of La Francophonie. Furthermore, French has somewhat of a diplomatic language position in Vietnam. Current status Official figures in 2019 estimate that about 675,000 Vietnamese are fluent in French, many of whom are older individuals educated during the colonial era. Its usage in everyday life has greatly declined since 1975, however, with the number of people using French on a regular basis being between 5,000 to 6,000. A significant number of French words entered into the everyday Vietnamese lexicon during the French colonial era. French retains a strong influence on Vietnamese education and society despite the rise of English language education facilitated by American-influenced globalization. The number of schools and university programs reimplementing or teaching French has greatly increased since the first decade of the 21st century. This is in large part due to government policies promoting the knowledge of more than one foreign language, with French and English as priority second languages. French also continues to be regarded as a cultural language in Vietnam, with its usage associated with the elite society and links to family tradition and national history, while English and other foreign languages are regarded as commercial vernaculars used with foreigners. Dialect characteristics Vietnamese French is based on standard French, but contains words that have been influenced not only by Vietnamese but also by Chinese and English, the latter due to U.S. presence in the south during the Vietnam War. Additionally, the pronoun used as the formal and plural form of you can be used not only to address elders but also to adults of the same age unlike Standard French, where is used among adult friends of the same age. Despite these minor differences, the form of French taught at Vietnamese schools and colleges is that of standard French. Influence on Vietnamese The Vietnamese language contains a significant number of French loanwords and placenames. The majority of words having French origin are those relating to objects, food and technology introduced to the Vietnamese during the colonial era. Additionally, the Vietnamese alphabet came to be written in a Latin-based script instead of Chinese script traditionally used by the former royal court. It became heavily promoted by the French colonial government, which got rid of Chinese influence on the Vietnamese education system by imposing a French-based system. Below are some notable words that have made their way into standard Vietnamese from French: Media Despite the decline of