On October 12, 2025, two major developments in Vietnam’s language technology and education landscapes made headlines, signaling a transformative era for both language assessment standards and the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in daily life. The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) unveiled a sweeping draft Circular aimed at overhauling the country’s foreign language and Vietnamese language competency exams, while Samsung’s Galaxy AI was lauded by experts as a game-changing Vietnamese language AI solution, demonstrating how global tech giants are increasingly tailoring their innovations to local needs.
The draft Circular by MOET seeks to integrate all current regulations on language competency exams into a single, comprehensive document. According to Báo Lào Cai, this move is designed to improve the quality, transparency, and effectiveness of exam organization, reducing the tangle of legal documents that previously governed such assessments. The new framework is not just a bureaucratic streamlining—it's a bid to ensure that Vietnam’s language exams meet international standards and foster global educational integration.
Key to the draft is its emphasis on the full responsibility and seriousness of exam organizing units. Organizers are now required to guarantee safety, objectivity, fairness, and a clear assignment of responsibilities throughout the exam process. Stringent security measures are outlined for every stage, from question creation and transportation to storage, exam administration, and grading. The aim, as the Ministry states, is to ensure fairness and transparency at every turn.
But that’s not all. The draft also champions the comprehensive application of information technology across the entire exam lifecycle. From registration to the announcement of results, digital solutions are expected to reduce costs, boost efficiency, and close loopholes that have plagued the system in the past. Notably, the Circular introduces detailed regulations for the construction and management of a question bank—at least 70 questions for foreign language exams and 30 for Vietnamese, with random selection for each candidate and unique exam codes. Questions, once used, can only be reused after a minimum of 12 months, and new ones must be added before the end of each year to keep the pool fresh and secure.
Personnel requirements are equally rigorous. Exam organizing units must now field a professional team: at least 30 experts for English, and 20 for other foreign languages and Vietnamese. Every team member must hold a master’s degree or higher in relevant fields such as linguistics, literature, culture, or educational science, and be trained in both question setting and grading skills. This focus on expertise and training is intended to raise the bar for exam quality and reliability.
Perhaps the most forward-looking aspect of the draft is its openness to international expansion. The Ministry encourages Vietnamese educational institutions to establish branches or offices abroad, and to extend Vietnamese language teaching and cultural promotion to overseas communities. The Circular explicitly allows for the organization of exams outside Vietnam, a move aligned with the country’s broader ambitions for international educational integration. As Báo Lào Cai reports, these measures are expected to raise the profile of Vietnamese education on the world stage and better serve the needs of learners in an increasingly interconnected world.
While the education sector is working to standardize and digitize its assessment systems, the world of consumer technology is also making bold strides in language innovation. On the same day, Vietnamese experts spotlighted Samsung’s Galaxy AI as an exceptional Vietnamese language AI solution and a pioneering example of artificial intelligence tailored for local users. As detailed by Báo Hànộimới, Galaxy AI has quickly become Samsung’s core AI platform—spanning smartphones and tablets, and prioritizing Vietnamese language support developed by a team of Vietnamese engineers.
Samsung first introduced Galaxy AI on its Galaxy S24 series in early 2024, a move widely recognized as a breakthrough in reimagining the smartphone experience. In just over a year, Galaxy AI has found its way into most of Samsung’s flagship devices, a testament to the company’s ambition to make AI accessible to tens of millions of users. The scale of this ambition is striking: by the end of 2025, Samsung aims to deploy Galaxy AI on 400 million devices worldwide.
What sets Galaxy AI apart, according to experts, is its focus on features that directly address everyday challenges. The Live translate and interpreter functions, for instance, offer real-time voice and text translation, with Vietnamese among the first 13 languages supported from the outset. This is particularly notable, as few international platforms have prioritized Vietnamese to this extent. Circle to search, launched in collaboration with Google, allows users to search intuitively by simply circling items on their screens, while AI-driven image editing tools like Generative edit demonstrate Samsung’s broader approach to AI, which extends beyond language into computer vision.
Galaxy AI’s evolution doesn’t stop with language and images. The Gemini live feature transforms the AI into a smart virtual assistant, capable of listening and helping users break through barriers to discover new things in their daily lives. On high-end tablets such as the Galaxy Tab S11 series, Galaxy AI becomes an indispensable tool for learning and work—summarizing texts, translating documents, and supporting note-taking in Vietnamese. Over time, these capabilities have coalesced into what Samsung describes as the “common brain” of the entire Galaxy ecosystem, signaling the company’s intent to embed AI deeply into the fabric of everyday technology.
The convergence of these two stories—the MOET’s push for standardized, tech-driven language assessment and Samsung’s rapid localization of AI—reflects a broader trend in Vietnam. Both government and industry recognize that language is not just a medium of communication, but a vital bridge to global participation and personal empowerment. By tightening regulations and raising standards, the education sector is ensuring that Vietnamese learners are equipped for international opportunities. Meanwhile, by embedding Vietnamese language capabilities in cutting-edge AI, Samsung is making sure that technological innovation is both accessible and relevant to local users.
As Vietnam continues to modernize its educational infrastructure and embrace digital transformation, the interplay between policy and technology will only become more pronounced. Whether it’s through a more transparent and secure exam system or a smartphone that understands and speaks Vietnamese, the message is clear: the future of language in Vietnam is one where tradition and innovation walk hand in hand, opening doors for millions at home and abroad.
