong | Editor: Ta Quang Huy License Info: Publishing Registration Plan No.: 13-2018/CXBIPH/22-210/TN Publishing Permit No.: 105/QĐ-TN | Issued on 9 March 2018 | ISBN: 978-604-64-9470-6 5,000 copies printed at HCMC Nhan Dan Newspaper Printing Co., Ltd (D20/532P, Hamlet 4, Binh Chanh District, HCMC) No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission in writing from the publisher.
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This Month in #iAMHCMC
“I don’t think Trump has any affect on the students that go there to study. If they find a program, they’ll go. And I would just say, ‘Be careful, choose wisely.’”
“I really wanna come back!” he said. “Vietnamese people are lovely and super friendly, I hope they will always stay like that!” Timo Schmid, a Dutch student, reflecting on his study abroad experience at RMIT in HCMC.
Hillary Huong Vu, a Vietnamese student, who studied in the US.
“I’ve had cases where an athlete who doesn’t get the best test scores will feel isolated here. There’s not as much of an emphasis on the ‘whole student’…” Azrael Jeffrey, Psychotherapist and Educational Specialist at the International Center for Cognitive Development, explaining the outsized role academics plays in the school social hierarchy.
“Basically, this is the job of any diplomat. Their job is to reinforce the links.” “In fact, children can learn a lot through day-to-day activities outside of school, including interactions with family members at home and going out together with friends.”
French Consul General Vincent Floreani said, reflecting on the legacy of cooperation between France and Vietnam.
After Vietnam’s reunification “Russian became the dominant language, overshadowing the demands for all others in Vietnam’s early reunification.” Do Huy Thinh of the Vietnamese TESOL Association.
Dr. Nguyen Thuy Anh, founder of the “Reading with Kids” club in Hanoi.
Now, everyone is spending their energy learning the quadratic equation, and guess what? I have a calculator to do that for me. These days they don’t need the quadratic equation drilled into their heads.”
“Confucian ideals dictated that although man is at the center of the universe, man is a social being, and finds his (or her) highest potential realized in community with others. Within this potential is the ability to be educated, and as such, education should be accessible to all.”
“When I first started coming out here 20 years ago there was a huge billboard at Tan Son Nhat Airport of the ‘Marlboro Man’ [advertising campaign featuring a smoking cowboy] from America.”
Kristi Cruz, a mother who unschools her children in Saigon.
City Pass Guide writer J.K. Hobson explaining how education became a core cultural value.
Dr. Mason Cobb, a smoking opponent and doctor with Victoria Healthcare. 3
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Thinking International Baccelaureate? AIS adopts innovative guidance tool Australia International School’s demanding International Baccalaureate curriculum, while providing an excellent foundation for university study, also has a lasting impact on the students’ postgraduate career trajectory. Put simply, it’s a big deal. Thankfully, the school’s staff includes a group of Student Welfare Coordinators—administrators and staff—charged with shepherding the students through this trying period. AIS also recently added an important asset to its student support tools, the Interquest career guidance assessment. At the later stages of the students’ careers, they “have to make some pretty high-stakes decisions”, Deputy Executive Principal Mark Vella said. Vella spoke as students were receiving their InterQuest results, the first Australia International School cohort to take the assessment. For the Year 11 students this comes at a critical juncture. In the next academic year, as they begin the IB Diploma Programme, they’ll take the six courses that they will select this year. These courses start in Year 12 and last until graduation the following year. There is little room for change.
“It showed me all these other things I didn’t know I could do”, Tran said. His dream job is in the field of sports science, but Tran said the InterQuest test showed him that he may have the makings of a lawyer or a political official because of his leadership qualities. Johnathan Hackenberg, a fellow year 11 student, harbours aspirations of becoming a stage actor. The InterQuest test showed him that he could also find fulfillment in radically different fields: sales or management.
“By the end of Year 11, you’re committed”, Vella said.
Before taking the test, Hackenburg said, “I was only thinking of what I wanted to do rather than all these other things that I didn’t know I could do.”
The test involves a 90-minute general skills assessment called the Cambridge Profile—a comprehensive assessment that quantifies a range of academic abilities, including writing ability and spatial reasoning—and a 250-question engagement test that measures the student’s interest in a variety of academic and professional pursuits.
The InterQuest Test “showed me not only what careers I can take but kind of broadened it out even further”, he said. “It showed me all these things that I was interested in, but also this extra grey range that I hadn’t heard of or hadn’t known of.”
After taking the test, Year 11 student Andrew Tran said he not only got a greater sense of his competence in subjects and areas where he knew that he was strong, but he also discovered previously unknown aptitudes. 4 | iamhcmc.com/gazette
“It helped me realized where I am as a person”, he said. “It made me feel somewhat … like I knew where I was going.” Tran comes from what he describes as “traditional Asian parents”, a label he uses to qualify their
advocacy for his pursuing hard sciences. Before the career mentoring work the Australia International School staff had done with him alongside the InterQuest test, Tran said it was hard for him to suggest anything outside of something like upper level maths to his parents. He said the test gave him firmer grounds from which to advocate for his individual career interests. “That’s what’s actually really cool about this test”, he said. “Instead of me just going to them and saying ‘Maybe I’m not fit for this’, instead of them thinking ‘Oh, maybe he’s just not ready’ … they can look at the results and see for themselves ‘Well, he might be better doing something else’”, he said. It’s a conversation that might look different if Tran were taking his IB curriculum at another school. The Australia International School’s guidance complimented by the InterQuest Test has allowed the students to have a meaningful conversation about what their last few years of Senior School are going to look like. For Tran, the work may be enough to shift his entire career trajectory.
“... I could have potentially different interests and [my parents’] view of what I could be in the future shifted”, he said.
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EDUCATION FEATURE
by Molly Headley-Benkaci
The Past and Future of Foreign Language
Education in Vietnam
From being part of the Chinese kingdom and the French colonial state to its complicated past relationships with the US and Russia, Vietnam has historically been a country crowded with languages. As a result, Vietnamese itself was only recognized as the country’s official tongue in 1945. Today it is mandatory for all students in Vietnamese schools to follow their studies in Vietnamese but the recent influx of foreign business and tourism has increased the importance of learning other languages as well. The majority of students study English as their first foreign language with French being the reigning second. The priority of Vietnam’s Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) is for all students in Vietnamese schools to learn English as their first foreign language, according to Priscille Lasémillante, Attaché for the French language at l’Institut Français du Vietnam (French Institute of Vietnam) . Then, when possible, they can learn a second foreign language. Today French is the foreign language the most taught after English, with approximately 40,000 students. 10,000 or fewer students study Japanese and a fraction study Korean, German, Russian and Chinese, Lasémillante said in an interview given in French.
From Tradition to Necessity To understand the country’s dominant languages today, we have to go back to the 1954 Geneva Conference where Vietnam was officially divided through the middle. This 6 | iamhcmc.com/gazette
rupture informed not only policies but also language. In the North, Chinese and Russian took precedence in the educational system, while in the South, French and English became the preferred languages. However, after reunification, the Southern languages and Chinese plummeted out of favour and it was Russian that connected the country to the rest of the Communist bloc.
French remains popular in large part because between 1992 and 2006, French language education in Vietnam was financed by the French government. Numerous scholarships—notably in the sectors of medicine, engineering, and law—still exist to help Vietnamese continue their studies in France, and the only Vietnamese degree recognised internationally is a French-Vietnamese diploma in engineering.
Do Huy Thinh, from the Vietnamese TESOL Association, wrote that, “Russian became the dominant language, overshadowing the demands for all others in Vietnam’s early reunification.”
German became another contender to be a favorite second language when Goethe-Institut cultural centres were set up in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City and student foreign exchanges began to develop. Japanese became a third major player through scholarship schemes intended to help Vietnamese students study at Japanese universities.
When the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, Vietnam found itself with a sudden lack of opportunities for Russian trained students; as a result the language is barely taught in Vietnam today. In 1987, Vietnam introduced Doi Moi, the open door trade policy that brought the country onto the international stage. The resulting explosion of business, tourism and foreign investments launched a need for new languages in Vietnam and English quickly took the lead. The English language was granted special authority in 1994 when the prime minister signed an order requiring government officials to learn foreign languages, with English being the primary focus. Foreign investments and influences from Englishspeaking countries have further solidified English as the top studied second language in Vietnam. MOET recently attempted to codify language training even more with the federal education agency’s Project 2020 initiative. Launched in 2008, the project’s mission is to advance Vietnamese students’ English to an intermediate level, yet as of 2018 Vietnam remains 7th in Asia in English language proficiency.
Motivation and Mobility Today Vietnamese parents tend to push their children to study whatever language has the greatest utility.
Looking Towards China? English is still necessary for advancement in Vietnam and throughout Asia—it is the official language of ASEAN—yet some experts warn against parents becoming too obsessed with their children becoming anglophones.
The lack of Chinese taught in Vietnamese schools may be surprising given that Mandarin Chinese is the language spoken by the most people worldwide, and it is the official language of mainland China, Taiwan, and Singapore, countries in close proximity to and bearing business interests in Vietnam. “China is the world’s second largest economy”,
Nguyen Thi Linh Tu, deputy head of the Chinese language faculty in the Hue University’s University of Foreign Languages, said in comments reported by China state media outlet xinhua News Agency. Priscille Lasémillante agrees. The Vietnamese have a super power just in front of them. China is in the process of developing a cultural cooperation with the rest of the world and perhaps Vietnam should take note, she said.
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different dynamic to meeting individual needs and gives kids chances to engage differently than they would have done previously.”
Learning, Reconfigured This flexibility has been further carried out throughout the plans of EIS’s new multi-storey teacching and learning facility, a project that broke ground earlier this year. Scheduled for completion for the start of the 2019 academic year, the stateof-the-art facility will include four science labs, four collaborative learning spaces, a multipurpose space ideal for assemblies and performances, a 25-metre pool and a sports field on the roof.
Innovation Through Construction:
Next Steps at EIS A school’s curriculum is fundamentally shaped by its environment. As the European International School breaks ground on new buildings, imagination and creativity is key.
centre, currently under construction. As EIS grows in size and numbers, it’s embraced the opportunity to shape educational practices alongside the new projects.
Starting Out Right As Iain Fish, Head of School at the European International School (EIS) explained, the coming years at EIS haven’t been planned in a vacuum: the next steps have been intimately linked with the quickly evolving future of education. He picks up a smartphone to explain. “All of the knowledge you’ll ever need will be on here, so education isn’t about memorisation anymore”, he said. “We don’t know the jobs that [our students] will be doing later on, but what we do know is that they’re going to have to be flexible, they’ll need to be autonomous, and they’ll need the skills to analyse questions, interrogate, collaborate and reflect.”
The goals of education are in flux, so shouldn’t a school’s environment follow suit? This is certainly the thinking behind EIS’s newest acquisitions: a brand new Early Years Centre and a multi-storey science, sports and collaboration
A welcoming environment is even more important the younger the students are, a fact that informed the creation of EIS’s newest learning establishment, the Early Years Centre. Officially opening in April, around 60 children from the Early Years Program will be able to enjoy the run of the learning centre, which includes a specially designed “kiddie kitchen”, a play area in a garden (“it’s like a mini adventure playground”, Mr. Fish said) and classrooms endowed with moveable bookshelves and flexible furniture to make on-the-spot reconfiguration a breeze. “They’re not standard shaped classrooms, which forces us to teach a little bit differently”, Mr. Fish said, noting that rather than being tethered to desks, children here have the opportunity to choose where they feel comfortable, like on a plush cushion on the floor. “It gives us a slightly
One part warm and inviting and one part hightech and innovative, this learning centre won’t be your typical school building.
Complete with embedded greenery, filtered air and a climbing wall, every effort is being made to give students optimal opportunities to shine, both inside the classroom and out. The learning spaces, sports facilities and performing arts spaces will be designed following an innovative philosophy that places investigative learning over traditional instruction. “As humans, our brains actually work best when we’re seeking an answer, rather than just trying to absorb information”, Mr. Fish said. “So we’re making sure that assignments are project-based, inquiry-focused and a lot less teacher-led.” This learning style follows suit to the school’s International Baccalaureate (IB) curriculum, a program emphasising enquiry-based learning at all stages of development. So far, EIS’s student-centred curriculum has been working wonders. Last year saw the young school’s first graduating class toss their mortarboards to great success. Such is the success of EIS graduates that a very high proportion receive scholarship offers, all the better to help them pursue their studies around the world, including the United States, Australia, Hong Kong and the United Kingdom. For Mr. Fish, the recent successes have everything to do with where the kids learn along with how. “We’re trying to create an environment where the kids can interact together naturally, and collaborate purposefully.” 7
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EDUCATION FEATURE
by Sivaraj Pragasm
Going to School Without Leaving Home
As online learning gets increasingly popular around the world, it’s easier now for the Vietnamese English learners to learn the language without needing to leave their homes. English is the third most widely-spoken language in the world, with about 360 million native speakers and with another half billion speaking it as a second language. However, its rising dominance as a second language in southeast Asian countries, especially Vietnam, is evident with the number of learning centres popping up across the country. Vietnamese schools do provide English courses, taught by certified teachers. However, the focus is typically on the basics and often cannot establish fluency earned by practise that goes beyond class time. Students who are genuinely interested in improving their language skills can continue their learning by watching English movies and television series, YouTube tutorials or by studying lyrics in English songs. Another option for students, with their parents’ financial support, is to enroll in language centres that can be found around the country. 8 | iamhcmc.com/gazette
One such student is Bella Nguyen, 26, a fashion entrepreneur who picked up the language by watching plenty of English movies, socialising with more English-speaking people, including foreigners and also relied on resources online such as YouTube. “There are many online tutorials on YouTube and Facebook that I follow. I also improved my vocabulary by watching BBC news programmes and talking to customers in English”, she said. None of these options required her to fork over any cash, though the effectiveness of these methods is questionable. For example, she noted that part of this learning process involved additional work such as crossreferencing words with a dictionary. Also, even though she could pronounce the words correctly, she was still unsure of which context the words could be used for, something which took quite a while to master. However, in the past few years, there have been new virtual alternatives that allow students to learn and practise the language in a more structured setting without needing to leave their homes, or even spend any money.
Duolingo is a free programme well known around the world for its innovative language courses.
Its English lessons are wildly popular among the Vietnamese. There are currently 8.93 million students subscribed to their “English for Vietnamese Speakers” course. With a learning tree structure, the programme teaches students the basic fundamentals of the language and provides tests which allow the student to progress to the next stage. It’s mobile app is popular among language learners. However, the biggest drawback to the app is that it’s fully automated, right down to the lack of a human voice, which may deter some learners. Duolingo’s model emphasises vocabulary but because of the complexities of the language, some students find it challenging to master grammar. However, thanks to advances in communication technology such as livestreaming and Voice over IP (VoIP)—the technology behind Skype’s internet phone calls—a new model started to emerge in the past decade: online learning centres with actual teachers providing courses
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remotely that are similar to what can be found in colleges and universities. Known as a massive open online course, or MOOC, these online courses provide options for various subjects and technical skills usually at college level. Some are taught by professors from renowned universities like Harvard. Certified English teachers teach the language lessons. These courses are usually free and provide students with the flexibility to attend classes whenever they like, from the comfort of their own homes. Some popular MOOC sites include Alison, Udemy, Canvas Network, Coursera and MOOEC, which stands for Massive Open Online English Course. Joseph Hanh, 30, a Canadian citizen who moved to Vietnam two years ago, teaches online from the comfort of his home to students learning online. He spends a few hours each day conducting English lessons for students in various countries from his apartment in Saigon. “It’s convenient for me because I have plenty of freedom to plan my schedule and the salary is competitive”, he said. “It works just like an actual language school, there is a lesson plan that I follow and often, I have students who understand the lessons but have problems with pronunciation or finding the right words to use in a given context and this is where I provide additional help. In most cases, the students get it”, he added.
We spoke to one student learning English online, Trang Min. The 24-year-old beautician started learning English so she could serve foreign customers. “Learning English online allowed me to attend classes whenever I was free in the midst of my busy schedule. One of the biggest benefits of this, besides the low cost, was the convenience of not having to leave my home. All I needed was an internet connection”, she said.
“After completing two courses, I could feel my confidence grow and I was able to carry out entire conversations in English with strangers.”
According to Douglas, interest in learning the language has increased over the years, mainly because of the realisation by English learners that their chances of getting a better paying job outside the country decrease without a strong knowledge of the language. With an increasing number of students learning English online through the use of MOOC platforms, as well as resources available on popular platforms like YouTube and even Facebook, Vietnam’s future generations may be able to master the English language, and teachers will be able to teach them from anywhere in the world with neither of them even needing to leave their homes.
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EDUCATION FEATURE
by Keely Burkey
Is the American Dream
Turning Canadian? Families in Vietnam are sending more students than ever abroad, and international universities are taking notice. Here’s how Canada has risen to become a top destination in just a few years. When Truong Nguyen (called simply ‘T.’ publicly) decided to attend high school in America in 2001, his reason was simple: “I wanted to live the American dream.” He added he felt a bit of pressure from his parents, who encouraged him to complete his education abroad and gain his citizenship in the foreign country. Funding his first year with an international scholarship, Nguyen and his parents paid for the rest of his high school career themselves. After graduating, he went on to complete a BA in computer science from the University of Louisiana. He said he liked the culture of the southern US. “I found a job in San Francisco working for a startup and I got a company to sponsor my [H1B] visa application”, he said. “But it’s hard. You have to stay in the same job for three or four years before getting a green card, and if you switch jobs, you have to start the process all over again.”
As an engineer in Silicon Valley’s quickly rotating startup community, sticking to one job wasn’t feasible or realistic. “When I moved to Canada, the process was a lot easier. It’s just a lot better.” As Vietnamese youth become sought-after students in the international education system, concerns like the difficulty of the application process and new visa laws start to matter. Is the American dream becoming the Canadian dream? 10 | iamhcmc.com/gazette
Getting Savvy As Christopher Runckel, America’s first diplomat to Vietnam after the war, told us, “In some markets, like the United States and Canada, the recruiter is basically trying to recruit the kid, but here [in Vietnam] they’re trying to recruit the parents, and they’ll often choose the programs the kids will go off to.” For parents, the decision has many factors at play: safety is typically the number one concern, though price and prestige also enter into the decision-making process. Chi Thuc Ha, the Director of University Counseling at American Education Group (AEG) says that family ties also play a strong role. If the future college student’s uncle lives in Texas, chances are parents will feel more comfortable if their child attends the University of Dallas rather than Cal State. While these factors undoubtedly play a part, more and more often Ha says that the parents are changing, not just their kids. “[P]arents are a lot more savvy now”, she said. “I think in the past, especially with the EB5 [visa], they were just focused on where they had put financial and economic roots. [...] Now they’re trying to find what’s the best fit for their kid.”
According to the General Statistics Office of Vietnam, almost 130,000 Vietnamese students studied abroad in 2016, and almost all of their tuitions were self-funded. It’s a student group that could bring hundreds of thousands of dollars to a country during each four-year education cycle, not counting higher education after college. Universities have caught on to the potential windfall; hundreds of university representatives come courting to Vietnam’s major cities every year in the hopes of swaying kids and parents towards their schools. At the Global Education Fair coming to HCMC this March, for example, representatives from 13 countries will be present, all ready to woo. In particular, Canada has made systemic efforts in their immigration and education system to appeal to a broader range of international students, and their efforts have been paying off.
Enter Canada According to statistics from a survey put out by “Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada”, students from Vietnam studying in
EDUCATION FEATURE
Canada have risen dramatically: in December 2016, the survey cited a 55 percent year-onyear student increase, second only to India’s 57 percent. Compare this to the United State’s more modest 5 percent gain in the same period.
However, this accounts for almost 5,000 Vietnamese students in Canada, still a paltry sum compared to the approximately 22,000 studying in the US.
Getting the Right People How to make Canada more appealing to Vietnamese students? It starts with the application process. According to Deren Temel of University World News, in 2015 Canada’s study permit processing time ranked thirdslowest, a major factor as a student makes plans for his or her future. In response, two programs have been started to increase the efficiency of Canada’s application process: the Canada Express Study (CES) program, an 18-month program launched in 2016, and the Study Direct Stream (SDS), which will be officially on line in March 2018 and will focus on post-secondary college applications. Both programs are similar on paper, and work to accomplish the same goal: to make the student transition from Vietnam to Canada as quick and effortless as possible. The system requires less financial documentation and has a faster visa processing time than traditional methods, and all forms and documents are easily accessible online. Eligibility for the fasttrack are relatively simple: an IELTS score of six or above is one of the several conditions, along with an investment of CAD$10,000, to be deposited to Canadian financial institution Scotiabank, which will be used by the student during their first year abroad.
So far, the changes have made a positive difference for the northern country’s educational goals. Speaking from the Consulate General of Canada’s office in HCMC, Consulate General Kyle Nunas said that the changes have made a large difference: now that the process is easier, over 50 percent more Vietnamese applicants are choosing to apply to Canada than two years previously. What’s more, completing education in Canada gives that student credit in the country’s pointbased permanent residency program.
A complete education gets the aspiring Canadian resident up to 30 points, almost half of the 67 points currently required to live in the country legally. “The point is to have more people come into the country, but to have the right people come—skilled, smart, experienced”, Runckel said. This is in direct contrast to the United States’ process, which encourages students to stay on a student visa and then return home after they gain their degree due to the US’s difficult immigration process. For Consulate General Kyle Nunas, the changes work to make Canada more welcoming to a wider group of people. “We’re a nation made by immigrants, after all”, Nunas said.
Unintended Consequences As Canada makes efforts to accommodate new residents, immigration and international laws have been tightening since President Donald Trump has stepped into office, and even before. “I think we’ve done more to lose some of the good will that we’ve with some countries in the last year than we’ve done in any one-year period in our history,” Runckel said. He said the policy changes have had unintended victims, like small colleges
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who previously depended on international students as an important source of revenue. For Vietnamese citizens hoping to move to the United States after college, the H1B visa has made a concrete difficulty for their plans. Multiple people we talked to agreed it’s getting harder to nab one of the visas, especially with the current lottery system in place. Hillary Huong Vu, a video animator who attended Missouri State University from 2012 to 2016, said that during her time in the country, the increase of anti-immigration sentiment became palpable, both socially and in the government. “I personally didn’t experience anything huge”, she said, when trying to recall instances of racism directed against her. “It was just little things, like people talking slowly because I have an accent.” Vu’s worst experience came at the tail-end of her time in the U.S., when a man approached her on the street loudly asking her if she was from China or Korea, and telling her to go back to her country. “It was scary”, she said. Hate crime incidents in America have gone up over the past year, from 5,800 in 2016 to more than 6,100 last year, according to FBI statistics. Ha at AEG says it’s unlikely any safety concerns would affect a Vietnamese family’s decision to study or move to the country. “For most families that I work with, that’s not something that they really see, primarily because as Asians we’re not the primary target [...] when people talk about anti-immigration”, she said.
Vu agreed, saying simply, “I don’t think Trump has any affect on the students that go there to study. If they find a program, they’ll go” “And I would just say, ‘Be careful, choose wisely.’ It’s not bad if you’re comfortable with it.”
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EDUCATION FEATURE
by Molly Headley-Benkaci
An Education Apart: Alternative Schooling in Vietnam The New School
is still new in Vietnam but a few families frustrated with the long hours, prices and rigidity of classic educational systems are
“Cost”. “Choice”. “Care”. These words echo throughout the statements of parents in HCMC who’ve decided to take their children out of the traditional school system. The alternative paths range from homeschooling, following a curriculum in a home environment, to unschooling, no school structure at home or otherwise. Parents are also selecting to enroll their children in what adherents call “world schooling”, allowing children to be educated by the world around them through travel. In HCMC, these parents are often divided into two camps: those who choose to educate their children themselves because of the high cost of private schools and those who consider it to be a philosophical decision. The concept 12 | iamhcmc.com/gazette
exploring new options.
Cost and Competition Khoi Nguyen is admin of the Facebook group “Saigon Homeschoolers”. Initially, he began the group to meet other parents with similar childrearing philosophies but he soon realised that many of the Vietnamese interested in joining assumed homeschooling meant supplementing traditional school with private tutoring. In Vietnam, educating a child at home is such an alien concept that many people have never heard of it. In addition, most of the available homeschooling curriculums are in English. Nguyen says most of the families he talks to don’t make it past what he calls the “English gate”. Nguyen didn’t start out expecting to homeschool his kids. The decision happened
organically. “My wife runs a company that does exercise classes for kids. Most of her students are from international schools because they have shorter days”, he explained. “The kids in public schools are the ones who need us the most but they don’t have a chance to attend the classes. They don’t even have weekends. That’s very bad for kids.”
Families in Vietnam “have all of these options on the menu”, Nguyen said.“ This year they can pick a very high-end school but in five or ten years can they still support that fee? It’s unsustainable. They might have to downgrade and the system in Vietnam isn’t compatible.” The cost argument is concrete. In HCMC, the average price of an international school is VND341 million per year and, according to a report by VietnamOnline, the average salary
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for a Vietnamese worker is VND38.4 million per year. For the majority of Vietnamese families public schools seem to be the only option. On the other hand, expat families in Vietnam sometimes feel that international schools are their only choice because the public structure may seem too foreign for non-Vietnamese speakers. However, many expats work in companies that will pay a stipend for schooling. This is the case for Kristi Cruz*, an American mom with three children. Cruz’s husband’s company offers its employees an educational allowance, yet the couple refuses the aid. Cruz, a passionate unschooler, “lives as if school doesn’t exist”. She feels her children will learn when they’re ready and that they will be more competitive in the workforce because they’ll have been following their true interests. “Technology and the world are changing so fast. Schools are already outdated”, she said. “They can’t keep up with the jobs our kids are being prepared for. Now, everyone is spending their energy learning the quadratic equation, and guess what? I have a calculator to do that for me. These days they don’t need the quadratic equation drilled into their heads.” The legality of alternative schooling in many countries, including Vietnam, remains a contested space. We found through a compilation of online resources that of the 77 nations that have made public their educational regulations, 41 allow for homeschooling but, depending on the country, families can be subjected to strict regulations.
Homeschooling is prohibited by law in 30 countries and in six, including Vietnam, the law is unclear. According to Vietnamese education law, families are responsible for educating their
children to a “level of universalised education”. Homeschooling is not specifically mentioned, nor is it forbidden. However, this loophole doesn’t mean homeschooling families are free from difficulties. Once a student is taken out of public school their placement in the system is effectively frozen. Online courses are not recognised by the government so a child who wants to re-enter school will have to return to the grade previously attended. In addition, there is no homeschooling equivalent to a high school diploma in Vietnam. Vietnamese children without a diploma cannot pursue higher education in their home country. The options are therefore narrowed down to going to university in another country, trade school or starting over in Vietnam. Vietnamese families who choose alternative education have to be fully committed to seeing it through for the long term.
Choices and Curriculums At a kid-themed café equipped with a labyrinthine climbing structure, Kristi
Cruz met up with Angee Floyd, another unschooling mom. Like Cruz, Floyd is also American and is raising two children in an unschooling environment. Unlike Cruz, Floyd is doing it completely alone. A single mom with a degree in teaching and what she described as “insurmountable student loans”, she decided to move to HCMC to reduce her living expenses. Floyd is able to teach less and spend the rest of the time with her kids. According to both moms, having the freedom to follow the needs of their children has created a deeper family bond. With the shouts and laughter of her children playing in the background, Floyd clarified her choices. “[In America] I went back to work after six weeks. I took my little, tiny baby and I was like ‘here’”, Floyd said holding out her arms. “I paid 1,200 US dollars a month to give my child to someone so that I could go back to work and then basically work just to pay for childcare. That’s why I can’t do it.”
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EDUCATION FEATURE
by Molly Headley-Benkaci
picture by Jesús López-Gomez
Therefore, the question arises: what exactly do parents do when traditional school is not part of the equation?
Letting the Child Lead The philosophy behind unschooling is that learning should be child led. A fascination with dinosaurs might provoke an investigation into palaeontology, while the routine process of paying for something at a store can teach basic math skills. A child in a world schooling family might learn Spanish by visiting Spain. There are no rules for what or how to study. Each family figures it out as life unfolds. In contrast, homeschoolers follow parentguided curriculums. Deborah Hughes, a US national, initially enrolled her children in Vietnamese school but Hughes felt the schools were too strict and that the days were too long. “It’s too much pressure”, she said. Hughes follows two curriculums with her children, a program for her son that keeps lessons fun with games and songs, and a separate method for her daughter, who has a learning 14 | iamhcmc.com/gazette
disability and requires a more structured approach to learning. Their typical day starts with outside play, followed by homeschooling from nine until noon. Extra activities, such as music or art, are saved for the afternoon.
Pilisi and Hughes both feel that despite the stereotype that care is not as extensive in Vietnam as in the US they actually have more affordable options in Vietnam. “There’s also a great community of homeschoolers here”, Pilisi said.
“I never wanted to be a teacher before”, Hughes said. “There are some days that honestly I’m just pulling my hair out but mostly I’m surprised by how much I like it. There’s something special about it. You’re with your child and you really know the strengths and weaknesses of how they think.”
However, the fact remains that Vietnamese families, including those with special needs children, may have a harder time making the decision to stop traditional school. “International parents have less pressure”, Khoi Nguyen said. “For the Vietnamese, the pressure is enormous. It’s everywhere. People in general just don’t understand [...]” Yet, he holds out hope that education in Vietnam may be in the process of changing. “Right now there are some voices in the Ministry of Education starting to talk about homeschool”, Nguyen continued. “They demand that we open up the system. I think in five years things will change. If they don’t we’ll be left far, far behind.”
Nellie Pilisi moved from the US to HCMC seven years ago. Like Hughes, Pilisi feels that individualised care is more essential when a child has special needs. She and her husband settled on homeschooling after their daughter, Lucy, was diagnosed with severe hearing loss. “Lucy is a completely developmentally normal kid; she just needs special attention”, Pilisi said. “[In] the mainstream options … it’s like … who actually cares about my kid? I do.”
“In the end it’s up to you to figure out what your child needs.”
Regardless of what happens in Vietnam’s future, families choosing alternative education have one thing in common—they believe they’re doing what’s best for their children. As Cruz put it, “It’s a lifestyle. And school will not add to that lifestyle. It will take away.” *Kristi Cruz is a pseudonym.
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Hospital and donations to Operation Smile, a non-governmental organisation that repairs childhood facial deformities. In addition, students in years 12 and 13 complete a service component before graduation. This service can range from organising a charity event, to mentoring younger students, to coaching others for their IGCSE (International General Certificate of Secondary Education) or A-Level exams. In this way, the students can get to know one another on a deeper level, as well as foster future altruism.
Award Winning Academics in a Family Environment
An International School
with a Giving Heart Founded in 1995, ABCIS offers a worldclass international education while maintaining a strong commitment to community and philanthropy. This is a school that not only takes care of its students but also gives back to the community. The school and students produce some of the best exam results of any international school worldwide, as well as diverse extracurricular activities. The teachers follow the rigorous academic structure of the British National Curriculum, while emphasising the familial atmosphere. Where are we? Just outside of District 7 at the ABC International School (ABCIS).
From Family-Founded Project to One of the Best International Schools in Vietnam ABCIS was founded 23 years ago to meet the need for top quality international education in Ho Chi Minh City. What first started as a student body of 12 nursery-aged students— including the founders’ own children—has flourished into 770 students from ages two to 18. Students and faculty hail from all over
the world. Despite this growth and diversity, ABCIS remains an institution that actively cultivates a sense of community.
Steve Shaw, Head of Secondary, puts it this way: “One of the key focuses and driving points of the school is that we want to be a family-oriented school where people know each other, where people are cared for, where there is a sense of community. That’s something that we instill from the very top, from our directors and deputy directors, to the faculty, all the way down to the students.” How is community established in a school environment amid classwork and exams? One pivotal way is through philanthropy. “Studies have shown that volunteering helps people who donate their time feel more socially connected”, writes Stephanie Watson in UCLA Women’s Health Watch. This sense of connection is encouraged throughout the school year with events centred around cultural appreciation, community activism and charity. Through student-led fundraisers, the school is able to raise money for childrens’ heart surgeries, life support machines for the Saigon Children’s
ABCIS will open a new secondary school campus in District 7 this year, which will allow the school to accommodate 850 additional students. Yet, the administrators at ABCIS are committed to maintaining the founding philosophies of the school. “We don’t want to immediately double our capacity. We want gradual growth to maintain some of our unique selling points, such as the family environment we have here. It could have a negative impact on the high quality of education if we try to do too much too quickly”, Christopher Carr, Head of Upper Primary, said. In the competitive world of academia this dedication to the students’ well-being is not par for the course. Yet, at ABCIS, the pedagogy has proven effective.
Over the years numerous ABCIS students have attained the highest scores in Vietnam on their IGCSE exams, and six students have achieved the highest scores in the world. ABCIS commends this academic excellence by awarding scholarships for university expenses to the top performing students of each year. Graduating students have gone on to study at universities such as Oxford, Cambridge, UCLA, Seoul National University and the University of Hong Kong. Patrick Tiet, Deputy Director of the school, said, “Our students are the top priority. Everyone in the school is taught to care. The big take care of the small. We want to prepare the students for the real world” 15
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EDUCATION FEATURE
by Jesús López-Gómez
“Foreign” Students Missing in Vietnamese Higher Ed In 2016 when Tran Anh Tuan, deputy director for the Ministry of Education and Training, addressed the dearth of foreign students studying in Vietnamese schools, he candidly stated that it indicated a failure of presence for his nation in a global landscape. “This shows that Vietnam’s education still has not integrated into the world”, Tran said in remarks reported by VietnamNet.
bad about his study abroad experience, Schmid responded over instant message, “No negative experiences! I didn’t even get food poisoning or anything.”
Schmid had been in Vietnam two years before he came as a student. “I liked it so much that I wanted to go back so this was a great opportunity for me”, Schmid said.
Schmid recently returned to Holland where he studies at Hogeschool van Amsterdam after four months studying in Ho Chi Minh City thanks to his university’s partnership with Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT).
A European encountering Vietnam in an academic context might encounter a place defined by apparent contradictions. According to Schmid’s account of his experience, while the grounds of RMIT are very modern and state of the art, the world it lives in is radically different from the type of environment a prospective Western student might be familiar with.
At the time, there were reportedly 2,000 foreign students studying in Vietnam’s schools, a number far out of balance with the the over 100,000 Vietnamese students studying outside of the country. A rector of FPT University called the situation “a trade gap in education”.
While he said Saigon could have been cleaner — “a lot of litter around the city… I think people should be more careful and cleaner with the environment”—he rates his experience as overall very positive.
A Dutch Student Abroad in Vietnam
“I got to learn a new culture and new people, which made me realise that the world has so much more to offer than the things I have in the Netherlands. When you don’t travel you don’t learn other cultures and meanings”
When Timo Schmid, a Dutch media and communications student, was asked what was 16 | iamhcmc.com/gazette
The study abroad experience in Vietnam is “for people who want to a part of the world that’s completely different than their own”, Schmid said. “It’s actually quite adventurous…” Those who want to have what Schmid calls a “super comfortable life” may want to look elsewhere for their study abroad experience.
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“But for me this was the best decision to make”, he said.
Minding the Gap The effort to recruit inbound foreign students began in earnest in 2011 when Vietnam eased it’s university enrollment requirements and demanded that more coursework be available in English. Additionally, education officials called on more foreign researchers to conduct their work in Vietnam. The initiative appears to have at least partially worked. In 2011, education officials estimated approximately 500 students enrolling in Vietnamese universities, however,the precise figure is unknown because at this time the government didn’t keep official data on these statistics. In 2015, Tuoi Tre News reported over 1,100 international students currently in Vietnam doing academic work. The government had begun compiling official data on the 23 universities that were running exchange programs with international partners. At that point, the greatest sources of incoming foreign students were from schools in the European Union and North America. Noting the uptick, education officials credited the decision to offer English curriculums. “One important reason for the surge is that many universities have offered advanced training programs taught entirely in English,
which helps international students find it more favorable to choose the Southeast Asian country as their academic destination,” Deputy Minister Ga told Tuoi Tre News in remarks reported in 2015.
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Changing Perceptions Still, with 2,000 inbound foreign students, the number continues to be far out of balance with the 130,000 Vietnamese students studying abroad, according to Vietnamese governmental data. Minor gains are being realized. In the academic year ending in 2017, the number of US students studying in Vietnam reached 1,012, a modest increase from the 922 students that had come to study in the year prior. In the previous academic year, 325,229 US students studied abroad. About 11 percent of them chose an Asian country as their destination, according to a 2017 study by international scholastic activity research organization Open Doors.
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The results of the 2017 study were discussed at a Ho Chi Minh City meeting in January . According to reporting on the meeting from Specialists in Wills + Estate Planning VietnamNet, attendees noted that Vietnam’s for Expats in Vietnam Tel: +84 28 3520 7745 www.profwills.com strengths in higher education—its relatively low costs to students as well as its openness to business and safe environment—are being undersold to potential incoming students. For some, the image of Vietnam hasn’t been updated. For example, Killroy, a study abroad and travel service company, notes in its listing for RMIT that Vietnam is a safe destination despite a perception that the security situation hasn’t settled from the American War nearly ECOLE BOULE & BILLES BINH THANH ECOLE BOULE & BILLES THAO DIEN 183A Dien Bien Phu St., Binh Thanh D., HCMC 38 street 10, Thao Dien ward, D2, HCMC 40 years ago. (028) 35 14 70 41 (028) 37 44 26 40
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Similarly, Schmid said his experience studying in Ho Chi Minh City surprised him in notable ways, such as how modern RMIT’s facilities were and how kind the Vietnamese people were toward him. Schmid said his changed impression of the city left him with a love for Vietnam and a strong desire to return.
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“I really wanna come back!” he said. “Vietnamese people are lovely and super friendly, I hope they will always stay like that!”
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EDUCATION FEATURE
J.K. Hobson
The prioritization of education has been a core feature of Vietnamese culture for centuries, and now the Southeast Asian country is opening its doors to foreign-owned entities providing public education for its aspiring academics. Australia’s own Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) was established at the turn of the millenium in Ho Chi Minh City and was the first foreign-owned, public university to open in Vietnam. Professor Gael McDonald told Sinh Vien Viet Nam Newspaper last December, “Some of the key achievements in this area have been the introduction of authentic learning, reduction in examinations, a move away from textbooks to more contemporary materials, professional development for staff… with the mission to focus on delivering world class internationally recognized postgraduate degrees in Vietnam…” With a staff of academics from 25 countries around the world, RMIT engages in community outreach and has an increasing student population hailing from provinces outside the urban centiers of Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi.
New University Strengthens Cultural Ties This year, Fulbright University Vietnam will open in Ho Chi Minh City.
The original Fulbright program was launched over seven decades ago as a means of establishing closer diplomatic ties between the United States and countries around the world through the promotion of education and cultural exchange. Former US president Barack Obama praised the university during his visit to Hanoi in 2016 saying, “It is the first not-for-profit, independent university in Vietnam—which will bring academic freedom and scholarships to underprivileged students. Students, academics and researchers will focus on public policy research, governance, business, engineering and computer science, liberal education—everything from the poetry of Nguyen Du, the philosophy of Phan Chu Trinh to the mathematics of Ngo Bao Chau…” Fulbright University will open its doors in the fall of this year, promising a new and innovative approach to higher education in Vietnam, while 18 | iamhcmc.com/gazette
Foreign Universities Fulfilling A Core Vietnamese National Value engaging in community outreach and offering need-based financial aid to qualifying students.
An Integral Value At its inception, Vietnam’s educational culture was largely influenced by Chinese systems, particularly Confucianism. Confucian ideals dictated that although man is at the center of the universe, man is a social being, and finds his (or her) highest potential realized in community with others. Within this potential is the ability to be educated, and as such, education should be accessible to all. As community is important in Vietnam, education is seen as being not only a way of the advancement of the individual, but as a way of cultivating the kind of character that will help uplift his or her community. Former leader Ho Chi Minh decided when Vietnam gained independence from France on September 2, 1945, that the government’s three biggest priorities would be “fighting against poverty, illiteracy, and invaders”. His philosophy on education was guided by the principle that “an illiterate nation is a powerless one”. In October of that year, he issued a “call for anti-illiteracy”. The nation responded to
the call by creating 75,000 literacy classes with 96,000 teachers in order to teach 2.5 million Vietnamese to read and write.
Borrowed Traditions Vietnam has long been known as a country and a culture that consistently keeps an eye on progress. Throughout history, the Southeast Asian country has borrowed and integrated ideas about ways of living from influential societies, from the neighboring Chinese, to the French who formerly colonized it.
The opening of foreign-owned public learning institutions in Vietnam marks a paradigm shift in the country’s policies towards education. With the world’s eye on Vietnam as an emerging economy, it is sure to continue to attract foreign interests. Vietnam is emerging as a bona fide market for educational investment, and its consistent desire for quality education is sure to be instrumental in its rise towards becoming a middle-income country, as it cultivates the minds of globalminded scholars.
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How to Create World-Class Education in the Heart of HCMC Is it possible to create tech-savvy kids while maintaining balance? At ISHCMC, the answer is yes. Today our children live in a world made up of screens, from televisions to smartphones to tablets. While these new forms of entertainment and communication have certainly made life easier, growing up with these high-tech gadgets is a double-edged sword. Recent studies have suggested that spending too much time on screens can affect social development. So how to balance this contemporary issue? Can it be done? Adrian Watts, Head of School at ISHCMC, thinks so. “As leaders in education, it is our responsibility to ensure that our programs are aligned to developing the essential skill sets of the future”, he said.
IQ is as important as ever, but now an equally developed EQ (emotional intelligence) is just as critical. 20 | iamhcmc.com/gazette
ISHCMC nurtures and helps mature both IQ and the EQ, a process that starts well before sitting down at a desk. It’s this comprehensive ideology that makes ISHCMC a pioneer in the field of education.
Responsible Integration and Mindful Balance As an authorised IB (International Baccalaureate) World School, students follow a rigorous academic program, which balances student-driven inquiry with mental and physical health programs. It’s a process that starts from the very foundation of education— the facility itself. The state-of-the-art secondary campus, which opened its doors in January 2018, features rolling furniture, so that classrooms can be reconfigured on the spot to encourage teamwork and conversation. Sometimes the teachers and students feel the need to abandon the classroom altogether. The
corridors are equipped with white-board paint so that students can literally write on the walls, and this work can remain to inspire others. Influenced by the Google offices, learning lounges give students a place to hang out and have impromptu discussions.
The keywords that inform all these design choices? Community and movement. Kids need opportunities to move. Researchers at The Institute of Medicine found that children who are routinely active show greater attention and process information faster than students stuck at a desk for hours on end. By getting rid of the static energy in the classroom, there are simply more opportunities for communal creative thought. “[Classrooms are] purposefully designed to allow students the opportunity to collaborate, connect and communicate with others in a safe and healthy environment,” Watts said. “The
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opportunities created by our progressive facilities encourage students to enjoy learning and to want to uncover new and creative ideas.” Within these spaces geared towards intercommunication, technology enters the scene.
Becoming an Early Explorer At ISHCMC the first question educators ask themselves when considering new advances is whether it adds value in the classroom. The goal is to find ways to energise the child through multimedia. Beginning in Grade 3, children follow iPad and laptop programs, and on both campuses students use green rooms, film studios and Mac Labs with fully equipped music composition software. Innovative “Makerspaces”, classrooms equipped with 3D printers, sewing machines and building supplies, spark kids to dream up their own ideas for the future.
However, ISHCMC is careful to ensure that the interaction with technology does not take precedence over the interaction with other students, the teachers and the environment around them. ISHCMC makes sure to educate students on the downsides of our high-tech world. Students participate in a school-wide safety program, which teaches kids vital lessons about
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internet safety, cyberbullying and how to deal with distractions.
Better Health, Inside and Out At ISHCMC, taking care of the students’ health and wellbeing are paramount to fostering a 360-degree approach to education. “Student growth in a safe and caring environment is at the centre of all that we do as a school”, Watts said. From exercise and healthy food choices to campus- wide clean air and mindfulness training, the innovations at ISHCMC include more than just teaching tools. Today young adults around the world battle anxiety and depression at higher numbers, and ISHCMC addresses these mental health issues proactively. Every morning students start their day with 10 minutes of mindfulness training.
The ability to concentrate emotions and rid the mind of distractions is an essential skill for both school and daily life. This focus helps kids gain confidence in themselves and their work. In addition, ISHCMC employs trained therapists at both campuses to help students navigate the difficulties of their daily lives, and meditation rooms are available for kids who need a moment of calm and solitude.
Ticking All the Boxes At ISHCMC, the term high-tech doesn’t only refer to technology. From the latest electronic advances to high-concept student-run gardens and food labs, ISHCMC is anything but a stagnant institution for education. The days are gone when colleges would simply look at a student’s grades and test scores and send out acceptance letters based on those numbers. Now admissions officers are looking for kids who “tick all the boxes”: high intelligence, creativity, adaptability and the ability to deal with challenges. As of 2018, 100 percent of students who’ve
graduated from ISHCMC have been accepted into universities. The results speak for themselves. Unlike other schools teaching both IB and other degrees, all students at ISHCMC are engaged in one of three top-quality International Baccalaureate programs. ISHCMC’s entire Class of 2018 excelled with a 98 percent pass rate on their International Baccalaureate Diploma examinations, with one student obtaining a record 45 out of 45 score. “We’ve been very successful here”, said Watts. “I’m really proud of the ISHCMC teachers because they’ve embraced the idea of constructivist learning. Instead of having to learn the information, our students know the information.” Moreover, 60 percent of last year’s graduates were awarded the distinguished IB Bilingual Diploma, which is more than double the worldwide average. With over 50 nationalities represented schoolwide and 15 diverse nationalities in the Class of 2017, these results are a testament to the international environment at ISHCMC. At ISHCMC, “The ultimate aim is to prepare our students for university and beyond in a supportive and personalised approach”. ISHCMC | 028 3839 9100 | ishcmc.com admissions@ishcmc.edu.vn Primary Campus: 28 Vo Truong Toan, D2 Secondary Campus: 01 Xuan Thuy, D2 21
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EDUCATION FEATURE
by Keely Burkey
Pros and Cons of Raising Children in Expat Environment
Once a rare occurrence, families travelling overseas are becoming more and more common. Does the change take a toll on children? Anita North, a child psychologist with Ethos Asia in Ho Chi Minh City, has experience raising children internationally firsthand. Originally from Australia, she worked as a psychologist in Thailand for five years while raising her two boys. “As they grew up, they used to say they were Thai”, she said. “We’ve sent them to school in Australia now that they’re in high school, partly to give them a sense of their culture as Australians.” Azrael Jeffrey, Psychotherapist and Educational Specialist at the International Center for Cognitive Development (ICCD) said the movement of not only parents but entire families is creating “third-culture expats”. “We see kids who have French parents, were raised in Africa, and who spent years in the Philippines”, he said, also noting that a British or Australian international school might add more cultural variation. So how does this affect the development of children? 22 | iamhcmc.com/gazette
No Cookie Cutter Answer For North and her colleague Nessa Maguire at Ethos, it’s a difficult topic to discuss particularly because every child, and every situation, is different and demands an entirely individualised approach. While some children become more tolerant, accepting and worldly thanks to their experiences overseas, other children might lash out, or become introverted, anxious or depressed. While the majority of their clients come from Vietnamese families, North said around 30 percent of the children they see moved here when their parents accepted a HCMC-based job. “Most of these children come from families who move quite frequently, to a new country every two or three years”, Maguire said.
“This brings difficulties, because the children aren’t able to establish a close friendship group. Then you have the parents who perhaps see this as a more long-term move. Then you have the difficulty of, ‘Okay, where’s home?’”
“It’s a catch-22”, North agreed. “You don’t want them to be so rooted in home that they can’t fit in with the current culture. But you need them to have enough of an understanding with their home base that they can connect with their family and friends there.” The professionals at Ethos Asian aver that most of their clients are special needs children who need support for issues like behavioral problems, attention deficit disorder and autism. For parents used to a high level of support for conditions like these in countries like the UK, the US and Australia, the change to Vietnam, which has less of a developed understanding of special needs support, can be challenging. Jeffrey, on the other hand, does come across cases in which children need help processing a shift between cultures, especially at school. “Academics is law here”, he said simply. “Even with the international schools, a high precedence is set first and foremost on the test scores.” He said that while the most popular kid in a US high school might be the football star, popularity and social acceptance in an
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Asia-based school can be centred much more around intelligence and book smarts.
Your Transition Checklist
“I’ve had cases where an athlete who doesn’t get the best test scores will feel isolated here”, he said. In those cases, Jeffrey will encourage the student and the parents to branch out and develop social networks outside the school. “There’s not as much of an emphasis on the ‘whole student’ here”, he said.
If your family is headed to a new country soon, the child psychologists at Ethos Asia and ICCD have provided some tips. Prepare well in advance Children need to feel like part of the decision-making process, or else they might feel powerless and act out. Let them take control of small things, like choosing the colour of their new room, or picking what furniture they want to bring with them overseas.
The School’s the Thing All the child psychologists we talked to agreed: when it comes to making sure a child has a smooth and healthy transition to another culture, the school is the most important factor. Schools are important for any child, and doubly so for one with special needs. “In Australia, the UK, the US, a lot of [school-provided] support is mandated by law”, North said.
“Here, because they go into a private school system, the level of support is dependent on what school they choose, and what that school allows.” This support might be allowing the parents to make their child a peanut butter sandwich for lunch rather than opting for the schoolprovided option, providing extra tutoring or even the presence of full-time care. Even basic logistics can be a deciding factor: if the child
has a physical disability, does the international school have ramps and elevators? If the child has a tendency to wander off, is there security present outside the school? If the special needs are severe enough, Jeffrey says that some international schools will consider it bad business to bring these cases on board—they would require costly resources, and other parents might choose another school if they think one is focused too much on special needs. He declined to say which schools. “It’s all about the school’s and the family’s expectations,” he said. “There are no bad schools, just different personalities.”
Make sure there’s closure When you’re leaving your home base, make sure you do it the right way. Give the child time to say goodbye to their friends, and provide ways for them to keep in touch in the future. Prepare a scrapbook Get your child ready and excited about the new country by creating a country scrapbook. You can include pictures of the currency, information about the climate, easy phrases in the national language— anything that will help them understand their new home before the get there. Pay attention to the details If your child is attached to any food item or product, it’d be a good idea to make sure it’s sold in the new country. If it’s not, try changing the product before the move. It’ll help the child get used to the change and not associate it negatively with their new home. Get excited! As parents, you’re the leaders here, and kids will pick up on any stress or unhappiness you might be experiencing with the move. Put on a brave face and show your kid that they should see the next country as both an adventure and a challenge. Create a social network Relationships with both the community and other children are important. For the first three months, sign up your kid for anything they might be interested in: pottery class, baseball, yoga, you name it. Preventing isolation is key in a new country. 23
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HEALTH FEATURE
J.K. Hobson
To Snuff Vietnam’s Smoking Habit
Doctors Enlist Families, Spouses Asia’s smoking rate has been high, and now efforts are being made to combat its pervasive effects in Vietnam. It’s easy to start smoking in Vietnam. Packs of cigarettes are available on the street, often for less than US$1. The lack of regulation in their sale and distribution make them accessible, even to developing young people, who suffer the most from tobacco’s harmful effects. Warning labels with photographs of blackened lungs, tracheotomy wounds, and babies born sick and with low birth weights, have succeeded in curbing the habit in Vietnam more than textonly warnings, but the smoking rate remains quite high. According to statistics compiled by the World Health Organization (WHO), tobacco kills roughly six million people per year around the globe, and the ripple effects of this loss cause the world’s economy to lose trillions of US dollars per year. More than 30 percent of the world’s smokers live in Asia, with over 80 percent of that population coming from lower income groups.
More than one in four people in Vietnam smoke, and according to Vietnam’s Health Education and Communication Center the habit kills 40,000 people each year. Without cessation efforts, nearly a tenth of the population will die from diseases related to smoking by the year 2030. Dr. Mason Cobb practices with Victoria Healthcare in Ho Chi Minh City and has been a part of an ongoing smoking cessation campaign. Cobb discussed the ubiquity of smoking in Vietnam, and his organization’s efforts to curb Vietnam’s collective smoking habit. He recounts an experience first coming to Vietnam two decades ago. “When I first started coming out here 20 24 | iamhcmc.com/gazette
years ago there was a huge billboard at Tan Son Nhat Airport of the ‘Marlboro Man’ [advertising campaign featuring a smoking cowboy] from America. Cowboy hat, sheepskin, mustache roping a cow or something with a cigarette in his mouth. There is this image of [cigarette smoking] being very macho, and that was promoted”, he said. The ideological correlation between smoking and masculinity is reflected in the demographics of smokers in Vietnam.
Somewhere between 45 and 50 percent of smokers in Vietnam are men, while only two to five percent of Vietnamese women indulge. “Right now the social structure for many people, men especially, is after work you go to a bar with your friends. All the people in the bar smoking, your friends are smoking, and these are very difficult headwinds for anybody”, he said. Cobb’s organization seeks to use these demographics as a means of deterring men from smoking. “Most women are not entirely happy with smoking, especially in the house. What our program does is really try to enlist the family to be of help.”
Cobb believes that since women are more concerned with the effects of smoking on the family, their role is crucial to smoking cessation endeavors. “People are becoming more aware of second hand smoke. Your chance of your child having more limited growth, asthma or some other conditions, or your child having slow intellectual development is even higher as a smoker”, he explained. Cobb believes that it is going to take a cultural shift in Vietnam for there to be lasting change, and there are already signs that this is occurring. “There’s another trend… that’s sweeping the country, and that’s health.” This change has already occurred in places in the west such as the US, where smoking has declined from 20.9 percent (nearly 21 of every 100 adults) in 2005 to 15.5 percent (more than 15 of every 100 adults) in 2016. “With education, more knowledge about what may be healthy and what’s not healthy and also more connection with what’s going on in the mainstream”, Cobb said.
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BUSINESS FEATURE
by Jesús López-Gómez
Vietnamese Increasing in US Visa Program for Wealthy Immigrants
On a recent weekend morning, Jason Brown, vice president of business development for Behring Companies, stood on a stage and addressed a crowd who’d gathered to learn more about how they might take a uncommon route to earn passage to the United States. “I didn’t understand as an American how hard it was to travel as a Vietnamese”, Brown said to the attendees at the Park Hyatt Saigon. Brown was there to talk about the visa program, as well as to present his company Behring Companies, a developer-cum-EB-5 visa facilitator.
The EB-5 visa program requires prospective US residents to invest US$500,000 or US$1 million in projects. Behring is one of a growing number of outfits that offer the whole package: guidance completing the EB-5 application and a qualifying project for the investor to park their money to satisfy the investor regulations.
From Investment to Resident A growing number of EB-5 visa advisors are looking to Vietnam as the country’s interest in the program increases. Successful EB-5 applicants get permanent residency and a US passport. At the meeting, 26 | iamhcmc.com/gazette
Brown emphasized the fact that Vietnamese carrying a US passport would no longer have the travel restrictions they are subject to with a Vietnamese passport. His wife holds a green card, yet was rejected for a visa to travel abroad. “As an American, you don’t understand that”, he said. With a US passport, “you can just go anywhere.” “Our goal is to help you come up with a plan if you want to move to America”, he said.
An Ever Growing Demand Behring Companies is part of a growing demand for top-to-bottom EB-5 services. Brown’s informational session was both about the EB-5 program itself, as well as a pitch for his company’s services, which not only include assistance in attaining the EB-5 visa but also includes projects to satisfy the investment requirement. While immigration has been relegated to third rail status in the current US political climate, the participation in the EB-5 program has continued to increase over the last decade. Total direct investment from EB-5 applicants has risen to US$3.16 billion in 2016, nearly 10 times the amount from 2008. In fiscal year 2000, there were 231 EB-5 visas issued. By the close of the 2016 fiscal year, there were 9,947 EB-5 visas activated in the US.
Other than Chinese mainland investors—an immigrant group which has regularly earned the overwhelming majority of visas for the last few years—Vietnam has become the second biggest source of investor applicants. At the end of 2017 fiscal year in September, Vietnamese applicants earned 471 EB-5 visas, a 30 percent increase from the year prior, making them the second biggest nationality to receive the immigration permission. The third biggest country of origin for investor applicants was Brazil, a group which won 282 EB-5 visas. Chinese investor applicants took 75 percent of the 10,090 EB-5 visas issued that year. While EB-5 assistance services have proliferated recently, not all carry out their stated goals. Brown also boasted about the company’s 100 percent success rate in obtaining green cards for investors and a record success in EB-5 investor funded programs, a record not all share. Early in 2018, another company managing an EB-5 investor-funded effort flopped. The US hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, where 60 EB-5 applicants had made their investment failed, relieving them of their $500,000 and legal fees. No one got a green card.
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The Art of the Brew: Cafe Show 2018 First Seoul, then Beijing and Shanghai, now Ho Chi Minh City. The internationally acclaimed Cafe Show is heading back to Vietnam to give visitors the finer beans in life. Vietnam is, quite literally, the land of coffee. The second-highest exporter of the famed Arabica beans after Brazil, this is a country that keeps the world caffeinated. And now we can celebrate the humble java bean in style. The second annual Vietnam Cafe Show is heading back to HCMC to celebrate not just coffee, but everything related to cafe culture. From the finest lattes to the most delicate pastries and cakes, this will be a three-day party and everyone is invited.
A Cup for Every Taste Are you in hospitality and looking for the next big trend to make your customers happy? Look no further. Are you a coffee lover and want to sample beans from all over the world? The Cafe Show has what you’re looking for. With 120 exhibitors spread over the 6,000 square metres of the Saigon Exhibition and Convention Center (SECC), the future of espresso has arrived. For the java aficionados, representatives from powerhouse countries like Ethiopia, Peru, Colombia and Italy will bring their best samples for personalised tutorials and free samples. For business owners looking to expand their reach,
these three days will give you unprecedented opportunities to connect with farmers and coffee growers across the country. By connecting with Vietnam’s Ministry of Tourism, the Cafe Show 2018 presents exclusive access to the F&B industry. This is an exhibition that will solidify Vietnam on the global coffee map, and it’s not just for the bean: the art of coffee-making will be celebrated here too.
Who Will Win? From cappuccinos to flat whites, everyone can agree: a good cup is more than water filtered through coffee grounds. For the professional barista, the process is nothing less than an artform, and that’s what the Vietnam Cafe Show is celebrating in May. Two competitions will be held to find the best coffee artists in the country, and you can see it all. If you fancy a stronger drink, get your tickets to the Vietnam Signature Battle 2018, which will pit mixologists and baristas head to head to make some of the finest mixtures the country has ever seen.
And support your favourite coffee artisans at the Vietnam National Barista Competition 2018. This competitive challenge will suss out Vietnam’s best coffee artist, who will compete for the country’s honour at the World Barista Championship later this year. Show your support and enjoy a piping hot brew!
03 May - 05 May 2018
SECC, HCMC
799 Nguyen Van Linh, District 7 Tel: 028 3823 6050 Email: rinnie@exporum.com Website: cafeshow.com.vn Free admission 27
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EDUCATION FEATURE
by Tran Thi Minh Hieu
Is Overwork Bad for Development? Doing a lot of homework and spending a lot of time in class may help children achieve good grades, but will it turn them into functional adults? Can overwork undermine childrens’ development?
Parents tend to assume that education can only be conducted in the classroom, and the responsibility of educating their children lies solely with the teachers. “In fact, children can learn a lot through day-to-day activities outside of school, including interactions with family members at home and going out together with friends”, she said.
East Asian culture is known to praise academic achievements, and we see no exception here in Vietnam. Many Vietnamese parents, especially in the big cities, are pressured by social expectations as well as their own, and are sending their kids to all kinds of after school classes. In addition to the overwhelming workload in school, children spend their evenings not relaxing and enjoying life, but participating in classroom activities and struggling to learn new knowledge.
Parents can encourage and motivate their kids to study simply by talking about subjects at school, and explaining to them why it is important that they learn certain things, instead of talking only about their grades. Too much pressure on perfect grades, without concern for the child’s psychological well being, can even lead to disastrous consequences, such as low self-esteem, resentment, rebellion, and selfdestructive behaviors.
But will it make them high-functioning people? Or can overwork undermine children’s development?
Nguyen said, “during the developmental years, a child does not really need to cram as much knowledge in their head as possible, but more importantly, they need to learn to live.” They need to learn about the world around them, which encompasses more than textbooks and school matters, and how they can fit into that world as an individual.
According to Dr. Nguyen Thuy Anh, founder of the “Reading with Kids” club based in Hanoi, being forced to learn too many things at the same time can lead to a lack of motivation in children. Seeing no purpose in learning about subjects that they are not genuinely interested in, many children start developing the habit of what she calls “getting by”: rushing to finish homework without fully understanding the meaning of what they are doing. 28 | iamhcmc.com/gazette
Making friends with the right people, learning skills such as self discipline and self-defense, and taking up hobbies can all benefit and potentially save their life in the future, as modern life is increasingly complex. All these
things certainly do not come from hours of toiling over homework. On the bright side, educators are now more aware of the problems with overwork, and starting to incorporate more elements into the school curriculum to facilitate childrens’ overall development. Dao Thi Phuong Thao, deputy head of Ban Mai Primary School, shared the school’s strategy for holistic development through a focus on five values.“We aim to cultivate these five values in our students, including personality, intelligence, capability, health, and global vision, through programs such as “The Leader in Me”. At school, children get to participate in a variety of fun, engaging activities rather than only learning in class”, Dao said. On the last day of school before the Tet Holiday, students of Ban Mai Primary School gathered in the school yard to meet children’s writer Le Phuong Lien, author of a picture book about Lunar New Year, and then returned to class to write their own resolutions for the coming year. In the afternoon, they cleaned their classroom, following the traditional custom of spring cleaning before Tet. Such activities—though not explicitly academic and perhaps unusual in a school setting— are undoubtedly memorable to children and contribute to their development as a person.
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Just a Dollar Away As you head out for your next vacation, only a safe, reliable and inexpensive flight will do. As Cambodia’s national flag carrier since its establishment in 2009, only Cambodia Angkor Air checks all the boxes.
Your Next Trip:
Cambodia Cambodia might be right next to Vietnam, but it its history and culture couldn’t be more different. Now you can explore the Kingdom of Temples easier than ever thanks to Cambodia Angkor Air. The sky is dark, but you can see a deep purple brightening in the distance. As the horizon becomes clearer, the outline of three mountainous peaks grows more distinct. You’re not looking at mountain tops: this is the sunrise over Angkor Wat. The experience of watching the sunlight creep over the magnificent temple’s 900-year-old edifice is nothing short of breathtaking, and it’s no wonder the temple has been named one of the New Seven Wonders of the World.
And yet, it’s just one of Cambodia’s many attributes. A country both beautiful and complex, and just mere hours away from Ho Chi Minh City by plane, this is a land ideal for a three-day weekend or extended vacation. And now that the country’s national flag carrier Cambodia Angkor Air has started offering once-in-alifetime airfares, the hardest part of the trip will be packing your bags.
Adventure, Closer than Ever Phnom Penh. Siem Reap. Sihanoukville. Three cities similar in history, yet unique and distinct
in personality. Where should you go next? Depends on what you’re after. You can’t experience everything Cambodia has to offer without exploring the country’s modern capital, Phnom Penh. Colloquially known as “The Charming City”, food, architecture and history meet in these streets for an unforgettable experience. No visit would be complete without perusing the stalls of the Central Market, taking a boat tour in the Mekong River and seeing a traditional Apsara dance performance. For first-time adventurers to Cambodia, you can do no wrong with Siem Reap. Steeped in history and embracing a modern charm, this city is adjacent to the Angkor Wat Temple Complex, yet the town itself is worth a visit as well. A mecca for backpackers and independent travellers, tourism has sprang up here leading to the creation of the town’s vibrant Pub Street and nightly food market. Here you’ll find a true mix of influences: part Chinese-inspired and with a touch of French colonialism, this city has a little bit of everything.
Looking for pristine beaches and seafood? It’s time to head to Sihanoukville. Take a tuk-tuk to the beach and experience crystal-clear waters without the crowds you’ll find in Da Nang or Phu Quoc. Embrace the small town life here and do a bit of island hopping as you mingle with the smiling locals and watch the sun set below the horizon.
Fully accredited by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), as Cambodia’s prominence in the tourism market consistently grows, so does Cambodia Angkor Air. By 2020, international flights will be added with destinations in China, Japan and South Korea. Now is your chance to experience an authentic Cambodian adventure before the world follows suit.
And best of all? For a limited time, book a flight on Cambodia Angkor Air for unbeatable prices. An incredible promotion with starting prices as low as US$1.00 means that you’ve just sorted out your next international destination.
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Ho Chi Minh City to/from Phnom Penh from US$1.00 (7kg-hand baggage only) from US$30.00 (including checked baggage) Ho Chi Minh to/from Siem Reap: from US$5.00 (hand baggage only) from US$40.00 (checked baggage) Ho Chi Minh City to/from Sihanoukville from US$1.00 (hand baggage only) from US$30.00 (checked baggage) Danang to/from Siem Reap: from US$15.00 (hand baggage only) from US$55.00 (checked-in baggage) CAMBODIA ANGKOR AIR BRANCH OFFICE IN VIETNAM +84 28 3547.1767 helpdesk_vietnam@angkor-air.com 2nd Floor, Vietnam Airlines Building, 108 Hong Ha St., Tan Binh, Ho Chi Minh Or visit www.CambodiaAngkorAir.com for more information!
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ENVIRONMENT FEATURE
by Tran Thi Minh Hieu
waste ends up getting buried in the city’s vast landfills, which leads to severe air, water and soil pollution in the surrounding area. Until now, there has been no concerted effort to collect unwanted food and distribute it to those in need, thereby preventing it from becoming waste. This is where Food Bank Vietnam steps in.
Food Bank Vietnam: Leading the Fight against Food Waste Food waste is a widespread issue in Vietnam, the second largest producer of food waste in the Asia-Pacific region. Food Bank Vietnam is an initiative that aims to prevent food waste by giving it to those in need. Sitting on a street corner in Saigon, it’s easy to catch the sight of street children polishing shoes and old women selling lottery tickets. These are just a few among the many Vietnamese people who may also struggle to put food on their tables every single day.
Statistics from the Vietnamese Fatherland Front show that in the first half of 2017, there were 574,000 people suffering from hunger in Vietnam. On the other hand, food waste is a widespread issue throughout the country at almost all stages of the supply chain. A survey by Electrolux on 4,000 households in eight Asia-Pacific countries suggested that Vietnam is the second largest producer of food waste in the region, behind China. 87 percent of the households admitted that they waste two plates of food per week on average. 30 | iamhcmc.com/gazette
There are many reasons why Vietnamese people waste so much food. Culturally, preparing more food than necessary is considered a gesture of hospitality and generosity. This has become a custom not only in families but also in restaurants and ceremonies. While Vietnamese people have a habit of saving leftovers for the next meals, nearly 50 percent of people surveyed said that they often forget about excess food or fresh ingredients left in the fridge. A considerable amount of food is also lost or damaged during production, storing, transportation and distribution, due to the lack of investment in technology and infrastructure.
The preference for fresh food also means that items more than a day old, though still safe to eat, are too easily considered garbage and thrown away because no one is buying them. In Ho Chi Minh City alone, food waste accounts for more than 60 percent of the city’s 8,300 tons of solid waste per day. In previous City Pass Guide reporting, Nguyen Toan Thang, Director of HCMC Department of Natural Resources and Environment, said that up to 76 percent of this
Project founder Nguyen Tuan Khoi shared his vision for Food Bank Vietnam. “We want to build not only a charity project distributing food for poor and disadvantaged people, but we also aim to engage businesses such as restaurants, food producers and supermarkets, in the movement to save food, avoid wastage and supply food for the people who actually need it”, he said. The project is a non-profit project established by Development and Sharing Foods (DSF) and C.P. Vietnam. C.P. Vietnam is a branch of Thailandbased C.P. Group, one of the largest Thai conglomerates in agriculture and food processing. To do this, Food Bank Vietnam plans to start with supporting ten community houses and homeless centers in 2018, by providing them with free food, such as pork and rice, on a regular basis. It will also organize cooking sessions with the ingredients collected from donors, and distribute the meals to disadvantaged groups in Saigon through the help of a team of volunteers. In April 2018, Food Bank Vietnam will organize a seminar called Chong lang phi thuc pham (Fighting Food Waste) for representatives from the food and beverage industry to raise awareness among them about reducing food waste and ask for them to redirect their excess food from the waste stream. In the long term, it plans to develop a system of “Mobile Food Banks”, or stations to receive and give out free food, as well as “Food Bank Eateries”, selling low-priced meals for the disadvantaged throughout the country. Another important part of the project is to build an emergency food bank to provide food during natural disasters, such as floods and hurricanes, which happen every year in Vietnam. With support from the Vietnamese Committee of Red Cross and the Youth Social Work Centre, the project founder is optimistic that this is achievable within five years and will be sustainable in the future.
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Tet is long over and with it went the endless entertaining. But the urge to throw a great party will inevitably arise again, be that for your coworkers or your family or just because. And, no offense, but the last minute decorations and hors d’oeuvres you put out at your last get together — well, they weren’t bad, but it just wasn’t your best work. Some things are better left to professionals, no?
Enter Cuisine World Established in 2015, festivity planner Cuisine World serves event and food needs around the city from it’s home base at Robot Tower, 308 Dien Bien Phu. Within the tower are the Én Tea House & Restaurant at the ground level and Cuisine World’s event venues, Én Event Space and at the rooftop space that was formerly Upper Saigon Rooftop Bar. The caterer and event planner stands at the ready with a range of food and entertainment services to make your next wedding, company party or child’s birthday an event to remember.
Child’s Birthday Party, You Say? Though they plan all kinds of events, Cuisine World’s managing Director Katie Nguyen said the company’s direction the last months has pushed them in a definite new direction: kids’ birthday parties. Now, “everyone knows us as a destination for that”, Nguyen said. Starting in June, Cuisine World will roll out a dedicated, all-inclusive children’s party service. While the decision to specialize in children’s birthday parties may seem a little unusual, when you consider that event planning services tend to fixate almost entirely on weddings, corporate occasions and other adult soirees, the decision starts to make more sense. “We see that a lot of convention halls only focus on weddings”, Nguyen said. It’s clear that Nguyen and her team have thought a lot about the value of the business proposal. Weddings are a one-in-a-lifetime experience, she explained. But birthday parties recur annually, so logically there’s more of a need and more occasions for a provider working in that area. She remembered thinking, “Why are we not focused on the child?” More than it just making
Cuisine World Is Bringing The Party
good business sense, Nguyen said their decision to shift to children’s birthday parties is in accordance with the special emphasis put on a child’s first birthday in Vietnamese culture, an age-old belief says that a child who celebrated their first birthday would be healthy enough to live a full, complete life.
be reserved for an intimate gatherings. A 350-square-metre event hall on the first floor of Robot Tower can also host private occasions. At the top of Robot Tower, an open-air, covered event space overlooks Dien Bien Phu street and gives a sweeping view of the surrounding city.
“For Vietnamese, it’s the tradition to host the first birthday party for the kids” and the rest of the family, Nguyen said. “It’s very important for them. We decided we’re going to be the leaders in this market”, she said.
Looking for a more traditional Asian-style dinner? Starting at VND350,000 per person, the caterer offers an eight-dish Asian fusion menu for your special event.
The Cuisine World kids’ package will also include a children’s’ menu. This is a far cry from the miniaturized, glammed up junk food you might see on a kids menu elsewhere. Cuisine World’s menu will offer dishes that are friendly to the child’s palate but are also rich in nutritional content, Nguyen said.
Adults Can Have Fun Too For those who are young at heart but are not interested in a “Boss Baby” themed birthday party, the District 3 caterer still has something for you. Perhaps a soiree that is less about balloons and clowns and more about high-class and great food. Cuisine World can fulfill. The caterer owns three venues within Robot Tower that can host a broad range of occasions. On the ground floor, the En Tea house can
Guests can enjoy a Western finger food menu starting at VND180,000 per person. Cuisine world can also serve complete Western dinners as well through a menu prepared by executive chef Mai Hoang Long, a former chef at a premier hotel who specialises in Western Cuisine and passionate in Asian-Western fusion. For larger guestlists Cuisine World offers a generous buffet for VND450,000 per person. The full service caterer will set up the space you choose with the menu you’ve selected and will even decorate too. The decorations and event venue are already included in the price if your event is held at Robot Tower, so there’s no charge on top of the catering fee itself. If you need something a little more exotic, Cuisine World also maintains partnerships with other event spaces and service providers meaning that for example, if you want to have you party on a boat, they can make it happen. With Cuisine World you can have the party of your dreams. 31
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EDUCATION FEATURE
by Jesús López-Gómez
In Vietnam, French Consul Seeking To
‘Reinforce The Links’
When Vietnamese doctor Duong Quang Trung traveled to France to be trained in advanced medicine in the 1990s—one of the first of what would become thousands of French-trained Vietnamese doctors—he forged a strong rapport with a French doctor Alain Carpentier and was
struck with a bold idea. Why not bring Carpentier directly to Vietnam? The partnership between France and Vietnam had already yielded tremendous results. In 1993, France began training Vietnamese doctor in a program that has since added thousands of new doctors annually. According to French Consul General Vincent Floreani, in the past few years alone nearly 3,000 Vietnamese doctors have completed the French physician training but this reverse exchange would create a valuable new health asset in Vietnam. The two physicians partnered to created The Heart Institute in 1992, a medical organization that offers cardiac surgery services with support from France’s national health system. To date, it’s been a critical resource for over 4,300 young patients, many of them impoverished. “These sorts of initiatives are great”, Floreani said discussing the Heart Institute. The French state’s position is that there ought to be more of 32 | iamhcmc.com/gazette
these types of projects. Consequently, Floreani said he sees his role, as the lead representative for France’s presence in Saigon, as one of finding and brokering new partnerships. “The job of the diplomat is to prepare the ground to make that possible.”
A Real French Education in Vietnam Nearly six centuries have passed since France ruled Vietnam as a colonial power, but the European state remains actively involved in a wealth of initiatives in Vietnam, including education and language acquisition on top of healthcare. From supporting local schools to cooperating with French education organizations in Ho Chi Minh City, the French government has remained an active part of Vietnam’s growth.
Today, there are 13,000 Vietnamese pupils who are studying in schools teaching French curriculums, from the doctoral level all the way down to preschool. These schools report to a governmental body that ensures compliance with French education standards.
There are a total of five primary schools that currently offer this type of French education. Two secondary schools, Lycee Francais International Marguerite Duras in Ho Chi Minh City and Lycee Francais Yersin, are offering pupils the chance to continue their education in an educational environment that accords with French education standards. And these schools “are about a third of what [students] would pay at other international schools”, Floreani said. In addition, there are a number of schools that offer a French immersion program to students studying in Nha Trang, Can Tho, Da Nang and Saigon. Floreani said the overwhelming number of students in schools offering French education are expatriates—the French national population in Vietnam has steadily grown by between 15 and 20 percent the last few years—but “it’s something I want to improve”, he said. In the Saigon high school, around 15 percent of the student body is Vietnamese, Floreani said. In Hanoi, he said about 40 percent of the students are part of the local population. Floreani said bringing more Vietnamese representation in to the student bodies of both would increase
EDUCATION FEATURE
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cultural exchange and enhance the relationship France has with an important partners.
An Unwavering Partnership France’s continued involvement has at times put it at odds with another prominent partner: the US. The relationship was chronicled in depth by Henrich Dahm, a researcher for the Institute of Asian Affairs, in his book “French and Japanese Economic Relations with Vietnam Since 1975”. After the end of the American War in Vietnam in 1975, the US and Vietnam maintained no economic relations. A trade embargo created in 1964 on all trade activities was extended until Bill Clinton took the office of US president. Citing Hanoi’s help in locating military personnel that were still missing in action, he ordered the lifting of the trade embargo in 1994. Yet vestiges of the embargo remained through the current era. It was only in 2016 that former US president Barack Obama lifted the ban on lethal arms sales to Vietnam. Through the freeze and subsequent thaw, a number of countries including France remained active partners with Vietnam in fostering international cooperation. Even after the invasion of Cambodia when international partners lobbed criticism against Vietnamese leadership in 1975, Dahm writes that France remained committed to keeping the trade and diplomatic relationship active. It used its continued influence to bring an end to fighting
between Cambodia factions and Vietnamese forces through an accord signed in Paris in 1989.
Vietnam’s stead and won the country a loan with better terms.
Long before Clinton chose to lift the US trade embargo, France had been advocating for the integration of Vietnam into the global financial community. The US consistently blocked France in their efforts at the International Monetary Fund, voting against measures that would bring economic relief to the region like refinancing the nation’s debt.
According to Dahm, the amount of French aid to Vietnam has made it a top donor with aid concentrated in education, cultural enrichment, communication, water supply, sanitation, transportation, energy, economic management and human resources to name a few critical resources.
With Clinton’s decision to lift the trade embargo, France was able to move forward leading a plan to refinance the nation’s US$140 million debt. France led an 11-nation group that repaid about half the loan in
In 1993 when the doctor training program was conceived, French grant aid to Vietnam was about US$44 million, an increase of US$10 million from two years prior and nearly US$30 million from four years prior. In return for their work, Dahm’s study found that French companies benefit from the aid,
. Small class sizes . 20% discount for siblings . English National Curriculum & IPC . Experienced, UK-qualified teachers . Quiet, district 2 location Residential Area no. 5, Thanh My Loi Ward, District 2, Ho Chi Minh City (028) 3742 7827 www.saigonstarschool.edu.vn
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INTERNATIONAL MINDEDNESS. WE DO TOO.
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EDUCATION FEATURE
which is tied to large purchases of French goods and services. In return, the Vietnamese government has welcomed French companies seeking support for business deals in the country. The work building connections continues today. In March, the French education ministry kicked off a five-day intensive French language course in Ho Chi Minh City for adult students. Students attending represented 12 countries in the Asia region. The event is part of a broader celebration of formal relations between Vietnam and France. This year marks 45 years since leaders formalized diplomatic cooperation between the two nations.
Developing French Fluency French assistance in Vietnam has included cultural exports like newspapers and films, as well as language training. In 1994, a cultural appreciation and language program aimed at young Vietnamese students began. It has since worked to develop a fluency in French sufficient to study in the University of Science and Technology in Hanoi, an institution jointly run by Vietnamese and French governments, other university-level programs taught in French or for some students the opportunity to study in France itself. Currently, some of that work is continuing with the Institut d’Échanges Culturels avec la France (“Institute of Cultural Exchanges with France”), which works with Saigon and Hanoi’s local Vietnamese population to foster
French cultural awareness and train them in the language. One of the necessities for French citizenship is a minimum French language requirement. When the French Consulate is approached by Vietnamese interested in getting French citizenship or seeking to study in France but lacking the language requirement, Floreani said he directs them to the institute.
Ripple Effects
Vietnamese doctors to France to specialize in a range of disciplines including surgery, pediatrics and anesthesiology. Floreani said some of the French-trained Vietnamese doctors went on to work with Cambodian doctors to share their skills with their regional neighbor. “Vietnamese have this expertise to be able to provide training”, Floreani said.
The French state has also for years cultivated a presence in Vietnam. The partnership has yielded dividends for not only the country itself, but also neighboring nations.
The work the French have done in Vietnam “helps … promote cooperation”, Floreani said. That’s why he sees his mission in part as increasing participation from both parties, more Vietnamese students in the French schools, greater numbers of Vietnamese students studying in France.
The formal partnership between France and Vietnam in 1993 was created to bring working
“Basically, this is the job of any diplomat. Their job is to reinforce the links”, Floreani said.
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EDUCATION FEATURE
by Jesús López-Gómez
Vietnam To Miss
English Language Fluency Target It’s a “flop”, Tuoi Tre called it in a headline, or a “failure” according to another headline in VNExpress. In 2016, it was described as “unrealistic” by Minister of Education and Training Phung Xuan Nha. They’re talking about Vietnam’s National Foreign Language Project—or, as it’s more commonly known, Project 2020—the education initiative meant to bring all of Vietnam’s high school students to an intermediate level of English by graduation. Less than 20 percent of students have reached this level.
Early Warning Signs Project 2020 dates back to 2008. It was proposed as an ambitious plan with one central goal: “by the year 2020 most Vietnamese 36 | iamhcmc.com/gazette
youth who graduate from vocational schools, colleges and universities gain the capacity to use a foreign language independently”, according to the official language of the initiative “Teaching and Learning Foreign Languages in the National Education System, Period 2008 to 2020”.
provide these English teaching credentials would be narrowed down.
But in 2016, Nha addressed a collection of government heads and education officials warning that the project still had a long way to go in its four remaining years.
While the project’s core goals centre around English proficiency, in 2016 many students were still lacking access to regular English language curriculum. Around 20 percent of elementary school students were receiving four periods of English a week. The goal is to have 100 percent of third-grade students following a 10-year English language program by 2020.
An article in Tuoi Tre stated that some Vietnamese teachers had cut corners on the testing required by Project 2020, or opted to learn at centres that had developed a reputation for slack grading. Nha announced in the meeting that teachers would be retrained and the number of authorised centres that could
That year about half of English teachers in Vietnam were reportedly substandard according to the requirements of Project 2020.
At that point, the project had a VND10 trillion (US$446.43 million) budget.
EDUCATION FEATURE
Student Pushback Thai Nguyen University built Project 2020’s language goal into their graduation requirements. All university students were to reach a B1 standard in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), as per Project 2020’s goals. As a result, the school lowered the language standard. The delayed students gave the university heat. As a result, 2,000 students failed to graduate on time at the Thai Nguyen city university. Research shows students may need up to 400 hours of training to move up one rung in the CEFR ladder. Thai Nguyen University lowered their standards in part because their undergraduate curriculum only included 100 hours of English training, Professor Dang Van Minh explained to Tuoi Tre in January. Students have criticized Project 2020 for placing too much emphasis on grammar training and not providing enough opportunities to practice listening and speaking.
A Persistent Fever The project appears to come at least in part from the extreme interest Vietnamese have in the English language. In 2014, researcher and author Christopher Candlin described the country’s zest for the language “English fever” in his English language teaching review “Language and Development: Teachers in a Changing World”. Sending school children to
English language centres early to get them an early head start on their language acquisition is almost de rigor for Vietnamese families. In spite of the pronounced shortcomings of the 2020 Project, English language advocates are building new educational initiatives around it, such as the HCMC-based plan to begin English language learning in the first grade starting in the 2018 academic year. In the current academic year, 91 percent of students in the city have taken English classes since the first grade. Nevertheless, Saigon’s Department of Education and Training Head of Primary Education Nguyen Quang Vinh complained that the quality of the teachers was inconsistent and said his department would begin making sure foreign language centres are integrated into every school’s activity. Vinh noted that the schools still had difficulties filling their foreign teacher vacancies because of inadequate salary offers. During the 2017 academic year, the school officials recruited 1,797 teachers, who filled 70 percent of the available foreign teacher slots.
Only 40 percent of the recruited teachers meet the Ministry of Education training standards.
Foreign Teachers to Go in HCMC Over parents’ objections, Saigon will slowly phase out foreign teachers in city schools over the next few years.
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By 2020, the city plans to train 400 Vietnamese teachers to replace their foreign counterparts, according to reporting by the Vietnam News Agency. There are currently 100 primary school teachers undergoing a four-phase training program required to pass an assessment crafted by UK’s Pearson Education, the program administrator. Over 300 teachers applied to be part of the program. Parents angrily commented that their students would have limited or no interaction with native English speakers. Do Minh Hoang, an official with HCMC’s Department of Education and Training, said the Vietnamese teachers would be able to deliver similar or better results compared to the current foreign teachers. Education officials responded, noting that fees would be reduced when the switch to Vietnamese English teachers is complete. Thuong Nguyen, a researcher with National Chengchi University in Taiwan, presented an analysis suggesting the project was not a doomed to failure. In a paper titled “Vietnam’s National Foreign Language 2020 Project after 9 years: A Difficult Stage”, Nguyen argued that simple changes like updating teaching methods from basic “teacher asks, students respond” routines and introducing new curriculum could prove fruitful in changing the narrative around Project 2020. Nguyen’s research involved observations of several Ho Chi Minh City high schools, a handful of which are currently meeting the foreign language initiative’s target goals.
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TRAVEL FEATURE
by Tran Thi Minh Hieu
picture by Jesús López-Gómez
Telling the Story of
Vietnamese Women The Vietnamese Women’s Museum is one of the best museums in Hanoi, showcasing the life and the roles of Vietnamese women in the family, in society and throughout history. Femininity is inherent in Vietnamese culture, and women play an immensely important role in the country’s history as well as in modern society. Vietnamese women are just as hardworking as men are and contribute a lot to the economy, as can be observed everywhere in the country. So you shouldn’t be surprised that there is a museum dedicated to women in Hanoi, the Vietnamese Women’s Museum. Located at 36 Ly Thuong Kiet, the four levels of the building are filled with over a thousand documents and artifacts labeled in English and French. It took nearly 10 years to collect these from all over the country. Walking inside, you 38 | iamhcmc.com/gazette
can see a glass dome on top. The exhibition floors are designed as large circles, so as to let light through from the roof to the first floor. The second level showcases artifacts from the daily life of women from different ethnic groups, including jewelry and clothing, arranged in a way as though to tell the story of the typical life of a woman from getting married to giving birth to family life. You will be able to learn about different wedding customs, rituals and superstitions surrounding the birth of a child and the many roles of a woman in the family. Moving on to the next level, women’s contributions to the country throughout history, especially during wartime, will leave you mind blown. Vietnamese women are shown here as true heroes, from the very first queens and warriors in history, to those who gave all their youth and their life for the mission of bringing peace to their home country.
On the third level, the focus is on the history and activities of the Vietnam Women’s Union, including a stunning collection of propaganda posters, and gifts from other women’s unions around the world. The final level is where you can take a look at the evolution of Vietnamese women’s traditional clothes, in different regions, ethnicities and periods. There are ongoing exhibitions on specific topics, including the worship of mother goddesses in Vietnam. The colorful exhibitions, conducted with the supervision of experts such as Dr. Laurel Kendall of the American Museum of Natural History, showcase and explain a mysterious part of Vietnamese culture. From 8 March to 8 May 2018, in celebration of International Women’s Day, there is an art exhibition called “Mother and Nature” by artist Van Duong Thanh with a selection of 35 artworks, depicting the beauty of the mother and the child in the settings of Vietnamese nature.
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N O W O P E N
SKY XX - Garden & Lounge is an experience designed for cocktail enthusiasts and entertainment fans alike. Drinks connoisseurs will indulge in craft cocktails tailored following modern trends while entertainment fans will be amazed by world-class acts. Come touch the sky at Sky XX. Level 20, Deutsches Haus, 33 Le Duan Blvd, Ben Nghe Ward, D1, HCMC
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PRIME XXI Steak and Seafood, profoundly redefines Saigon’s dining experience. Each guest is taken through a journey of discovery: from choosing cuts and quality of meat and seafood, to selecting salt and sauces, cheese ateliers, wine tastings and whisky pairings. Level 21, Deutsches Haus, 33 Le Duan Blvd, Ben Nghe Ward, D1, HCMC
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Drawing from Cantonese, Sichuan, Shanghai and Beijing influences, Lai is a new exploration of authentic Chinese cuisine tailored to a modern audience. Through a distinctive menu, a dim sum bar selection and a display of our famous Peking Duck, our menu lets the ingredients take the lead. Saigon Centre, 65 Le Loi, 28th Floor, Ben Nghe Ward, D1, HCMC
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@laicantonese
BOOK YOUR TABLE SKYXX 0906.693.138 PRIMEXXI 0906.936.138 LAI 0909.952.138 TOWA 0909.529.138
Level 4, Deutsches Haus, 33 Le Duan Blvd, Ben Nghe Ward, D1, HCMC
Towa offers an interpretation of the art of Japanese cuisine concentrating on the purity of each basic ingredient. Our guests are encouraged to rediscover authentic Japanese cuisine alongside classic Ginza-style Japanese Cocktails known for their minimalism and sublime attention to details. Saigon Centre, 65 Le Loi, 28th Floor, Ben Nghe Ward, D1, HCMC
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Tel: (84.28.) 5431 1833 Email: office@theabcis.com
ABC International School, Ho Chi Minh City, Official
Our New Secondary Campus Opening 2018
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Land area 12,650m2
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State of the art theatre with over 400 seats
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Fully shaded salt-water 25m swimming pool
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4G football pitch with smart shade
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33 dedicated classrooms & 19 specialist classrooms
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Two full sized air-conditioned basketball courts
Located in Tran Thai -Tan An Huy Residence Area at Phuoc Kien, Nha Be District
Recognised as “an outstanding school” by British Government inspectors, The ABC International School delivers a globally valued UK curriculum for students aged 2–18 years, based on best professional practice.
Saigon South 1 Campus 8 - 18 yrs KDC Trung Son
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Saigon South 2 Campus 2 - 7 yrs KDC Trung Son