Dedicated and compassionate teacher

From the journey of passing on the profession to students...

I met Ms. Nguyen Thi Hien when I attended the Hue Community Ao Dai Week 2023 at Nghinh Luong Dinh relic, Hue City. The first impression of this famous vocational teacher in Hue was the radiant smile of a woman over 55, with a graceful, flowing purple ao dai.

Ms. Hien's "luggage" for teaching

Ms. Nguyen Thi Hien was born in 1967, in a farming family in Phu My commune (Phu Vang district, Thua Thien-Hue). Due to difficult family circumstances, she had to drop out of school after 9th grade to help her parents. After that, Hien went to learn tailoring. Being intelligent and hard-working, only 1 year later Hien opened her own "Hien Tailor Shop" in Hue city.

It is worth mentioning that she had the will and determination to overcome difficulties to learn a trade (at the age of 30, when she had a husband and 3 children). She attended the Vocational College at the Job Introduction Center (Bui Thi Xuan Street, Hue City) to improve her skills. After graduating, she opened a tailor shop and taught free tailoring at night for orphans in An Tay Ward (Hue City) for 3 years (1998-2001), because she believed: "Learning from Uncle Ho is first of all learning about compassion and tolerance; loving others as you love yourself; learning from Uncle Ho to live a kind, friendly life, knowing how to love and help everyone".

Then, by chance, she was able to teach at the Phu Vang District Vocational Training Center (Phu Da Commune, Phu Vang District, Thua Thien-Hue). During her work, she always worked devotedly, wholeheartedly loved her students, and contributed to the center's training of dozens of classes, producing hundreds of skilled tailors, some of whom went to work abroad in Malaysia, Japan, Taiwan, etc. Her reputation spread far and wide, and many vocational training centers in the province trusted and invited her to cooperate.

After each sewing course, both teachers and students are excited.

On the journey of "both teaching a profession and teaching people", she has taught hundreds of students of all backgrounds and ages (from 14 to 60 years old) at the Vocational Training Center in Phong Dien District, Phu Loc District, labor export centers in Thua Thien-Hue Province, Thua Thien-Hue Farmers' Association...

Some people say that she teaches with a "good hand", so the students she trains have a firm grasp of theory, techniques, and professional skills. Some students are now steadfast: Nguyen Thanh Phu - captain of Skavi company (Phong Dien district, Thua Thien-Hue); Mai Thi Thu (Vinh Ha commune, Phu Vang district, Thua Thien-Hue) opened a sewing workshop with 10 workers, accepting subcontracting in her hometown; Tran Thi No (Loc Tri commune, Phu Loc district, Thua Thien-Hue ) opened a household goods sewing workshop, creating jobs for 15 workers; Lam Kieu My (Quang Phu commune, Quang Dien, Thua Thien-Hue) after 3 years of working in Japan (sewing) has built a high-rise building...

…to sympathize with fates

What is valuable is that Ms. Hien not only comes to students by imparting knowledge of sewing, but in the process, she always focuses on teaching people by integrating moraleducation and life skills for them.

When teaching students in coastal areas, she organizes beach soccer for them; when teaching in mountainous areas, teachers and students go to streams and climb mountains together... Through these picnics, experiential activities and extracurricular activities, the relationship between teachers and students becomes more deeply connected, which helps her have the opportunity to learn more about each student's family situation and find solutions and help.

There have been cases where students faced difficult circumstances in life and intended to drop out of school, but she promptly encouraged and comforted them. Or, when she was teaching at the Phu Vang District Continuing Education Center, when it was time for class to start, some students were absent. When she asked, she found out that the sisters were still selling breakfast foods such as sticky rice, banh nam, loc, etc., but they had not run out. So she encouraged the whole class to pool money to buy them so that they could get to class on time.

Currently, she is a contract teacher at the No. 10 College of Technology (Hue City) and also teaches sewing at the Center for Continuing Education and Vocational Training of Nam Dong District (Thua Thien-Hue).

Every day like every other day, at dawn, on an old motorbike, with a bottle of water, a box of sticky rice hanging on the handlebars... she speeds along the national highway, from Hue city to Nam Dong, a round trip of 160 km.

Ms. Hien (left cover) distributes old clothes to poor women in the mountainous district of Nam Dong.

Feeling sorry for the female students in the Nam Dong highlands who still lack clothes, every time she goes to teach, she "carries" along several bags of donated used clothes to send to them. She said: "Some people's clothes are old, others' are new. In the city, people have better conditions, so if their clothes are a little faded or out of date, they don't use them anymore; but women in the highlands consider them as gifts, some wear them to go to the market, to the fields, and even 'wear' them to attend weddings, parties...".

When asked why she is so passionately attached to the sewing teaching profession in the highlands, Ms. Hien smiled very gently: "I love Nam Dong like my flesh and blood, I love the familiar tree-lined road I pass by every day, I love the honest and simple people in the mountains and forests. If we are not determined to overcome difficulties to give them 'fishing rods', who knows when they will have 'fish'...".

Mr. Do Thanh Doan - Party Secretary, Principal of College of Digital Technology 10 (Thua Thien-Hue province) said: "Ms. Nguyen Thi Hien has solid professional capacity, very solid technical skills, dedicated to her work, and loves her students very much. Her dynamism, creativity, liveliness, and dedication to her work have helped the school a lot in improving the quality of training over the past many years".

Ms. Hien's family participated in the "Happy Family" contest and won second prize at the provincial level.

Not only is she "good at public affairs", Ms. Nguyen Thi Hien is also "good at housework", raising 3 children to be well-educated, obedient, and filial. Her children now have families and stable jobs. Among them, 2 daughters also follow their mother's sewing teaching career. On Vietnamese Family Day, June 28, 2022, Ms. Hien's family was honored to be the only representative of Hue City to participate in the "Happy Family" contest of Thua Thien-Hue province and won second prize at the provincial level.

With the merits of vocational training of teacher Nguyen Thi Hien over the past decades as well as her silent contributions to social charity work in the locality, she has been awarded by leaders at all levels: certificates, certificates of merit from the People's Committee of Thua Thien-Hue province, the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, commemorative medals for women's development, commemorative medals on population... In particular, in 2017, Ms. Hien was honored to receive the "National Artisan" certificate from the Association of Vietnamese Artisans and Brands.

Source link: https://thanhnien.vn/co-giao-truyen-nghe-tan-tuy-giau-long-nhan-ai-185231026173807408.htm