The first Hindi – Vietnamese dictionary has been debuted at the Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities (USSH) under the Vietnam National University - Ho Chi Minh City.

The dictionary, compiled by Indian teacher Sadhna Saxena and Vietnamese researcher Pham Dinh Huong, has more than 9,000 entries, including 7,500 main entries and 1,500 sub-categories.

In addition, it contains Hindi idioms and proverbs commonly used in daily conversations.

The dictionary was published under the agreement between the Indian Consulate General in HCMC and USSH, with the former being the sponsor.

The first 150 copies of the book will be granted to students studying Hindi at the Faculty of Oriental Studies at the university, and adjustments will be made to it before the dictionary goes on sale.

Today, Hindi is not only India's official language but it is also an integral part of Indian civilization and culture.

It is spoken by nearly 40 percent of the Indian population, and is among 22 officially recognized languages in the South Asian country. All Indian cultural features, including ancient Buddhism texts and modern Bollywood movies, are in Hindi.

The dictionary will help students better understand the culture and civilization of India, along with the expansion and strengthening of cultural, trade and economic ties between the two countries, said Abhay Thakur, Consul General of India in Ho Chi Minh City.

The launch of the dictionary is an important event for USSH to mark the fruit of the cooperation of an Indian teacher and a Vietnamese researcher with the sponsorship of the Indian government, said USSH President Vo Van Sen.

It is the foundation stone for the spread of the Hindi language and the study of it in Vietnam, he added.

The teaching and learning of Hindi have faced a lot of difficulties since the Indian Studies department was established in 2000, as the students have to learn Hindi through English, while both English and Hindi are their foreign languages, said Ms. Sadhna Saxena, also a visiting lecturer at the university.

In 2002, Hindi learning materials were extremely limited, said coauthor Pham Dinh Huong, who was a student of Indian Studies at the university then.

All the students in his class had to share an Oxford English-Hindi dictionary which cost them an arm and a leg, but still could not help much because their English command was not good enough, according to Huong.

With a passion for Indian culture and Hindi, Huong prepared for the compilation of this dictionary 3-4 years ago, and began to join hands with Sadhna Saxena to embark on the project 2 years ago when he was encouraged to publish the dictionary by the Consulate General of India in HCMC.

The newly launched dictionary will help Vietnamese students easily learn Hindi even when their English proficiency is not good, Huong said.