The VEPH is conducting a working and study visit to Germany from August 8-14 to learn from advanced models for the production and distribution of e-books and digital learning materials. The delegation is led by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Van Tung, a member of the VEPH Members' Council.

At the start of the visit, the delegation met with Prof. Dr. Dang Hoang Linh, Charge d'Affaires of the Vietnamese Embassy in Berlin, embassy officials and representatives of the Vietnamese community in Berlin to discuss the delegation's agenda as well as Vietnamese language teaching and learning in Germany.

Tung said the delegation hopes to learn about new technologies in the distribution of digital publications and electronic learning materials, as well as the latest publishing trends in Germany, to support the development of the VEPH's strategy.

He expressed his hope that the Vietnamese Embassy in Germany would continue helping the VEPH establish partnerships with Germany, a leading publishing and digital publishing power, particularly in digital transformation in publishing and education, textbook data management, data standardization in digital publishing and education, and new publishing methods.

These efforts, he said, would help improve teaching and learning efficiency and meet the growing demand among Vietnamese teachers and students for digital publications and electronic learning materials.

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Linh affirmed the Vietnamese Embassy's commitment to promoting cultural diplomacy and introducing Vietnamese cultural values to the world, while absorbing the cultural achievements of humanity to build an advanced Vietnamese culture imbued with national identity. The approach is in line with the Cultural Diplomacy Strategy to 2030, with a vision to 2045, approved by the Government in July.

Counsellor Ha Thi Lam Hong, head of the embassy's Office of Science and Technology, highlighted the importance of participating in Germany's two largest annual book fairs in Frankfurt and Leipzig. Such participation would enable Vietnamese publishers to access new production technologies and publishing formats while establishing networks with international publishers.

She suggested strengthening cooperation in copyright protection, copyright transfers and the translation of valuable research works from Vietnam and Germany, as well as books on science and technology, education and knowledge dissemination.

The delegation also held discussions with embassy officials and Vietnamese community representatives on Vietnamese language teaching and learning among young Vietnamese people in Germany.

Nguyen Thu Loan, founder and head of the AWO Vietnamese-language school at the Bayouma-Haus Multicultural Centre in Berlin's Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg district, shared her 17 years of experience teaching Vietnamese to second-generation Vietnamese in Germany. She expressed her hope that a Vietnamese-language textbook series tailored to overseas Vietnamese could be developed, incorporating family education and traditional Vietnamese values and etiquette to help promote Vietnamese culture and traditions and strengthen ties between generations overseas.

Tung welcomed the community's contributions, saying the VEPH would consider them in developing book projects and digital platforms to help overseas Vietnamese learn the Vietnamese language as well as Vietnam's history, culture and geography through both traditional books and digital technologies.

The Vietnamese language programme for Vietnamese people abroad was issued by the Ministry of Education and Training in 2018 to help preserve the Vietnamese language and promote national cultural identity while improving the quality of Vietnamese language teaching and learning overseas.

The VEPH has been compiling and publishing the "Chao Tieng Viet" (Hello Vietnamese) textbook series, comprising six levels corresponding to the six proficiency levels set out in the programme. Two books, covering Levels 1 and 2, have so far been published.

The "Chao Tieng Viet" series, written by Nguyen Thuy Anh and published by the VEPH, won the A Prize at the sixth National Book Awards in 2024. During the visit, the delegation presented Levels 1 and 2 of the series and several other VEPH publications to the Vietnamese Embassy and representatives of the Vietnamese community.

During their stay in Germany, the delegation is scheduled to work with Westermann and Cornelsen, two well-known German publishers of textbooks and educational materials in Berlin. It will also visit the University of Erfurt in Erfurt, Thuringia state, and work with the German Publishers & Booksellers Association and the organisers of the Frankfurt Book Fair in Frankfurt am Main, Hesse./.

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