National Identity and Foreign Cultures

This chapter discusses how comparisons with other cultures are used to imagine national identity, as national identity is not only defined from within, but also from without, that is, through distinguishing and differentiating the nation and its traditions from other nations and their traditions. We look at the ways in which ‘others’ are represented in EFL textbooks and how the representations of the others serve to define and demarcate the Vietnamese national identity. Several perspectives are put to use. We distinguish between different types of ‘others,’ look at the representations of former enemies and other nations, and analyse the ways in which an (inter-)cultural awareness is stimulated. Altogether, our analyses show how the Vietnamese EFL textbooks no longer present English as a foreign language, which is spoken in a few nations (England, USA, etc.), and which is linked with the study of these nations and their cultures, but instead present English as the main international language in a globalizing world, which Vietnamese students need to acquire both to learn about the world and to express their own national identity in a global context.