Associate Professor Bui Hien, famous for his proposal to improve the Vietnamese script, passed away.

Bùi Hiền - Ảnh 1. — Associate Professor, Dr. Bui Hien - Photo: CHINH PHUONG

Information from the family said that Associate Professor Dr. Bui Hien passed away at 3:15 p.m. on May 11 at his home in Viet Tri City, Phu Tho Province, at the age of 90.

The visitation will be held at 1:00 p.m. on May 12, and the funeral will be held at 6:30 a.m. on May 13. He will be buried in his hometown of Vinh Chan, Ha Hoa, Phu Tho.

Thus, in just two days, the linguistic and literary world said goodbye to three associate professors: Pham Van Tinh, Tran Khanh Thanh and Bui Hien.

Associate Professor Bui Hien contributes to Russian language teaching and educational management

Associate Professor Bui Hien was born in 1935 in Vinh Chan commune, Ha Hoa district, Phu Tho province.

He has a PhD in Russian, and has devoted his whole life to teaching Russian at the University of Foreign Languages (now the University of Foreign Languages, Vietnam National University, Hanoi), researching the Russian language and educational management at the University of Foreign Languages and the Ministry of Education and Training.

In 2017, he became known for his controversial proposal to reform the national script.

In 1953, he was sent by the State to study Russian in China. After graduating, he returned in October 1955 and was assigned to be in charge of the Russian department of the newly established Foreign Language School in Hanoi.

In 1967, Hanoi University of Foreign Languages was established, Mr. Bui Hien was assigned to be in charge of the Russian language department of this school.

He successfully defended his associate doctoral thesis (now PhD) at Lomonosov Moscow State University with excellent results in 1973.

After successfully defending his thesis, he returned home and continued working at Hanoi University of Foreign Languages.

In 1974, Mr. Bui Hien was appointed vice principal of Hanoi University of Foreign Languages.

In 1978, he was transferred to the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training in charge of foreign languages in educational reform.

Mr. Hien was then appointed as Deputy Director of the Institute of General Education Content and Teaching Methods under the Vietnam Institute of Educational Sciences. He held this position until his retirement in 1993.

"Famous" for proposing to improve the national language

After retiring, Mr. Bui Hien devoted much time to researching and improving the way of writing the national language. He published "Proposal for improving the national language" for the first time in an educational newspaper in 1995.

But it was not until 2017, when he proposed his proposal at a conference and it was widely reported, that his proposal became widely known, becoming a controversial story at that time, most of whom opposed his proposal.

Although Mr. Hien stated that the purpose of the reform was to unify and simplify part of the writing for documents; to help foreigners and ethnic minorities have easier access to Vietnamese writing, the proposal was met with anger and ridicule from public opinion.

However, Mr. Bui Hien remained steadfast in his proposal. Although some linguists did not appreciate the practicality of Mr. Bui Hien's research, they expressed their support for the spirit of academic freedom and scientific research.

BIRD OF PARADISE

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/pgs-bui-hien-nguoi-noi-tieng-voi-de-xuat-cai-tien-chu-quoc-ngu-qua-doi-20250512070930374.htm