văn hoá

• văn-hoá, văn hóa, văn-hóa

Sino-Vietnamese word from 文化 (“culture”), from Japanese 文化 (bunka, “culture”), from Middle Chinese 文化 (mɨun hˠua^H, “the way of educating by using morality, literature and music”).

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [van˧˧ hwaː˧˦]
• (Huế) IPA^(key): [vaŋ˧˧ hwaː˨˩˦]
• (Hồ Chí Minh City) IPA^(key): [vaŋ˧˧ waː˦˥] ~ [jaŋ˧˧ waː˦˥]

(classifier nền) văn hoá

1. culture

   nền văn hoá tiên tiến, đậm đà bản sắc dân tộc ― an advanced culture with a deep ethnic flavor

2. (colloquial) primary and secondary education

   trình độ văn hoá ― number of (primary and secondary school) grades completed

   học văn hoá ― to study at primary or secondary school

3. Short for trình độ văn hoá (“number of (primary and secondary school) grades completed”).
   • 2001, Chu Lai, chapter 9, in Cuộc đời dài lắm, NXB Văn học:

     Hỏi gì trả lời nấy, cấm quanh co dài dòng. Nào, họ tên? Quê quán? Dân tộc? Văn hoá? Tham gia cách mạng năm nào?

     You answer what we ask, no verbosity. So, full name? Place of origin? Ethnicity? Level of schooling? What year did you join the revolution?

Trình độ văn hoá is often requested on forms. It can be answered "X/12" with "X" the number of grades completed, or "X/10" if one studied a trajectory counting only ten grades, etc.[1]

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:văn hoá.