PROFESSOR - PH.D NGUYEN DANG HUNG HONORARY DOCTOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF LIÈGE, THE KINGDOM OF BELGIUM
According to Decision No. 930/QĐ-TTg approved by the Prime Minister on August 3rd 2022 upon the Project of setting a day for the honoring of the Vietnamese Language among the Vietnamese communities overseas for the period between 2023 and 2030, the date of September 8th has been chosen to be the official day on which the Vietnamese Language is honored. This Project has been launched to enable Vietnamese everywhere to preserve, honor, and popularize the beauty and the value of the Vietnamese Language, and to contribute to the elevation of the pride in and the promotion of the cultural identity of the Vietnamese people at the same time. Below is Prof. Nguyen Dang Hung's opinion about this special day for honoring the Vietnamese Language.
SEPTEMBER 8TH HAS BEEN CHOSEN TO BE THE DAY FOR HONORING THE VIETNAMESE LANGUAGE AMONG THE VIETNAMESE COMMUNITIES OVERSEAS, STARTING FROM 2022. COULD YOU GIVE YOUR OPINION ABOUT THIS PARTICULAR DAY?
In my opinion, along with the policy of connecting the Vietnamese language with overseas Vietnamese, there need to be more specific activities, for examples, distributing Vietnamese teaching and learning materials; setting up libraries of Vietnamese books in countries where large numbers of Vietnamese expatriates are residing; organizing seminars, musical events, art competitions in the Vietnamese language, and so on, in order to attract the attention of many more young overseas people, so that they can participate and thus help promote our language.
A more important thing is to foster our people’s tradition of Remember where the water you drink comes from” by preserve the language and appreciate our ancestors who have created, maintained, and disseminated our language, so that we now have a language that is beautiful, meaningful, valuable, and that deserves the greatest pride.
YOU ARE STILL SPENDING YOUR TIME DOING RESEARCH ON THE BEST WAY TO HONOR THE VIETNAMESE LANGUAGE, AFTER DEDICATING 50 YEARS OF YOUR LIFE TO EDUCATION AND TRAINING, AND DOING SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH IN YOUR SPECIALIZED DISCIPLINE. COULD YOU GIVE US FURTHER DETAILS ON THIS?
How could I not be interested in the Vietnamese language while I speak Vietnamese and write in Vietnamese? Now that I am a retired professor, what I do to honor the language is to “remember where the water is from.” Realizing that I had worked in aviation and space mechanics and have little knowledge about such disciplines as history or linguistics, I started by cautiously looking for information from various sources as well as consulting several Vietnamese intellectuals that I respect.
I visited Hội An Cathedral, the first to be built as early as 1615 in Vietnam, where I was allowed to have access to documents about the Reverends Francisco de Pina, who first created the Latinized scrip for the Vietnamese alphabet, and Alexandre de Rhodes, who compiled the first VietnamesePortuguese-Latin dictionary to popularize the Vietnamese language, which, after considerable modification and development, is in use today in Vietnam.
I went to Guarda in Portugal to pay homage to Francisco de Pina’s birthplace, to Avignon to show respect to Alexandre de Rhodes’s homeland. I also accompanied a group of friends to Iran, formerly known as Persia, to lay a stone on his tomb, which is now in the city of Isfahan.
These little deeds were the expression of our esteem to the people who had made great contributions to the Vietnamese language.
A NUMBER OF YOUNG PEOPLE NOWADAYS ARE TAKING UP NEW FOREIGN TRENDS AND HAVE IGNORED MANY OF THE BEAUTIFUL CULTURAL, TRADITIONAL VALUES OF OUR HOMELAND. WHAT IS YOUR REACTION TO THIS?
It is a good thing if they follow current foreign trends to promote the spirit of science, or conservation of the environment, as well as honesty, racial and gender equality, and so on. And I am always glad to praise and encourage them.
It is also natural if they take up current trends in fashion or music of the time, and to criticize or disparage them for these inclinations is totally unfair. As for the good traditional values like the thirst for learning, patriotism, virtues, filial piety… we should preserve these, and remind the young people of them through civic education programs. The truth is I am somewhat worried because these values have been deteriorating and have sometimes been disregarded altogether these days.
YOU USED TO HELP TRAIN A GREAT NUMBER OF MASTER AND DOCTORATE ACADEMICIANS. WHAT FACTORS, IN YOUR OPINION, ARE NEEDED IN ORDER TO MAKE A GOOD STAFF?
First of all, members of the staff should always keep in mind that master’s degrees or doctorates are the necessary requirements for scientific research and teaching positions at a university only.
They are not something to brag about. On the other hand, officials working in politics and administration do not need to acquires these degrees. To make an excellent staff which is as good as those in well- developed countries, it is imperative that what they study or research must be substantial, and therefore applicable and eneficial.
No matter what their specialized disciplines are, their training must be based on humane values as a prerequisite, and they must constantly strive to reach truth, goodness, and beauty as the ultimate aims.
In the EMMC (European Master in Mechanics of Constructions delivered by University in Liege, Belgium) and MCMC (Master in Computational mechanic of Continumn),BelgiumVietnam postgraduate Program, I helped train 318 Vietnamese M.A.s whose qualifications were of European standard, and who were awarded degrees in a cutting - edge discipline by a well-known Belgian university.
Furthermore, over 100 among these have successfully defended their doctoral theses in Australia, Japan, Korea, Singapore, and other well developed countries in Europe and America. A majority of them are holding important positions in various universities in Vietnam. This was the kind of substantial and internationally accredited training, and I am proud of my modest contribution to the academic achievement of our country.
Thanks for your sharing.
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* Professor Nguyen Dang Hung, Ph.D, was founder, Dean of the Fracture Mechanics Department and Member of the Faculty of LTAS of the University of Liège, Belgium. He also proposed, managed, and inspected/accepted dozens of projects of technological research contracted with hitech companies in Europe like CMI, SAMTECH, SEP, CARAT-DUCHATELET, AEROSPATIALE-Marignane, AEROSPATIALE (Toulouse), Framatome, SIEMENS... * Professor Nguyen Dang Hung, Ph.D, received Medal of the Royal Academy of Sciences, Literature and Arts of Belgium (1984); he was honored as one of the 12 foreigners who changed the nation of Belgium (according to the VIF-Express Weekly (July 16, 1999); First Class Medal of Labor of the Belgian Government (1996), King Léopold’s Grand Officer Medal, the Kingdom of Belgium (1999), Royal Grand Officer Medal, the Kingdom of Belgium (2006). * In Vietnam, Professor Nguyen Dang Hung, Ph.D, was also the receiver of various Certificates of Merit by the People’s Committee of HCMC, by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and by the SRV Government, all of which were intended for overseas Vietnamese people for their contributions. * Professor Nguyen Dang Hung, Ph.D, has written and published over 20 books and scientific papers, contributed more than 200 research works and scientific reports to international magazines and journals. In 2020, he launched his latest book “Giấc mơ Việt Nam tôi”, which is in 2 volumes entitled “Đi xa về gần”and “Còn mãi hương xa”.
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Saigon New Day
Từ khóa : Giáo Sư - Tiến Sĩ Nguyễn Đăng Hưng, Giáo Sư Danh Dự, Trường Đại Học Liège (Vương Quốc Bỉ), tôn vinh tiếng Việt
