Dear parents, guests, teachers and to my dearest fellow peers!

Today, is the end of the school year 2014 and I am very honoured to stand here today and represent the students in thanking the teachers of the Lac Hong Vietnamese School in Brisbane. In today’s award ceremony, I would like to congratulate to the award recipients who have achieved outstanding academic results in 2014.

Dear parents, guests, teachers and to my dearest fellow peers!

Although every day, over the past 12 years of learning Vietnamese from grade 1 to the OP class for the entrance into university, we are constantly busy with the assessments from mainstream school, every Saturday morning us, students still try and attend Vietnamese classes. To achieve the results we received today, apart from our own efforts, we also receive the encouragement from our parents and teachers. Their encouragement has been a great source energy that has enabled us to conquer this difficult journey in studying Vietnamese, which is reflected in our outstanding results and awards today. This is all due to the effort and devotion of the teachers. At this moment, I would like to express my gratitude and thank the teachers the Lac Hong Vietnamese School in Brisbane on the behalf of all the students.

I am very pleased and proud to say that I can speak, write, read, listen and understand Vietnamese, but most importantly, I have been able to incorporate it into my daily life and lived with the language. Vietnamese has become a major part of my daily life, although I was born and raised in Australia. As students, we not only understand Vietnamese, we also have a deeper understanding and extensive knowledge on the culture and traditions of the Vietnamese people.

To be able to learn with these students over the years, we all have become very close friends and I have learnt a lot from them, whether it be educational wise or event life-related. After studying Vietnamese, I came to the realisation that my thinking towards every aspect of life has changed, as I have grown so much as a person from having a greater understanding of life and the people around me. Everyone has their own goals and from my perspective, each student will be very successful in the future and their parents will be very proud to call them their child. I really appreciate and treasure these students. They all have distinctive characteristics and personalities that form their individuality, which has left a deep impression on me and nothing can replace the value I have placed on them. I sincerely would like to thank the teachers for their efforts that has lead us to success today.

To my dearest fellow peers,

In this year of studying Vietnamese in the OP class, the students have taken 6 practice exams in class. Every Saturday we attend Vietnamese school, each of us are always in the spirit prepared just like we would be in the official exam.

Our teacher has stated “Sweat in the classroom, less tears are shed in the exam”. As we are fully aware of his intended message, we all come to class and learn Vietnamese in a self-discipline and serious manner, in order for preparation for the exam. Due to this mindset, the OP class has achieved outstanding and very positive scores.

I can still remember the oral examination day, many students have arrived at the location earlier than their designated examination time. I had a friend who brought a long a poster with images of various countries, he told me “I will be talking about the migration of the Vietnamese people”. In that moment, I realised that we are responsible for maintaining the culture and traditions of Vietnam along with the voice of the Vietnamese people for our future generations

Prior to entering the examination room, although I was nervous I knew that my teacher has taught me what was required and what we needed to know. Walking into the room, although I felt the immense pressure I wasn’t afraid because I have learnt this language for 12 years and without confidence you cannot succeed nor do anything in life. If you don’t believe in yourself, why do it ?

After 12 years of our schooling experience, we all must leave this familiar place and go in our separate ways to pursue our own dreams. Graduation day should be a day to celebrate our hardwork and the fact that we have completed a chapter of our life, which is 12 years of schooling and to be able to finally do what we want and most importantly, for ourselves. However, this feeling of sadness has been knocking on my door for the past few days. It is quite sad to think that I will not see these students every Saturday anymore.

My dearest fellow peers, in the past year we had to wake up early every Saturday to go to school, we fought hard to understand when to use which Vietnamese sign out of the 5. Many people believe that the Vietnamese language is too difficult to learn because of the 5 obnoxious signs! But, these 5 signs aren’t so hateful at all if you compare them to other languages in the world where they have more signs and marks than the Vietnamese language, they are definitely harder to understand. Yet in the end they still learnt the language! We are the Vietnamese, with only 5 signs why must we surrender because we can’t get these signs right? Learning any language has its own bitter roots, however, the results from our effort and determination will produce sweet fruits. This is because by understanding another language we understand another source of life.

I guess you could also agree that apart from talent, it takes time to learn a language. Talent is given to each individual person, so we shall not discuss it! However, time is what we all have the same. Time gives us the opportunity for us to study and practice Vietnamese everyday, and to have high achievements in learning another language, we must try our best and learn and practice speaking Vietnamese over the years. Although musician Pham Duy has past away, his everlasting and meaningful lyrics holds a significant value in the hearts of the Vietnamese today: “I love my own language since birth…, my language my mother’s lullaby when I was in the cradle…”. A Vietnamese baby may learn Vietnamese the earliest when they are still in the womb, and if they learnt it later it would be “in the cradle”. So, when did you learn Vietnamese? We should not wait until we have to attend the OP class for university entrance to study Vietnamese because that would be too late. It is best if we all learn today.

Dear friends, because if the Vietnamese language is still present, our people will be too. The Vietnamese language can be considered as a ‘cultural castle’ which is the very first and the last of us. If you fail to speak Vietnamese, then this castle of the Vietnamese culture can collapse as it will lose one of its source of bricks. I hope you are aware of this concept when studying a language.

To conclude, I would like to wish the guests, parents, teachers and of course the students to always be in good health, so that we all together can firmly build a cultural castle of Vietnam right here on the Australian land. Once again on behalf of the students, we thank the efforts and devotion of the teachers at Lac Hong Vietnamese School in Brisbane in the past year. Thank you!