Nguyen Quyet Tien (R), one of the authors of the Czech-Vietnamese dictionary, presents the complete collection

The set, compiled by late Czechlinguistic professor Ivo Vasiljev and co-author Nguyen Quyet Tien, wascompleted after 12 years.

It comprises six volumes targetingVietnamese expatriates and Czech people who want to learn Vietnamese. Considereda bilingual encyclopaedia, it covers a wide range of subjects, includingsociety, culture, history, biography and geography.

At the launching event, VietnameseAmbassador to the Czech Republic Ho Minh Tuan spoke highly of efforts made bythe authors to complete the dictionary. 

For his part, Tien expressedgratitude for support from organisations and people of Vietnam and the CzechRepublic. He also voiced his hope to compile a Vietnamese-Czech dictionary inthe future.

In May 2016, the project won thesecond prize of the Dictionary of the Year award by the Union of Interpretersand Translators of the Czech Republic despite only three volumes having beenreleased at the time.

Vasiljev died on October 23, 2016 atthe age of 81 when he just started to write the fifth volume.

Vasiljev interpreted for President HoChi Minh when a Czechoslovakian delegation visited Vietnam in 1966. He was thefirst Czech to translate President Ho Chi Minh’s Nhat Ky Trong Tu (Diary inPrison) into Czech and also researched Vietnamese ancient heritage and oldscripts.-VNA