English Education in Indonesia and Vietnam

English is an international language which is a must to be mastered in various countries around the world. At this time, it is quiet difficult to face the world without the ability of  english as an international language. English has big roles in some sectors, such as business, politics, economics, etc. Although it has been run in some countries, yet in some developing countries like Indonesia and Vietnam, english is still difficult to be mastered due to the education of english is still less than its standard. In this case, some problems are found why english is difficult to be mastered.

In Indonesia, people already master bahasa as their second language besides their local language. They can master bahasa easily because the environment supports them to do so. But it rarely happens with the english, that is true that english is taught in primary schools, however, the environment for children to speak english is very less. They feel difficult to practice english in their real lives because no one speaks english. Based on Edward Sapir on his book entitled Language: An Introduction to the Study of Speech:1921. He says that Speech is so familiar a feature of daily life that we rarely pause to definite it. It seems as natural to man as walking and only less so than breathing. it means that when we learn language, we need practise. Language will be faded when no one uses it or it is same as when we learn language but we never practice it. It is like what happens in Indonesia mainly for those who learn english.  At school, They have only little time for english while they spend alsmost entire time to speak bahasa and their local languages. Whereas at their age, children can learn language easily due to the children’s brain are still elastic and flexible so that the absorption of language is more efficient. Language has no use if there is no time to apply.

Similarly, it also happens in Vietnam. While in Indonesia, the reason of learning english is because of the environment, however in Vietnam, it is because the teachers of english are still doubtful instead. Based on Beritaedukasi.com on 2^nd July 2012, survey proved that the ability of english teacher in Vietnam is so much far from the standard. Nguyen Ngoc Hung, the headmaster of the national project of teaching and learning foreign languages ​​through 2020 proved that 97% english teachers of Senior high and 93% english teachers of Junior high and secondary schools are failed through the test of english based on european standardized which is held by the ministry of education. English Teachers have big roles in students’ influence, because the development of the nation can be depended on the education which is held by the teachers mainly at the ages of globalization.  It can be said that if the teachers have no ability to teaching english then what the students will be. They  are left behind instead of this modern era, while now english is a common lamguage in some countries and it is also as a means to communicate and gain information based on international news.

Thus, the development of english education in Indonesia and Vietnam have a slight difference. In Indonesia, the difficulty of learing is about the environment that is impossible for applying english while in vietnam, the difficulty of learning english is because of teachers’ quality.