Nguyen Lan: Defining a Language

At the age of 95, People’s Teacher Nguyen Lan has just published the ‘Dictionary of Vietnamese Words and Their Meanings,’ his tenth such work. Trinh Hai visits a man of ‘unparalleled energy’ with a passion for preserving the Vietnamese language.

Though I was not his student, I knew People’s Teacher Nguyen Lan when he was director of the Education Department of Viet Bac Inter-zone in early 1950 when I was an office worker at Luong Ngoc Quyen Secondary School. I was the person who accepted the application of the schoolgirl Nguyen Te Chinh, his only daughter, for the fifth grade of the school. Later, I lived close to him in the same residential block in Kim Lien (Hanoi).

In 1997, Le Binh, the first Chief Editor of the Khuyen Hoc (Learning Encouragement) newspaper and I, a photo correspondent, visited Nguyen Lan who was the then chairman of the Advisory Board of the Vietnam Association for the Encouragement of Learning. Nguyen Lan was Le Binh’s former school teacher. At the meeting, while he was doing some editing of the draft of the ‘Dictionary of Vietnamese Words and Their Meanings,’ I took a picture of him working on the documentation. I have very much admired his vast knowledge and dedication shown in preserving the clarity of the Vietnamese language. ‘How to be Correct in Writing Vietnamese’ published as early as 1949 was seen as his first dictionary. It was invaluable during my first years of work at Nhan Dan (People’s Daily) newspaper where I was required to go to the printing house to check the typesetting. Up till now, he has compiled 10 dictionaries. Some of these that were compiled in the past were co-authored. But his latest dictionary, which is richer in vocabulary and greater in scope, was compiled alone because some of his collaborators had already passed away and some others were not unable to work because of their advanced age. Yet, he was beyond the age of 90 at that time.

Upon the publishing of his dictionary, I made a big print of the shot I took at his home as a gift to congratulate him. Talking with him on the compilation of his dictionary, I was attracted by surprise after surprise. He has been very uneasy about the incorrect use of the mother tongue by many Vietnamese people. Even a number of young writers, journalists and teachers are inaccurate in speaking and writing Vietnamese. He dreamt of and yearned for a good dictionary for everyone long ago. But all of a sudden two misfortunes took place to his life, one after another: his beloved daughter was killed in an accident and his wife passed away soon afterward. For him, his wife had the best of all ‘four values’ of industrious work, good looks, elegant speech and fine conduct. She was his lifetime friend who was good at work, selfless, and shared with him every difficulty in bringing up their eight children and providing them with an education. All of their children have become well-known scholars and scientists. All the family members, old and young, have been brought together into a big cultural household.

With such misfortunes that he had to bear at such an advanced age, others would have been brought down. But he has proved to be a man of unparalleled energy. He sees compiling dictionaries as a useful work to for the new generations and to relieve his pain and sorrow. He put aside one year to gather materials and look for typical verses and prose of well-known poets and writers such as Nguyen Du, Nguyen Cong Tru, Nguyen Khuyen, Cao Ba Quat, Nguyen Tuan, Nguyen Hong, Nguyen Binh, Nguyen Dinh Thi and Ho Chi Minh and typical writings of prestigious politicians and scientists to make understandable and applicable examples for 51,700 words of the dictionary. Every phrase of Sino-Vietnamese was first interpreted word by word and its meaning was then explained as a whole. Yet, there were words that had been recently created and foreign words that had long been Vietnamised.

Being afraid of his father’s overwork, Professor Nguyen Lan Dung, one of Nguyen Lan’s sons and a famous scientist, helped him to compile the first part of the dictionary. After reading it, he gave it back to his son and said: "Keep it for sake of compiling a scientific dictionary of your own later on." Thus he spent five years on end on non-stop compiling. In the dictionary, he was persistent in keeping writing rules on capital letters and hyphenation of proper nouns and the different use of the letters ‘i’ and ‘y’ in words. When his draft was about to be completed, a publishing house in Ho Chi Minh City learnt of his work and asked to pay him for the copyright. But when they realised that some of the rules he had set forth were not totally identical to the prevailing way of writing, they became very hesitant. Not until the Minister of Culture and Information Nguyen Khoa Diem wrote a letter to commend the dictionary and confirm the rules that had been set forth, did the publisher issue the work.

It took Nguyen Lan seven years since he started working on the dictionary till he had it published. When asked how he spent his time during his compilation of the dictionary, he said that, besides his regular time for physical exercise, meals and sleep, he devoted the remainder of his time to his diligent and scrupulous work. Despite his advanced age, he always takes a cold bath no matter what the temperature is and washes his own clothes daily. He has four small meals a day, each usually consisting of little meat, much vegetables, some salted sesame powder, garlic, soya cake and milk. Every day, he spends three hours on morning exercise and massage by himself.

Looking at the thick book of 2,112 pages, I am greatly impressed by his strong will and ability. He was 95 years old this June. His ‘Dictionary of Vietnamese Words and Their Meanings’ has appeared to the public as a rare gift and he is expected to keep up his good health and wisdom for many more years to come. This way he can witness the benefits that his work will bring about and, whenever it is republished, he will be able to perfect it.

By TRINH HAI