LookAtVietnam – Numerous textbooks for university courses are copied from foreign sources. The authors of the copied works simply translated the originals into Vietnamese.

VietNamNet Bridge – Numerous textbooks for university courses are copied from foreign sources. The authors of the copied works simply translated the originals into Vietnamese.

Lecturer denounced for plagiarizing Korean dictionary

Several days ago, the authors of Tai Chinh Quoc Te (International Finance) accused another group of authors of plagiarizing their book.

Yet the International Finance authors have been denounced for copying their materials from foreign books.

Tuoi Tre newspaper quoted many sources as saying that International Finance, compiled by a group headed by Professor Doctor Tran Ngoc Tho, has tens of pages very similar in content to International Financial Management by Jeff Madura in the US. In fact, when comparing the books side by side, the contents of the two books are the same

Some argued that the Vietnamese book has a different structure and provides diagrams and tables in different places, but it is easy to recognize that the two books are very similar. Even the names of many chapters are the same.

The bibliography of sources used for reference does not include Madura’s text.

Prior to this scandal, a Vietnamese lecturer, Ly Kinh Hien, now Head of the South Korean study branch under the Orientalism Faculty of HCM City University of Social Sciences and Humanities, was also accused of plagiarism. He too performed a translation, this time using a Korean dictionary written by South Korean Professor Beak Bong Ja from Yonsei University.

Nguoi Lao Dong reporters bought the two books, the Korean grammar dictionary for foreign learners, published in 1999 in South Korea and written in Korean, plus the Korean grammar dictionary of Ly Kinh Hien, published in 2007. The journalists asked Korean language experts to compare the two texts.

The experts agreed that the contents of the two books were the same. Hien did not comment about the origins of his book and he did not admit that he simply translated the Korean dictionary.

Many other books used by the corporate finance faculty of HCM City Economics University have also been cited as “borrowing content” from foreign sources. A university representative stated that they will check the books to determine if they have plagiarized foreign works.

On an economics forum, some members acknowledged that copying of foreign works is quite popular now in Vietnam. One member even confirmed that most textbooks for courses in Vietnam are just translations.

When asked if the authors referred to Madura’s work when writing their book, Professor Tran Ngoc Tho replied: “We used tens of books for reference, therefore, we cannot remember if we referred to that particular work or not. It may be that authors referred the foreign book, but forgot.”

Meanwhile, Ly Kinh Hien has responded that he translated 100 percent of the original book and just added some pages. Hien claimed that he was given the Korean dictionary as a gift by Professor Baek Bong Ja, and that he was encouraged by the South Korean Embassy to translate the book.

When asked “Why didn’t you clearly state the book’s origins or mention that you simply translated the book?”, Hien blamed the mistake on the publishing house.

Many educators say that Vietnam lacks textbooks for training, so many schools use foreign documents and even encourage their lecturers to translate the books. When doing so, legally-speaking, the translators must ask for permission from the real authors and provide their names and the titles of the original books in the Vietnamese version.

Source: Tuoi tre