Promotion of learning and respect for teachers are among the traditional values of the vietnamese people. In the old days, it was commonly believed that a teacher's position was higher than parents' and only lower than the king's. In many communes and villages, rich people invited teachers to stay in their houses to teach their own children and those from other families. To become a mandarin, a candidate had to have excellent learning achievements and gained high marks in competitive exams. The first such exam for civil administrators was conducted in 1075. For nearly one thousand years, vietnamese people learnt chinese characters and used them for writing, but pronounced them in a different, vietnamese way. Besides the use of chinese characters, the vietnamese people adapted such characters to invent an ancient vietnamese script for writing and expressions. Many valuable works of literature and history were kept for the future generations thanks to the script. This development and preservation strengthened an awareness of national independence and ensured that the chinese did not assimilate the vietnamese people.