VietNamNet Bridge - Miss Southeast Asia 2014 Vu Tran Trieu Thu had to temporarily close her Facebook page after many fans made critical comments about her poor English performance at a beauty pageant held in the Philippines last December, where Thu was a judge.

Trieu Thu and the Korean contestant.

Though the incident occurred a long time ago, a short video clip featuring the case was posted on some local social networks a few days ago. The video was quickly shared, stirring up a controversy among netizens about the English speaking skill of Thu in particular and of Vietnamese beauty queens and celebrities in general.

In the video clip, which includedinterviews with contestants of the Mister International 2015 pageant, which took place in early December in the Philippines, Thu – a judge – asked a question for a candidate from South Korea.

"What do you think is the essence of winning this pageant?" However, due to Thu’s non-standard English pronunciation, both the host and the contestant did not understand what Thu said.

The host had to request Thu to repeat the question, but the audience could still not understand what she said. Another judge helped read the question. This incident caused the audience to laugh.

After the clip was shared on the Internet, the beauty queen was strongly criticized by netizens. She could not stand the pressure so she closed her Facebook.

However, Thu re-opened her page after a few days to say sorry to her fans. She promised to further improve her English to be able to present herself more confidently in the future.

Through this case, a controversy about English speaking skills of Vietnamese celebrities broke out among netizens. They searched and posted some video clips about poor English performance of Vietnamese models and beauty queens at international events.

While many people criticized these Vietnamese celebrities for their poor English as shamefulto Vietnam, many others said as English is not an official language in Vietnam, and it is normal for Vietnamese celebrities to not speak English well

They also quoted an article in a newspaper of the Philippines that defended Thu.

Thanh Van