Managed by three teachers, the school now has 60 pupils divided into four classes taught on Sundays.

One of the teachers, Nguyen Thanh Tam, used to teach at a secondary school in Hanoi. In 1992, she followed her husband to settle in Germany.

Everyday, Tam goes to work like others. When returning home, she spends time preparing lessons to teach her children. She found that children of Vietnamese descent in Germany have specific features which require different teaching methods.

“Many Vietnamese families in Germany are not fully aware of the importance of teaching the native Vietnamese language to their children, making our task more difficult,” she confided. “We need great care and attention from the parents.”

 Tam said that it’s necessary to teach the children before they reach age 12 because this work will be much harder once they get older.

In addition, she said the school faces physical difficulties such as poor facilities and a lack of a standard set of Vietnamese course books designed for overseas Vietnamese.

The school’s staff now receive modest pay from the parents of children that study Vietnamese there.

Without any complaints, the three teachers are wholeheartedly devoted to their classes in the hope of promoting the Vietnamese language to the wider Vietnamese community in Germany.

They wish they had a standard set of course books, a small dream that is difficult to come true. The The Gioi (World) Publishers have compiled these books on a trial basis and have not launched them on to the market.

The school is entering into its fifth consecutive year in 2012 under the auspices of the Pacific Trade Centre in Berlin and the Vietnamese embassy in Germany.

(VOV)