Preserving the purity of Vietnamese in special classrooms

In the lecture hall of the Special Forces Officer School, where "special elite" soldiers are trained, the image of Captain, Dr. Le Thi Trang has long been familiar to many students.

She is not the type of lecturer who speaks loudly, walks around a lot, or uses elaborate words. On the contrary, her calmness, precision, and sophistication in each word during the class are her "brand" recognition.

Captain, Dr. Le Thi Trang successfully defended her doctoral thesis in literature, majoring in linguistics at Hanoi National University of Education, in 2023. Photo: Provided by the character

Having received basic training in literature and successfully defended her doctoral thesis in 2023 (at the age of 32), Captain Le Thi Trang was assigned to be the Head of the Literature Department, directly teaching the Text Editing subject to university students of the School and the Vietnamese language subject to students of the Lao People's Army and the Royal Cambodian Army, a seemingly simple subject, but playing a key role in the specifics of special forces training.

Students of Class CA2, Battalion 1, Special Forces Officer School presented flowers to lecturer Le Thi Trang on International Women's Day, March 8, 2025. Photo: Provided by the character

There, each command must be clear; each report must be detailed and coherent; each plan and project must ensure absolute linguistic accuracy.

Therefore, her lesson plans are always highly appreciated by her superiors and colleagues for their scientific, systematic and practical nature. She focuses on equipping students with core competencies, such as spelling, vocabulary, grammar, style of expression, and ability to compose military documents. Not only teaching the knowledge contained in the curriculum, she always tries to help students understand more deeply the nature of the national language, thereby forming the habit of expressing coherently and clearly, essential skills of future cadres.

Many students at the Special Forces Officer School, when mentioning the subject of Literature, immediately remember the dedication and meticulousness of the young female doctor in each lecture. Sergeant Nguyen Si Loi, a student of Battalion 1, Special Forces Officer School confided: "Ms. Trang's enthusiasm, responsibility and patience in the teaching process have given us great motivation in each lesson. Thanks to her, we can write reports and compose documents more tightly, and feel more confident when expressing our ideas."

Captain, Dr. Le Thi Trang participates in the 2025 Competition for Excellent Department Heads. Photo: Provided by the character

Captain, Dr. Le Thi Trang always believes that teaching Vietnamese to students of the Lao People's Army and the Royal Cambodian Army is not only about imparting a foreign language, but also about sharing culture and traditions, contributing to fostering solidarity and friendship between the three armies.

Therefore, she often spends a lot of time researching the language characteristics, psychology, and learning methods of each group of students, to choose the most suitable teaching method. Each lesson is designed by her to be intuitive, easy to understand, easy to remember, incorporating real-life situations in the military environment, helping students quickly grasp vocabulary, sentence structure, and usage in daily communication.

Captain, Dr. Le Thi Trang (second from left) at the 2025 Competition for Department Heads and Lecturers with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Photo: Provided by the character

In class, Dr. Le Thi Trang patiently explains every small mistake of the students, promptly encourages them to be more confident when communicating in Vietnamese. Outside of class, she is willing to spend extra time tutoring, guiding pronunciation, organizing exchange sessions, practicing conversations, creating an environment for students to practice in the most natural way.

Her dedication, openness and responsibility not only help students progress quickly, but also leave a deep impression of the image of an exemplary and sincere lecturer of the Vietnam People's Army. For her, the greatest success is when each international student can communicate confidently in Vietnamese, contributing to tightening the traditional friendship between the three Indochinese countries.

It is also this love for the profession that has helped Captain, Dr. Le Thi Trang be trusted by the School to be assigned the position of Head of the Department of Literature, a responsibility that requires not only solid expertise, but also exemplary behavior, responsibility, and the ability to provide academic guidance for the young teaching staff.

Strive to overcome theoretical challenges to improve yourself

If the lecture hall of the Special Forces Officer School is where Captain, Dr. Le Thi Trang shines as a lecturer, then the short training class on Party and political work at the Political Academy is the space to test her mettle as a student. As one of the youngest students in the class, and coming from a purely linguistic professional environment, Captain Le Thi Trang cannot avoid feeling difficult when starting to approach the massive, multi-layered political theory system that requires a very high level of accuracy.

Recalling the first days of school, Captain, Dr. Le Thi Trang confided: “I was really worried. The concepts, categories, principles, and laws of Marxism-Leninism; the profound contents and viewpoints of the Party, the State; the Central Military Commission, the Ministry of National Defense; and leadership and management skills... were all new to me.” But then, with the serious learning style and courage of a lecturer at the Special Forces School, she quickly found a suitable learning method: Read the lecture content carefully before coming to class; take notes according to mind maps, boldly discuss with the lecturer, discuss deeply with the study group, especially not allowing herself to “skip” any content that she did not understand clearly.

Thanks to her perseverance, Le Thi Trang soon became one of the most enthusiastic and active students. Her answers in the discussions were often extensive, closely linking theory and practice, demonstrating the analytical thinking trained from her literature major. Her tests and exams all scored good or higher, a result that truly reflected the young female doctor's persistent efforts and will to improve.

Colonel Luu Canh Toan, Class President of Class 1B, System 4, Political Academy commented: “Captain, Dr. Le Thi Trang has studied every subject thoroughly. Her language foundation helps her present issues clearly and logically. The more she studies, the more Captain Le Thi Trang improves.” That improvement is not only reflected in her test scores, but also in her confidence in presenting, debating, and applying knowledge to analyze practical situations of Party and political work at the grassroots unit.

Captain, Dr. Le Thi Trang (second from left) with her teammates from Class 1B, System 4, Academy of Politics. Photo: NGUYEN TRUNG THANH

Despite achieving many encouraging results in studying and training, Captain, Dr. Le Thi Trang always remains humble. She always keeps in mind that she must study and train more actively to be able to meet the increasingly high requirements of education and training in the Army. For her, studying is not to "achieve achievements", but to enrich her thinking, broaden her vision, and improve the quality of each future lecture at the Special Forces Officer School.

When asked about her plans after the course, Captain, Dr. Le Thi Trang shared: “I want to use the theoretical knowledge I have learned to further improve the quality of compiling teaching materials, especially lessons on political language style, skills in drafting documents, leadership and command documents. A Vietnamese language lecturer who has a deep understanding of political theory will have more comprehensive lectures, better connecting thinking and language.”

The road ahead for Captain, Dr. Le Thi Trang in her military career is still long. From the simple things she is striving for every day, going to class on time, persistently editing each word, seriously studying theory, diligently cultivating herself, I believe, she will continue to shine on the road ahead.

    Source: https://www.qdnd.vn/phong-su-dieu-tra/cuoc-thi-nhung-tam-guong-binh-di-ma-cao-quy-lan-thu-17/dai-uy-ts-le-thi-trang-nu-tien-si-tre-tan-tam-cong-hien-1015631