Due to the continuous establishment of colonies by Western countries in modern times, many Western languages have spread to various parts of the world.
Many formerly colonized countries have learned the colonizers' languages and even adopted them as their official languages.
For example, English in the Philippines, India, and New Zealand, Spanish in Latin America, and French in West and North Africa.
After the end of the Sino-French War, Vietnam was colonized by France and became one of France's colonies in the Far East, forming French Indochina along with Laos and Cambodia.
Due to the influence of French colonization, today's Vietnam retains much French architecture, the Vietnamese love coffee, and Vietnamese perfumes enjoy an international reputation.
However, the Vietnamese did not generally master the French language.
In fact, the French colonization of Vietnam was not very long.
In ancient times, Vietnam was divided into three parts: the north was long a direct territory of the Central Plains dynasties, even after independence it paid tribute to the Central Plains; the central region was Champa; and the south belonged to Cambodia.
It wasn't until the Ming and Qing dynasties that Vietnam gradually expanded southwards, occupying Champa and seizing a large amount of land in the Mekong Delta from Cambodia, forming today's territory.
Starting in the 1850s, France repeatedly invaded Vietnam.
After the Sino-French War, Vietnam broke away from the tributary system and became a French protectorate, with many southern lands forcibly ceded to France.
Even so, French colonial rule in Vietnam lasted only about a hundred years, until World War II, relatively short compared to North America, West Africa, and North Africa.
France's method of colonizing Vietnam was different from its colonization in Africa.
Now many African countries use French because France massively promoted French in Africa.
In fact, France also tried to promote French in Vietnam at that time.
Vietnam, deeply influenced by Central Plains culture, despite having its own language, had scholars and nobles proficient in Chinese and used Chinese characters as the official script, with a quite mature civilization system.
Compared to African tribes, Vietnam's civilization was obviously more mature, and when facing the impact of French culture, Vietnam's own civilization had stronger resistance and was not easily overcome.
French colonies in Africa and North America had almost no mature states and civilizations, while in Vietnam, even under French colonization, the Nguyễn Dynasty still existed, and France did not directly rule.
Similar to British colonial practices, Britain transplanted its own culture and system and massively migrated in places with weak civilizations like Australia and New Zealand.
However, in places like India, Britain could not completely control, so it only promoted British civilization among the upper class, with most ordinary Indians remaining unaffected.
Vietnam, heavily influenced by Central Plains civilization, was difficult for France to promote its culture without first weakening or even removing the influence of Chinese culture, a very challenging step.
During the hundred years of French colonization in Vietnam, very few Vietnamese actually mastered French, and most of those who did left Vietnam.
Today, very few Vietnamese are proficient in French.
Although France did not manage to make Vietnamese widely learn French, it successfully weakened the use of Chinese characters.
France implemented de-sinification in Vietnam, but since the Nguyễn Dynasty still practiced the imperial examination system, Chinese characters could not be immediately abolished.
Therefore, France weakened the status of Chinese characters by teaching French in new schools.
Meanwhile, Vietnam's "Quốc ngữ" began to rise.
Vietnam had tried to create its own script, inventing Chữ Nôm based on Chinese characters, but it was difficult to understand and learn and was quickly abandoned.
Later, Western missionaries, to facilitate preaching in Vietnam, used the Latin alphabet to spell Vietnamese, creating Quốc ngữ, which had a high popularization rate among the people and a certain foundation of use.
The French fully supported the use of Quốc ngữ among Vietnamese, further weakening the status of Chinese characters.
Especially after Vietnam abolished the imperial examination system, the status of Chinese characters rapidly declined.
The French invasion brought a lot of Western culture and ideas, and even before breaking free from French colonization, the Vietnamese hoped to detach from the Chinese cultural sphere and become a truly independent country.
The spontaneous actions of the Vietnamese and the promotion by the French led to Quốc ngữ rapidly replacing the status of Chinese characters, until Ho Chi Minh declared the abolition of Chinese characters, completing Vietnam's transition to the Latin alphabet.
Although Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos rarely speak French, the lifestyle habits favored by the French, such as perfume and drinking coffee, are still preserved in these places today.
Comments