I got off work at 5 p.m., but I did not get home until 9 p.m., even though the distance was only 15 kilometers.

For years, I was told that children should start learning English as early as possible. If they did not begin at the age of three, many warned, they would miss the so-called "golden period" for language acquisition.

When I realized I had spent VND168 million (US$6,477) just to raise my child's IELTS score from 4.0 to 6.5 to gain more university admission points, I began to question whether foreign language certification in Vietnam has become more expensive than university itself.