we can hear from our bbc vietnamese correspondent. 0ne hear from our bbc vietnamese correspondent.is no stranger to massive storms and rains but this one is different. heavy rains have triggered flash floods in northern and central vietnam, over just triggered flash floods in northern and central vietnam, overjust a couple of days, but it took away houses and bridges, animals and people, at a speed the country has not seen in decades. the local government in this province has declared a state of emergency and open several gates to discharge water at the country's largest hydroelectric dam, the first time it has done so in years. the decision had an immediate impact on community is downstream. as you can see on my left hand side, where the farmers and the fishermen live, and what happened, there is a portion of the dam that was broken, and the government official was quoted as saying they broke it deliberately to release the water pressure in other parts of the river. whatever the reason, hundreds of families are suffering the disaster. translation: it's been flooded like this now f

bbc vietnamese correspondent hoang nguyen has this story.the world's most disaster—prone nations. vietnam is no stranger to massive storms and rains but this one is different. heavy rains have triggered flash floods in northern and central vietnam overjust two days but it took away bridges, houses, animals and people at a scale and speed the country has not seen in decades. the local government in thanh hoa province has declared a state of emergency and opened several gates to discharge water at the country's largest hydro—electric dam, the first time it has done so in years. the decision had an immediate impact on communities downstream. as you can see on my left—hand side is whetherfarmers and fishermen live. what happened was, a portion of the dyke was broken. a government official was quoted as saying they broke the dyke deliberately to release the water pressure in other parts of the river. whatever is the reason, now hundreds of families are suffering the disaster. translation: it's been flooded like this for five days. our lives are b

bbc news, bangkok. schools in taiwan are taking a new approach to languages. starting in 2019, they'll be required teach the native tongues of seven countries in southeast asia — including vietnameserends, we're asking why taiwan is taking this step. from taipei, cindy sui joins us now. it certainly is unusual, because not many countries make it mandatory to have southeast asian languages on their curriculum. so why this sudden change? is taiwan hoping for closer foreign and trade relations with these countries? yes. definitely. first of all, this change comes about because the face of taiwan's student population has changed dramatically over the years. statistics show that one in ten stu d e nts statistics show that one in ten students in kindergarten to grade 12 are children of immigrants. these are children of immigrants. these are mostly southeast asian immigrants. currently, there are many children born to southeast asian mothers who married taiwanese man. so the government has recognised that this is an asset. there were previously considered a burden, but now they are considered an asset, because taiwan was to build closer ties with southeast asia are several reasons. —— wa