Vietnam’s Nha Trang tackles foreign-language-only shop signs

Along many tourist streets in central Nha Trang Ward, numerous business signs and advertisements are written only in Russian, Korean, or English, leaving Vietnamese tourists struggling to identify the types of businesses operating there.

On busy tourist streets such as Hung Vuong, Nguyen Thien Thuat, To Hien Thanh, Vo Tru, and Tran Quang Khai, many businesses have installed dense displays of signs with little or no Vietnamese.

Most businesses on these streets use Russian, Korean, or English in large, eye-catching lettering, while their addresses are displayed in much smaller Vietnamese text.

Standing in front of a row of shops covered with Russian and Korean signs on Tran Quang Khai Street, Tran Tuyet Phuong, a 36-year-old tourist from Hanoi, said she could not tell exactly what the shops sold because their signs were entirely in foreign languages.

“There are too many foreign-language signs in various colors, and I simply cannot figure out what these shops sell," Phuong said.

"Nha Trang is a tourist destination, so it is normal to have signs in Russian and Korean to serve international visitors, but Vietnamese should still be the main language."

Huynh Quang Tu, vice-chairman of the Nha Trang Ward administration, said the ward had recently instructed its culture and social affairs division to regularly deal with the situation.

The ward will continue to step up the enforcement of regulations governing business signs and advertisements in the area, Tu said.

Under the Advertising Law, when Vietnamese and foreign languages are used together on an advertising sign, the foreign-language text must not occupy more than three-quarters of the area of the Vietnamese text and must be placed below the Vietnamese text.

Government Decree No. 87/2026/ND-CP also stipulates fines of VND10-15 million (US$380-570) for signs written only in a foreign language without the business name in Vietnamese or with an incomplete Vietnamese name.