From Korean to Chinese: Vietnam's language learners follow the jobs

HANOI — “Chinese is definitely the trend now.”

At a Chinese Proficiency Test (HSK) testing center at Hanoi University in Vietnam on Sunday, 23-year-old Vu Thi Thao had just completed the Level 6 exam, the highest level of the test.

“I quit my job at a Chinese railway company and am now preparing to become a Chinese-language instructor,” she said. “As Chinese companies expand into Vietnam at a rapid pace, the market for Chinese speakers has opened up significantly.”

A Chinese language boom is sweeping Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries. Unlike the Korean language learning boom that accompanied the Korean wave in the past, Chinese is increasingly becoming a key foreign language for employment. The trend has been driven by Chinese companies hiring large numbers of Chinese speakers as they move production bases to Southeast Asia to avoid U.S. trade restrictions.

The growing popularity of Chinese in Southeast Asia is reflected in the numbers. According to data from the Chinese Testing International, Vietnam recorded 146,000 HSK test takers last year, the highest in the world. Thailand followed with 130,000, while Korea recorded 60,000 and Japan and Indonesia 30,000 each.

The shift in the job market has been dramatic. According to Vietnamese recruitment platform JobOKO, there were 12,997 job postings seeking Chinese speakers last year, a 49 percent increase from 2024. There were 5,422 postings seeking Japanese speakers and just 2,388 for Korean speakers. Chinese speakers with one to three years of experience earned about 50 percent more than the average salary for the same positions, the data showed.

The trend is also reshaping university admissions. According to admission notices from individual universities, the cutoff score for foreign language programs at the University of Languages and International Studies under Vietnam National University, Hanoi, was 25.92 out of 30 for English this year, followed by Chinese at 25.65, Korean at 24.3 and Japanese at 23.

At Hanoi University, the cutoff was 34.45 out of 40 for English, followed by Chinese at 34.20 and Korean at 32.14. Korean, which had competed with English for the top spots in admission scores just a few years ago, is now beginning to lose ground.

The landscape is also changing in areas near the Chinese border. Vietnamese media outlet Dantri reported in March that workers at industrial complexes in areas such as Bac Ninh were “pouring into Chinese language academies after work,” adding that “having just an HSK Level 4 certificate can guarantee employment.”

Hoang Quynh Nga, 24, a Chinese-language instructor, told Hankook Ilbo that the number of students has surged compared with just two or three years ago.

“Office workers study Chinese because they want better treatment at work, so they tend to be highly motivated,” she said.

China is also making a concerted push to expand the use of its language. China has established Confucius Institutes, Chinese language education institutions, in Southeast Asian countries to support language education, teacher training and administration of the HSK.

It has also established Luban Workshops, vocational training centers, mainly in Belt and Road Initiative partner countries such as Thailand, Laos and Indonesia. The workshops provide free training packages that combine instruction in the use of Chinese-made equipment with Chinese language education.

The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a U.S. foreign policy and security think tank, noted that China’s Luban Workshops have expanded into Central Asia, namely in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

It said China is using the workshops to transform its image from a “threat” into a “partner.”

Korean companies operating in Vietnam are growing increasingly concerned.

“A trend has emerged where applicants to Korean companies list Chinese as a special skill on their resumes,” a local executive at a major Korean company said.

“Chinese companies initially absorbed skilled workers by offering slightly higher salaries than Korean companies. Now the competition has expanded beyond production workers to office employees as well.”

This article from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Times.