CIEE Language and Culture Program in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

  Vietnam

• All Other Areas in Vietnam: 
Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)

Term: Academic Year, Fall, Spring 
Dates: Fall 17 weeks: mid-August-mid-December; Spring 17 weeks: mid-January-mid-May; Academic Year 44 weeks: mid-August-mid-May

Description: The goals of the Language and Culture program are threefold: to provide students with a solid foundation in Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Laotian culture and society through through academic coursework taught in English; to provide each student with innovative Vietnamese language training in small classes taught by expert faculty; and immersion into the local community by offering a unique set of housing options and group excursions throughout the region.

Academic Program
Established in 2007, the CIEE Study Center at Ho Chi Minh International University offers students the opportunity to gain meaningful insight into Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos through studies in language, history, culture, literature, economics, and society. All courses provide a deeper understanding of the region while encouraging interaction with local scholars, students, and citizens.

The program is based in Ho Chi Minh City, where students spend the majority of the semester. Students spend the final five weeks of the program in Cambodia visiting the modern capital of Phnom Penh and the ancient capital of Siem Reap-Angkor.

The five-week course in Cambodia helps students understand Cambodias history and culture, with particular focus on the Khmer Rouge regime and its aftermath. The challenges of nation building, reconciliation, and democracy in post-conflict countries are studied, and Cambodias economic and cultural transformations as at it opens up to the world are explored.

Academic Culture
Students attend classes Monday through Friday. Language classes are a mandatory and key component of the curriculum. Area studies elective courses meet two to three times weekly while the required area studies courses in Cambodia meet daily.

For all students, each academic course requires approximately six to eight hours of reading and other preparation per week. Class sessions normally consist of lectures, discussion of readings, field trips, field reports, and presentations. Especially in lectures taught by local scholars, students are encouraged to be flexible in adapting to new teaching styles and ways of organizing academic material.

Vietnamese language classes are offered at beginning through advanced levels. Students are placed in appropriate language classes based on a proficiency examination given in Ho Chi Minh City at the beginning of the program. Beginning level students are usually grouped into a class of five to six program participants. In Cambodia, there is non-credit, basic instruction in the Khmer language including useful conversational words and phrases. Area studies courses, taught in English, include a variety of full-day and weekend study trips.

Highlights:

• Up-close investigation of pressing development issues such as human trafficking, globalization, and the impact of a booming tourist industry on the local environment
  
• Regional perspectives on former French Indochina: Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam; five-week course in Cambodia
  
• Culturally immersive joint living arrangements with Vietnamese students
  
• In-depth course-related excursions throughout Vietnam and Cambodia
  
• Multi-day homestays in Phnom Penh and a northern Vietnamese ethnic minority village near Sapa

Two separate weeklong field trips allow students to explore the cultural variations in other regions of Vietnam. A one-week field trip to central Vietnam includes visits to the imperial capital of Hue, the old trading port of Hoi An, and the former demilitarized zone (DMZ). There is also an opportunity for interested students to visit the My Lai massacre memorial site.

A one-week field trip to northern Vietnam includes site visits to the Temple of Literature, the artisan printmaking village of Dong Ho, as well as other cultural and historical landmarks in and around Hanoi. A highlight of the northern Vietnam trip is a two-night homestay with a Dzao ethnic minority family near the China-Vietnam border.

In the Cambodia-based component, there are visits and guided lectures at the Angkor World Heritage Site. Students visit the ongoing Khmer Rouge war crimes tribunal, the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek and the Tuol Sleng (S-21) prison, the National Museum, the Royal Palace, and visit a rural Khmer village.

Cultural Reimbursement Program
To encourage students to enrich their study abroad experience, CIEE offers a Cultural Reimbursement Program, reimbursing students for their participation in local cultural activities such as tickets to local movies,
theater performances, traditional music concerts, and visits to local museums and historic places of interest.

Immersion
Volunteering
CIEE students are encouraged to volunteer at the local chapter of the United Way, the Agent Orange rehabilitation ward of Tu Du Hospital, or another suitable social service or charity organization.

Peer Language Tutors
As a supplement to all classroom language instruction, program participants are required to meet with tutors who provide them with extra conversational practice in Vietnamese, clarification of classroom material, and help with homework assignments.

Cost in US$: Please check the CIEE website for current program pricing.

Experience Required: yes

Overall GPA 2.75

This Program is open to Worldwide Participants.

Participants Travel to Vietnam Independently

Scholarships are Available. - We have several scholarships that students can apply for. Contact CIEE for details.

Application Process Involves:

• Letters of Reference
• Other
• Transcript
• Written Application

CIEE's Mission Statement: Since 1947, the Council on International Educational Exchange, known as CIEE, has been in pursuit of its mission, "to help people gain understanding, acquire knowledge, and develop skills for living in a globally interdependent and culturally diverse world." Our services to young people studying, working, teaching, and traveling abroad are more important than ever. As we look ahead, we reaffirm our commitment to the principles and values that guide this mission statement.

Year Founded: 1947