Harvard Professor puts Vietnamese education on the map

Hanoi (VNA)- As part of the Vietnamese faculty of Harvard University for 18 years, Professor Ngo Nhu Binh has managed to put Vietnamese education on par with that of the Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.

Until his recruitment in 1992, studying the Vietnamese language was an obscure
subject at best at the university, due to an unsystematic curriculum, despite a
20-year history.

Through his teaching of the Vietnamese language, Prof. Binh has tried to equip
American students with a knowledge of Vietnam 's multi-thousand year-old
history and culture. For students with their roots in Vietnam , he has helped
them discover and be proud of their motherland.

"Most of my students have had the opportunity to visit Vietnam , and some are
working there," said the professor with pride.

The Vietnam expert has compiled and published books for the Vietnamese major.
Many of his works are used by numerous US universities. They include
"Elementary Vietnamese", "Conversational Vietnamese" , and "English for
Vietnamese Speakers" . Some have been re-edited for publication by universities
in Canada , Germany , the Republic of Korea , and Japan .

He is now working on Continuing Vietnamese.

In recognition for his contributions to language development, Harvard
University has elected him to the advisory sub-committee on foreign languages.


Before leaving for the US , Prof. Binh taught Vietnamese at the Lomonosov
University in Russia for over 10 years, training several top Vietnam
experts.--Enditem