Forty years ago, the first group of teachers from the Vietnamese Language Department flew to Thu Duc to teach Vietnamese quickly to the first senior officials of the Cambodian National United Front for National Salvation. (Photo: Pham Thanh Long)
The Khmer New Year Chol Chnam Thmey begins in mid-April. In the same colorful and joyful atmosphere of the Southeast Asian people, the Faculty of Vietnamese Studies and Vietnamese Language organized an “unprecedented” meeting to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the international mission of the Vietnamese University experts in Cambodia.
This is the first and official meeting of the teachers who have been to Cambodia of the faculty with the leaders of the expert delegation of the University, Education, the Ministry's CK Board, along with some teachers of the Faculty of Literature, Faculty of Foreign Languages, General University, some teachers of the University of Foreign Languages, now Hanoi University, who have also shared the hardships together during their youth.
The idea for this meeting came from three teachers who were present in that special battlefield from the very first day, namely Mr. Phan Hoang Manh, former head of the delegation of experts from the Vietnam University in Cambodia, Mr. Vu Thanh Tung, a poetry teacher, and Mr. Nguyen Thien Nam, Head of the Department of Vietnamese Studies and Vietnamese Language.
Cambodia, and nowhere else, is the place where Vietnamese language teaching is practiced in the most concentrated and professional manner, contributing to creating a "golden generation" in the field of Vietnamese language teaching at Hanoi National University, now part of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, VNU.
In Hall B, building B7bis of the Faculty of Vietnamese Studies and Vietnamese Language, more than 50 "old faces" met each other in indescribable joy and sadness.
Attending and sharing the significance of this meeting, Associate Professor Dr. Hoang Anh Tuan, Vice Principal of the school, expressed his sincere feelings and respect and gratitude to generations of teachers who have lived and devoted their youth to the cause of maintaining the friendship between Vietnam and Cambodia and the mission of spreading the Vietnamese language.
It has been 40 years since the first group of teachers from the Vietnamese Language Department flew to Thu Duc to teach Vietnamese quickly to the first senior officials of the Cambodian National United Front for National Salvation.
After going through dark and tragic history, Cambodia has truly revived with the footsteps of volunteer soldiers, experts in all fields and cultural ambassadors from the delegation of university experts from Vietnam.
The late Minister of Universities and Vocational Secondary Schools Nguyen Dinh Tu took a photo with the group of teachers from the Faculty teaching Vietnamese in Cambodia in 1984. (Photo provided by Mr. Nguyen Thien Nam)
Since 1981, the first group of experts from the Vietnamese Language Department of Hanoi National University has officially set out on an international mission, with a mix of skilled teachers, middle-aged people and a group of "new recruits" in the Vietnamese language teaching profession.
Life as an “expert” but a battlefield so everything is extremely lacking, growing vegetables, improving, every meal in the communal kitchen just wishes for half a bowl of rice more but can’t…
At that time, teaching materials and dictionaries were in short supply. The group organized to create a Vietnamese-Khmer dictionary for the curriculum... with the help of comrade Do Huu Tuyet, the group's translator. Although he was not a bachelor, the group still boldly invited the translators to teach translation to second-year students, with the nickname "translation teachers".
The second group continued to take on the task in 1982, the third group in 1983, with additional personnel in between; and in 1984-1985, there were 4 more teachers from the Literature Department, and in 1986-1987, there were more teachers from Thanh Xuan University of Languages.
The number of Vietnamese teachers sent gradually increased. Later, the university expert group disbanded and the groups moved to operate in each school and each region, with the number possibly reaching more than a hundred people.
In the Vietnamese Department alone, the total number of teachers who went to Cambodia was 47 people, multiplied by the number of years, that's more than 200 times; the Literature Department had 15 people and the Foreign Language Department had more than 10 people.
Back then, teachers far from home shared a common joy of connection, a love for the Vietnamese language, a heart for the brotherly country of Cambodia, and the unforgettable excitement of a time of youth filled with emotion, passion, and affection...
Many happy, witty, humorous stories mixed with sadness and regret were shared by teachers in their 60s and 70s. They sat hand in hand, with smiles that had aged but had not lost their enthusiasm.
“Vietnam’s assistance to Cambodia has never happened before in human history. A nation in difficult times still wholeheartedly helped a neighboring nation to rise from the dead.”
Mr. Phan Hoang Manh, Former Head of the Vietnamese University Expert Delegation at CPC, spoke at the meeting. (Photo: Pham Thanh Long)
The veteran intellectual Phan Hoang Manh opened his speech with such a statement. He is a living witness, a cheerful and kind leader, who was jokingly called by the audience as “re-nominated as Head of the Delegation” to sit in the most honored position in the meeting.
At the age of 93, he still proudly holds the microphone and endlessly recounts many memorable memories, the years that he believes are the most meaningful period of his life as an educator.
Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Thien Nam, Head of the Department of Vietnamese Studies and Language, who has more than 7 years of teaching experience in the land of pagodas, recounts his experiences in his 20s with unforgettable pages of life.
The reminders give listeners many things to think about: The 2017 newsletter of the Royal Government of Cambodia took May 20 as the “Day of Remembrance” for the victims of the Polpot genocide without mentioning Vietnam;
It was a coincidence and not a coincidence, Mr. Nam finished writing volume 3 in the series "Vietnamese for Cambodians" on May 20, 1989; that was a roneo printed book series to serve thousands of his students at the University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Phnom Penh with the implied statement that when Cambodia was moving to a new stage, Vietnamese experts also had many thoughts.
Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Thien Nam at a Vietnamese language class in Cambodia, when he was only 23 years old.
The passage “The book was completed in extremely difficult circumstances” implies that; those are classes of thousands of students learning Vietnamese, writing books just for students to learn, without a single penny of remuneration, grading thousands of papers, diligently working on words like “bean sprouts”, skinny (50kg) but speaking Khmer that no one believes is Vietnamese even though it is 100% self-taught except for a week of evening alphabet lessons by the Youth Union inviting friend Le Minh Dien to help translate and teach;
That was the night I stayed up until 5am to help translate 30 pages of Khmer documents for the Vietnamese Embassy in Cambodia with numb fingers. The sharing ended with an exclamation that resonated: “Oh, it can only be “Beloved 20s”! How can I believe it?”; “Oh, a time so long ago. And the sacrifices of Vietnam, sometimes, are also so long ago…”.
Vice Principal Hoang Anh Tuan (left) talks with Mr. Phan Hoang Manh (middle), 93 years old, former head of the university expert delegation and Mr. Nguyen Huu Nghinh, 95 years old, former head of the education expert delegation. (Photo: Pham Thanh Long)
The "most fun-loving" jury, including Vice Principal Hoang Anh Tuan, Phan Hoang Manh and Nguyen Thien Nam, discovered and honored three teachers who had received the Labor Medal and the Friendship Medal from the Cambodian government for their achievements in teaching and spreading Vietnamese language and culture.
The most special performance for the last moment of the meeting was the song Noi Quy sung in the Nghe Tinh Vi Giam style with lyrics written by Mr. Phan Hoang Manh, adapted by Mr. Nguyen Thien Nam, Mr. Vu Thanh Tung, and Mr. Nguyen Trong Tan.
TTeacher Nguyen Thien Nam performs the song "Noi Quy" sung in the Nghe Tinh Vi Giam style (Photo: Pham Thanh Long)
The song performed by Mr. Nam evokes the clear laughter of young people who love life, recreating the years of hardship and optimism, filled with the volunteer footsteps of a generation of intellectuals who accepted to sacrifice their youth for the international cause, a golden generation of Vietnamese language teaching in Vietnam.
“We must build a life of hard work! We must build a life of hard work!”… The Nghe Tinh Vi Giam song on Cambodian soil seems to send a message of “persistence and dedication” to the generations that continue the journey of spreading the Vietnamese language. The path to the international community is also the path to return – to live a hard life to nurture a Vietnamese language of love and chivalry.
(Notes from the meeting to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Vietnamese University Expert Group's international mission in Cambodia, organized by the Faculty of Vietnamese Studies and Vietnamese Language)
Author:Dr. Le Thi Thanh Tam
Newer news
Older news
