Using her phone, the "valedictorian" teacher wrote a 650-page novel

(Dan Tri) - As a literature teacher, Ms. Nguyen Thu Ha, a teacher in Ho Chi Minh City, surprised everyone when she wrote a 650-page historical novel. More specially, the book was written entirely on… the phone.

Students struggle to study history because of grades

On the evening of March 20, hundreds of students and parents attended the launch of the historical book "The Legend of the Blood Pearl" by author Luu Dieu Hong - real name Nguyen Thu Ha, Head of the Literature Department, Ngo Si Lien Secondary School, Tan Binh, Ho Chi Minh City.

"The Legend of Pearl Blood" is a 15-chapter novel about a turbulent historical period of the Vietnamese people through three feudal dynasties with three different kings: Hung Due Vuong (18th Hung King), An Duong Vuong and Trieu Vu Vuong (Nam Viet Vu De).

Ms. Nguyen Thu Ha, a literature teacher, is the author of the historical novel "The Legend of the Blood Pearl" (Photo: Hoai Nam).

In particular, the content clearly depicts the formation process until the collapse of the Thuc Phan An Duong Vuong dynasty - a period that created heroic but also tragic pages of the nation's history.

As a literature teacher but also a history writer, Ms. Nguyen Thu Ha shared that she has a special passion for world history and national history. As a child, she read great historical stories such as the Iliad , Phong Than Dien Nghia , Tam Quoc Dien Nghia, etc.

Each country has its own extremely large and rich history. History contains all the quintessence, culture, customs, habits, the process of building the country or the great wars when expanding the territory or protecting the territory.

And especially Vietnam's history is not inferior to any other country, it is even very heroic.

What makes Ms. Ha wonder is why young people today do not love history, if not "turn their backs" on it?

Then she asked herself: "Is it true that young people don't like history?" She mentioned the Qing Dynasty, the last feudal dynasty of China, and her students told her everything. It was clear that young people remembered and loved history, but the sad thing was that they didn't understand Vietnamese history.

The literature teacher noticed that people often remember things they love, not things they are forced to learn. Meanwhile, according to Ms. Ha, most Vietnamese children learn history based on history books and they learn because they are forced to, learn because of grades, learn because they are pressured.

Students will learn by rote right then and will forget right after the test, the knowledge will not stay in their heads.

In the middle of the story, the image of hundreds of students in Ho Chi Minh City tearing up their history review materials, leaving the school yard white when they did not have to take the history graduation exam many years ago was mentioned again.

Ms. Ha said she was not surprised by this image. That is, when students are forced to learn history, they will have a rebellious reaction.

"But if there is a good movie about Vietnamese history, I believe that even if they don't have to take a history exam, students will still want to watch it," Ms. Ha said.

Vietnamese history is very interesting but according to Ms. Ha, it has not been exploited properly. We have not really used art, literature, and movies to spread the history and culture of the country so that we do not have to remember or learn by heart but history can still penetrate the hearts of each person.

"I love history and have the ability to write, so why don't I try to contribute my little effort to make the way history is perceived more vivid, even if it's just a period of history," Ms. Ha confided about writing a novel that is presented as easy-to-read, easy-to-remember folk tales.

Investing knowing loss, still determined to do

Ms. Nguyen Thu Ha started writing the book "The Legend of Blood Pearl" 3 years ago with a lot of time spent researching, collecting and studying historical documents.

As a teacher, a professional group leader with a lot of work, not to mention she is also a wife, giving birth to two children in a short time, the biggest pressure for her when writing the book is time.

She didn’t have time to sit down and write in front of the computer. The book, which is over 650 pages long, was written by Ms. Ha on… phone notes.

The female teacher wants students to approach history naturally, not "study" (Photo: Hoai Nam).

Writing about history is not easy because it requires historical accuracy. Readers already have prior knowledge about the fate of the characters, so the desire to bring new feelings about history to readers is a huge challenge for writers. In particular, writing a novel of more than 650 pages, weighing nearly a kilogram on the phone is much more difficult.

She types on her phone while resting her baby on her arm, while cooking, while cycling for exercise...

The lines she typed on her phone over the years were saved on her computer until the day she submitted the manuscript to the publisher.

Not to mention, writing and printing books about history, Ms. Ha knows that she will lose a lot. Living on a teacher's salary, she "pre-emptively" told her husband that this year, she would not be able to save money because she wanted to... invest in writing books. Her husband laughed: "Who invests knowing that they will lose money but still does it?"

Because, the teacher has nurtured a passion and love for Co Loa land since her student days. She has a burning desire to write a work about this land.

And when she became a teacher, she had an additional desire for students to approach history in the most natural way, not by studying it as before.

Ms. Nguyen Thu Ha was born in 1984 in Hanoi, graduated with a Master's degree in Literary Theory from Ho Chi Minh City University of Education.

During her time working in the education sector, she has achieved many achievements such as First Prize in the National Integrated Thematic Teaching Competition, Emulation Fighter at the grassroots level for many consecutive years, Emulation Fighter at the city level in the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 school years), Certificate of Merit from the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee in the 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 school years, Excellent Teacher at the district level and many other achievements...

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/giao-duc/bam-dien-thoai-co-giao-thu-khoa-viet-tieu-thuyet-650-trang-20250321092249678.htm