Igniting the passion for Tay language for students in the highlands

Journey to spread the voice of the origin

Coming to Van Son commune, many people are surprised to hear the sound of reading in Tay language coming from a special classroom at Van Son Secondary School. That is the classroom taught by teacher Duong Thi Ben, where the love for the mother tongue is spread from the teacher's heart to the young souls of the children.

Ms. Ben was born and raised in Ga village, a village with a large population of Tay ethnic people. From a young age, she was imbued with the cultural values of her people. She realized that in every song, every song, every old story of the Tay people, there is life experience, work experience, knowledge about health care, and a deep concept of love for people, homeland, and country.

With the dream of becoming a teacher, she had to travel nearly ten kilometers to study at the district's boarding school for ethnic minorities. In 2001, she passed the entrance exam to the History Pedagogy Department of Ngo Gia Tu College, Bac Giang (now Bac Giang College). After graduating, she returned to teach at An Lac Secondary School, the former Son Dong district. In 2011, Ms. Ben transferred to work at Van Son Secondary School.

As a daughter of the Tay ethnic group, Ms. Ben is always worried about the gradual disappearance of her mother tongue. She realizes that most students, even the young and middle-aged generation, no longer use Tay in daily communication. From that concern, she longs to teach Tay to children, so that the language of their ancestors can be preserved and developed.

Starting with simple tasks, Ms. Ben wrote down the words she knew and learned more through communication with relatives. What is special is that from her parents' family to her husband's family, everyone is Tay and always uses Tay to talk. Thanks to that, her local language is improved every day. This is a rare thing in modern society, when many young families no longer maintain this habit.

With the desire to spread the love of the ethnic language, Ms. Ben initially taught the Tay language to her children. After a short time, the children could converse fluently in the Tay language. Seeing this, many families in the village sent their children to study.

Her free Tay language classes are increasingly crowded, attracting young people with a passion for traditional culture. In her small house in Phe village, Van Son commune, for nearly 5 years now, keeping with tradition, when teaching the Tay language to children, she always wears traditional costumes.

From the 2023-2024 school year, the Tay language has been officially included in local education activities at Van Son Secondary School. This has further motivated Ms. Ben and her students.

Mr. Pham Van Sy, the school’s principal, added that the school had established a Tay language preservation and development club with 30 members including staff, teachers and students. Ms. Ben was assigned the responsibility of teaching Tay language to the club.

To improve teaching effectiveness, in addition to printed materials, she has worked hard to compile electronic lectures with illustrated images and videos . With an inspiring voice, she has inspired and guided students to enthusiastically learn pronunciation, listening, and speaking according to each topic. Through that, she not only teaches language but also introduces the history and culture of the Tay ethnic group closely associated with the lives of people in Van Son land.

Preserve and promote traditional cultural beauty

Not only stopping at teaching, Ms. Ben also embarked on a challenging journey of collecting and compiling teaching materials. Initially, she compiled a simple, easy-to-learn, easy-to-remember textbook with basic content such as greetings, counting, forms of address, and introductions to household objects.

She found that the Tay ethnic language is rich and expressive, but has not been compiled into books. The documents only exist in the memories of the elderly and shamans, or are expressed through motifs on costumes and in traditional rituals.

With perseverance, Ms. Ben traveled to all the villages and hamlets where Tay people lived in Son Dong district to collect documents. She even traveled to the western slope of the Tran Voi mountain range to learn about the Tay language in the neighboring area of Lang Son province. She meticulously took notes, expanded her vocabulary on each topic, and searched for and collected poems, songs, folk tales, prayers and folk remedies.

After a long period of research, she has successfully compiled a textbook for teaching Tay language from basic to advanced, containing a lot of in-depth knowledge about the culture, customs, and rituals of the Tay people. This is not only a valuable source of documents for students but also a basis for researchers to study the culture and language of the Tay people.

In addition to teaching and editing, Ms. Ben is also a typical artistic nucleus, playing an important role in the commune's Then singing club. She actively participates in cultural and artistic movements, contributing to helping the club achieve many high awards in Then singing and Tinh lute exchanges between the northern mountainous provinces.

With her outstanding contributions, teacher Duong Thi Ben has received many recognitions from authorities at all levels. In 2023 and 2024, she was awarded Certificates of Merit by the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee and the Chairman of the Provincial Fatherland Front Committee for her outstanding achievements in emulation movements contributing to the socio-economic development of ethnic minority and mountainous areas of Bac Giang province (now Bac Ninh province).

Her topics and initiatives have also been applied to teaching practice, such as: "Researching, introducing, and compiling Tay language learning materials to apply to teaching local education programs for students of Van Son Secondary School"; "Researching and preserving folk songs of the Tay ethnic group in Son Dong" and "Some indigenous cultural features of the Tay people in Van Son commune".

In 2024, Ms. Ben was selected by the Provincial Ethnic Committee (now the Department of Ethnic and Religious Affairs) as a member of the Tay ethnic language translation council of Bac Giang province, participating in research, preservation and development of ethnic minority culture in the province.

With her passionate love for the language and culture of the ethnic group, Ms. Ben has ignited a passion in the hearts of generations of highland students. She not only imparts knowledge, but also gives them pride in their roots. Her work actively contributes to the preservation and promotion of traditional cultural beauty, while creating motivation for the development of community tourism, building an advanced Vietnamese culture with a strong national identity.

Source: https://phunuvietnam.vn/thap-lua-dam-me-tieng-tay-cho-hoc-sinh-vung-cao-20250818214738786.htm