Teachers are probably amongst the most influential figures in our lives, apart from our parents. Their roles are even more elevated in societies like Vietnam’s, where the remnants of Confucian principles are still present even today, placing teachers as figures of utmost authority in the classroom.

To honor the work of teachers, Vietnam designates November 20 every year as Ngày nhà giáo Việt Nam (Vietnamese Teacher’s Day), an occasion that dates back to over 60 years ago. Vietnam has been an official member of the Federation Internationale Syndicale de L'Enseignement (FISE), or World Federation of Teachers Unions, since 1953. In 1958, at a conference in Warsaw, FISE established the International Charter of Teachers' Day on November 20, which was observed for the first time in the same year across Northern Vietnam. Following reunification, the date was formalized as Teacher’s Day by the Vietnamese government in 1982.

Education is an important pillar in Vietnamese culture for centuries, as evident by the plethora of idioms and proverbs about the topic, such as “một chữ cũng là thầy, nửa chữ cũng là thầy” — meaning anyone can be your teacher, whether they teach you one or half a word. Saigoneer’s list of honorees for Teachers' Day follows that age-old philosophy: apart from a few well-known educators in history, we’d love to share our appreciation for some lesser-known figures in contemporary times who have taught us things beyond the traditional boundaries of a classroom.

1. Đặng Thai Mai (1902–1984)

Đặng Thai Mai (left) with General Võ Nguyên Giáp (right), his son-in-law. Photo via Nghệ An People's Committee.

Đặng Thai Mai was a defining figure of Vietnam’s education history in the 20th century, both as an educator and a pedagogical reformist. Mai was a teacher, writer, literary critic, and Vietnam’s first education minister and director of the Institute of Literature.

After his father was exiled by the French for joining the Duy Tân Reforms, Mai was raised by his grandmother and studied at the Tonkin Free School. He taught in various institutions as a young teacher, including ones in Huế and Hanoi, and even founded the Thăng Long School with his contemporaries in 1935. A year later, Mai and his friends established an association aimed at promoting Quốc Ngữ, Vietnam’s modern script.

Following the August Revolution, Mai taught at the university level and focused on literary research; some of his works on Chinese and French literature are still foundational readings today for literature students. In 1946, he became the first-ever Minister of Education.

2. Đàm Lê Đức (1932–2022)

Đàm Lê Đức during a talk. Photo via Dân Trí.

If there’s such a thing as a celebrity teacher, Madame Đàm Lê Đức would be a shining example of Saigon’s educator extraordinaire. Đức’s main specialty was mathematics, though generations of students in Saigon mostly know her as the matriarch behind famed tuition center 218 Lý Tự Trọng. 

She was born in 1932 in Quảng Ninh Province into a family with a pedagogical background. At 12, she was accepted into Hanoi’s École Normale D'institutrices Annamites, a female-only teaching school that’s known as Đồng Khánh in Vietnamese. At 25, Đức successfully enrolled in the Mathematics Department of the University of Hanoi in one of the college’s first batches of math majors. Following her graduation, she taught high school- and university-level math in Hải Phòng before relocating to Saigon in 1983 to teach statistics at the University of Economics HCMC.

In 1985, Đức and a group of retired teachers got together to establish a tuition center at the address 218 Lý Tự Trọng Street, and in 2010, Đức and her siblings founded the Đức Trí Secondary and High School. While Đức has spent decades teaching math to students from north to south, over the years she cultivated a reputation as an educator who places equal, if not more, emphasis on imparting life lessons to students.

3. Nguyễn Ngọc Ký (1947–2022)

Nguyễn Ngọc Ký when he was young.

The incredible life story of Nguyễn Ngọc Ký is a poignant addition to any Teacher’s Day celebration, not just because he was a well-known educator, but also because of the passion for learning that was evident in every aspect of his life. Ký was born in 1947 in Nam Định Province, but when he was four, a tragic bout of polio rendered both his arms permanently paralyzed. Despite the treacherous circumstances, he started learning to write, draw, and do housework with his feet. When he went to the local school hoping to get enrolled, the teacher was skeptical and said no, but after he visited him at home and saw how he was nimbly maneuvering every activity using feet, she changed her mind.

The young Ký turned out to be exceptionally smart, having attained the 5th position at a nationwide mathematics competition in 1963 when he was 16. In college, he majored in Literature at the prestigious Hanoi University, and returned to his hometown to become a college professor. From 1994, he moved to Saigon and started working as an education specialist by sitting in lessons and giving feedback to teachers.

Ký’s first attempt at having a formal education, as retold in his memoir, was included in primary school textbooks as an inspirational example of resilience. Generations of Vietnamese schoolchildren might not know the man that optimistic young boy turned out to be, but they have certainly read about his touching life story.

4. Nguyễn Dzoãn Cẩm Vân (1954)

Few millennial Saigoneers would not recognize Nguyễn Dzoãn Cẩm Vân, as we practically grew up hearing her measured northern voice and watching her meticulous hands on television during her cooking show Khéo Tay Hay Làm. Vân was born in Hanoi, but attended a Catholic boarding school in Saigon when she was young. After that, she stayed in the city and taught literature at Nguyễn Thượng Hiền High School for 18 years. Surviving on a public school teacher’s salary was a struggle, so Vân started teaching domestic arts classes to make ends meet, including cooking, baking, sewing, knitting, embroidery, etc.

Nguyễn Dzoãn Cẩm Vân in an episode of Khéo Tay Hay Làm (circa 2000s).

In 1993, the HCMC Radio and Television Station (HTV) was looking for a host for their culinary show Khéo Tay Hay Làm and found Vân. The program changed her life — and in many ways, ours too — as her teacherly diction and calm demeanor proved perfect for the screen. It resulted in thousands of hours of cooking instruction both on and off screen, and spawned over 90 cookbooks covering Vietnamese cuisine from north to south. Today, Vân has left behind the limelight for the teachings of Buddha as an ordained monk, but she remains a culinary icon of our childhood.

5. Nguyễn Thị Ánh Viên (1996)

Ánh Viên (right) is currently a swimming instructor for kids. Photo via Ánh Viên Swim Club.

Ánh Viên is without a doubt Vietnam’s most well-known and celebrated competitive swimmer in history, having won numerous medals for the country in regional tournaments, especially the Southeast Asian Games. She was also the only national athlete to receive an official state investment in training and was sent to Florida to practice under the tutelage of the world’s top swimming coaches.

In 2021, the athlete shocked sports fans nationwide when she announced that she would retire from competitive swimming to focus on her education and self-development. Since then, Viên has embraced a new public image as a swimming influencer and instructor. With a catchy tagline “bơi không khó, Viên chỉ cho / swimming is not hard, let Viên show you,” she uses social media to share swimming tips and survival skills, and promote the local swimming culture. Most recently, Viên channeled her passion for teaching into the founding of Ánh Viên Swim Club, where she and a number of swimmer friends give classes to children and adults. In the near future, the club is working on projects to improve aquatic survival skills amongst children, starting with her hometown of Cần Thơ.