A teacher, scientist and woman of Trang An

Ever since I was in university, I have heard students and young lecturers of the Faculty of Linguistics (University of Social Sciences and Humanities, VNU) talk about her with love and respect. Then, as if by predestined fate, after graduation, I was hired to work with her, and was directly guided and mentored by her...

In the minds of many colleagues, Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Thi Viet Thanh is a strict, decisive and careful educational administrator to the point of being difficult. Besides, with her passion for science, she is also one of the women who was awarded the title of Associate Professor quite early in the field of Linguistics, a field of science known to be "difficult" and dry. I belong to the younger generation, admiring and loving her like a small stream flowing along the banks of a large river. I really appreciate the short time I spent talking and being taught by her. It is not because of her social position or the position she holds, but because I feel in her a genuine, straightforward and approachable personality, not simply a matter of polite social etiquette...

Associate Professor, PhD, Meritorious Teacher Nguyen Thi Viet Thanh

Associate Professor, Dr., Meritorious Student Nguyen Thi Viet Thanh was born in 1958 in a family of bourgeois intellectuals from Hanoi. Since her childhood, her studies had certain advantages. Then, during the fierce years of the destructive war of the American imperialists, she and her family and friends moved many times between evacuation sites in the provinces of Ha Tay and Ha Bac. Those were unforgettable years, giving her and her friends experiences about war, life and people in the countryside of the North. When the bombing in the North temporarily stopped, she was able to return to Hanoi, continue studying and complete the secondary school program at Quang Trung School, then the high school program at Viet Duc School. In 1975, her dream of becoming a lawyer made her register for the entrance exam to Hanoi University. However, due to objective conditions, the school's first Law course was disbanded after 3 weeks of study, and the whole class was divided into the faculties of History, Literature and Philosophy. As fate would have it, she decided to choose the Linguistics major in the Faculty of Literature after a few "persuasions" from her seniors. During her years at school, she and her peers were fortunate to directly attend lectures by many famous professors in the Linguistics major such as Prof. Nguyen Tai Can, Prof. Nguyen Van Tu, Prof. Nguyen Ham Duong, Prof. Doan Thien Thuat, Prof. Nona Stankevich... and many famous professors in the Literature and Han Nom majors. The knowledge gained after hours of diligent study in class and local internships nurtured in her a love for Linguistics, a major that requires precise logical thinking, which is considered the "mathematics of the humanities and social sciences".

Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Thi Viet Thanh when she was a student at Hanoi University of Science

Graduating with a BA in Literature with an excellent degree in 1980, she was retained at the school as a lecturer at the Department of Linguistics, assigned to take charge of the subjects of Textual Grammar and Sociolinguistics, which were quite new subjects in our country at that time. She said that she could not forget the first class but was a complete failure of the 23-year-old teacher for a part-time class of students in their 30s and 40s. Standing on the podium, looking down at nearly 50 pairs of squinting, smiling, half-serious eyes of the "uncles and aunts of the students", all the words and outlines prepared for many days flew away. Fortunately, the feeling of awkwardness gradually decreased with time and with the accumulation of professional knowledge during her work at the Department of Literature, under the strict but sincere guidance and help of the teachers and seniors.

In 1989, while studying for a doctoral degree in Vietnam, she received an extremely rare opportunity at that time to go to Japan to attend a training program of the Japan Foundation, with the mission of absorbing and disseminating Japanese language and culture to Vietnam. After two years of intense study in Tokyo, she returned to Vietnam and was assigned to open the first class specializing in Japanese Language and Culture at the Faculty of Philology. Although this major, along with the major in Korean Language and Culture, was only organized at the Faculty of Philology for 5 years (from 1992 to 1997), many students who graduated from this major became key staff in many universities, research institutes, agencies, and organizations directly related to the development of international relations with Japan and countries in the region. For her, although the time directly teaching Japanese was not long, the affinity for Japanese as a research subject still persists in her career until today through about 20 research articles in specialized journals, through the bookJapanese Grammar, one of the handbooks used by students of many universities and through the Japanese Language Councils of the Ministry of Education and Training, where she is always invited as an expert.

The main expertise of Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Thi Viet Thanh at the Department of Linguistics (since 1996, the Faculty of Linguistics) is Text Linguistics, later called Discourse Analysis. This is a fairly new field in Vietnam compared to other traditional fields such as phonetics, vocabulary, grammar, syntax, etc. Working and receiving direct scientific guidance from Professor Tran Ngoc Them (currently working at Ho Chi Minh City National University), with the help of Professor Diep Quang Ban (Hanoi National University of Education), for many years, she has directly taught this subject for undergraduate and graduate courses. Many undergraduates, graduate students and some researchers have chosen graduation topics in this field and she has directly guided them. The bookVietnamese speech association systempublished in 2000 with the bookVietnamese text linking systemby Tran Ngoc Them (Education Publishing House) has been used by students for many years. In addition, with the task of a staff member in the Comparative Linguistics Department, knowledge of some Eastern languages ​​also plays an important role in helping her perform professional tasks, when using them as a language to compare with Vietnamese to find out the similar or different characteristics between languages ​​that are very different in type.

Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Thi Viet Thanh has held management positions: Deputy Head of the Faculty of Linguistics (2000-2003); Head of the Department of Politics and Student Affairs, VNU (2003-2010); Deputy Director of the Institute of Vietnamese Studies and Development Sciences, VNU (2002-2010).

Since 2001, under the assignment of VNU, Associate Professor Nguyen Thi Viet Thanh has been assigned to concurrently hold the position of Deputy Director of the Center for Vietnamese Studies and Cultural Exchange, and then Deputy Director of the Institute of Vietnamese Studies and Development Sciences. She confided that this was a very useful opportunity for her, a person who has been associated with monodisciplinary research methods for many years, having the opportunity to approach, learn and apply interdisciplinary research methods in the direction of regional studies in her work. Still pursuing the subject of linguistics, each linguistic phenomenon here is no longer considered independently, but in an organic relationship, closely interacting with other social factors such as history, culture, society, and even geography, contributing to creating a common cultural space of Vietnam or of each region of the country. This interdisciplinary thinking method is used throughout her lectures on language in relation to society, culture and Vietnamese thinking for Vietnamese and foreign students and postgraduates. In recent years, from a linguistic starting point, with the support of members from many different majors in the research group, she has chaired and implemented many scientific research topics at all levels, the final scientific products of which are two books that are being prepared for publication.Dictionary of traditional culture of Thai - Tay - Nung ethnic groups(VNU Publishing House) andAdministrative place name Thang Long - Hanoi from the 19th century to present(Hanoi Publishing House) and dozens of articles published in scientific journals.

Not only limiting herself to her specialized field, since 2011, Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Thi Viet Thanh has opened a new direction for her scientific activities by proposing and then being assigned to be the head of a state-level scientific project.Human resources of female intellectuals in the cause of industrialization, modernization and international integrationunder the State Key Science and Technology Program onScientific research on the development of Culture, People and Human Resourcesof the Ministry of Science and Technology. She confided that this was a completely new field for her, but when she had the opportunity to work directly with experts in many fields such as sociology, psychology, philosophy, and to meet dozens of outstanding female scientists in Vietnam, and read thousands of questionnaires collected from many regions of the country, she felt very fortunate to have the opportunity to share and better understand the thoughts and silent but effective contributions, the difficulties and silent sacrifices of a scientific staff with many characteristics in the current conditions of Vietnam. For her, a female scientist, the research also helps her understand the people around her and herself better.

Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Thi Viet Thanh with her students

With her achievements in teaching and scientific research, in 2002, Dr. Nguyen Thi Viet Thanh was honored to be awarded the title of Associate Professor by the State; in 2010, she was awarded the title of Excellent Teacher by the President and in 2012, she was appointed Senior Lecturer. “I am like many other lecturers working in the field of human resource development at the university level, the more proud I am of my profession, the more worried and concerned I am about my responsibility towards the increasingly high training requirements of the country. However, I still think that I will never regret the path I have chosen. Being in contact with students every day, sharing knowledge with young people, that is the best medicine to maintain my youth” - she often shares with friends and colleagues about her thoughts and orientations. It is the constant improvement, exploration, and accumulation of experience based on learning knowledge and teaching methods from predecessors, colleagues, and feedback from students that has helped Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Thi Viet Thanh have a very unique, attractive and engaging teaching style. Many students, decades after graduation, still say: I really like Ms. Viet Thanh, because in her, the personalities of a teacher, a scientist, a mother, and a friend are always blended together.

Besides being a teacher and a scientist, Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Thi Viet Thanh is also known by many people as a prestigious manager at VNU. She was a member of the Party Committee of VNU for the 2nd, 3rd and 4th terms; a member of the Standing Committee of the Party Committee for the 3rd and 4th terms; Head of the Party Committee's Propaganda Department, former Deputy Head of the Training Department, Head of the Political and Student Affairs Department of VNU. During her years as a manager, with her knowledge and experience as a professional, she advised the leaders of VNU to come up with reasonable, timely and effective policies. Over the years, Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Thi Viet Thanh has quietly devoted herself to and contributed to the cause of educating people, devoting all her heart to generations of students and to scientific activities. The Third Class Labor Medal and many Certificates of Merit from the President of VNU, the Minister of Education and Training, the Prime Minister, the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor, and above all, the love and respect of relatives, colleagues, friends and students are evidences of her contributions as a teacher and scientist of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, the Institute of Social Sciences and Humanities, VNU.

In a certain aspect, in the minds of our generation, Ms. Viet Thanh is like a talented artist who always skillfully steers the boat loaded with knowledge through the "most rugged and stormy rivers of language". Many friends, colleagues and even foreign scientists say that, even though they only met Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Thi Viet Thanh for the first time, they still have a good impression of an exemplary, dedicated teacher who loves her students; a serious and sharp scientist; a gentle, affectionate woman, who embodies the elegant beauty of Hanoi. Now that she has retired from her management job, Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Thi Viet Thanh has more time to focus on teaching and scientific research. She said that in recent years, her research on Hanoi has brought her much joy as she has had the opportunity to learn more about the land where she was born and the research results, although very small, are also her own gratitude to the land that has supported and been with her all her life.

Whenever we have the chance to chat with Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Thi Viet Thanh, we always feel her love for science. She can sit for hours, passionately telling us about her research projects and scientific projects that she has been pursuing, and she always guides us to the reasons for her choices that are both subtle, interesting and very humane. The profound lesson that generations of students like us learn from her is the passion and dedication to the projects and dreams that we cherish. However, for me, the deepest impression that I feel from Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Thi Viet Thanh is that the character of a teacher, a scientist and the dignity of a woman of Trang An are always blended into one.