VietNamNet Bridge – A Vietnamese dictionary for students that is riddled with errors has been added to the lookup list of the Vietnam National Library.

The dictionary was discovered after images of it were spread on the internet. Odd mistakes were discovered by netizens, who then reported the case to management agencies.

The book includes inaccurate definitions for a large number of words.

For example, the word “quan giao” (superintendent) is explained as the “person who is in charge of the affairs of a cathedral or monastery”.

The meaning of “tao dan” in the dictionary is “the place where poets lie down”, but the word, a very old one, means literary society or coterie.

And the definition of “tu truong” (the head of a tribe) is “the head who take cares of prisoners”.

Netizens have tried to track down the origin of the book. When checking the lookup list of the Vietnam National Library, they found that the book was published by Tre (Youth) Publishing House in 2001, and the author was Vu Chat.

Who is to blame?

The publishing house on October 7 explained that it had said something about the problem in 2006, after hearing that many serious mistakes were found in the dictionary.

The representative of the publishing house said in 2006 that it had sent staff to look for the dictionaries in the market. However, since the books had been published many years before that time, they were no longer available.

A question has been raised about why the book is still in the lookup list at the Vietnam National Library.

It is also unclear why other versions of the book, published by Hong Duc and Thanh Nien Publishing Houses, are still available.

Phan Thi Kim Dung, director of the Vietnam National Library, denied responsibility in this case. She said it was the library’s responsibility to store publications from many different publishing units.

“If there are problems in this case, it will be the Publishing Agency, the author and the publishing house which must take responsibility,” she said.

The author

The name “Vu Chat” is printed on the cover of the dictionary as the author. However, no one knows who Vu Chat is.

Dr. Pham Van Tinh from the Vietnam Institute of Dictionaries and Encyclopedias said he had never heard of the name.

Dr. Nguyen Thi Thanh Nga, a philology expert, said that she had pointed out many mistakes in books, including one with content similar to the dictionary, but said she knows nothing about Vu Chat.

“Even experts in lexicography like us do not know anything about this author,” said Pham Hung Viet, former head of the Vietnam Institute of Dictionaries and Encyclopedias.