Education Publishing House explains questions about the idiom 'burying the place where the umbilical cord is cut'

Vietnam Education Publishing House affirms that the idiom "Chôn rau cat umbilical cord" provided in Vietnamese 5 book is correct.

A parent whose child is studying at primary school in Hanoi reported that the Vietnamese textbook for grade 5 uses idioms incorrectly.

Accordingly, the subject of Practicing words and sentences, the lesson Expanding vocabulary of the Fatherland (page 18, Vietnamese book 5/ volume 1, Education Publishing House, printed at Tran Phu Company, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, publication number 1517/105-05) has exercise number 4 as follows:

Make a sentence with one of the following words:

a/ Homeland

b/ Mother's hometown

c/ Homeland

d/ Place of birth

Regarding this issue, Mr. Nguyen Van Tung, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Vietnam Education Publishing House, said: "Buried before birth" is correct.

Parents believe that the idiom "Hometown" used in the 5th grade Vietnamese textbook is inaccurate.

According to documents provided by the Vietnam Education Publishing House, in Vietnamese, "rau" or "nhau" are two pronunciations (two phonetic variations) of the same word referring to the part that connects the fetus to the mother's uterine wall via the umbilical cord to provide nutrition, excrete waste, and exchange gases through the fetus' blood.

The Vietnamese Dictionary of the Institute of Linguistics (Hoang Phe, editor-in-chief, Da Nang Publishing House and Lexicography Center, 2005) has both entries "rau" and "nhau" and considers rau to be the pronunciation of the dialect (pages 706, 822).

However, the book Physiological Anatomy, volume 2 of the Ministry of Health (Medical Publishing House, 1986) calls the above mentioned part the placenta: "The fetus develops due to the combined effects of the ovaries, the placenta and the anterior pituitary gland" (page 93); "The placenta itself also secretes progesterone and estrogen" (page 94).

The book Vietnamese Idioms by Hoang Van Hanh (Social Sciences Publishing House, 2015) accepts both idioms "Chôn rau cat nau" and "Chôn nhau cat nau".

As for To Huu, a master poet in using folk language, he wrote (To Huu Complete Works, Literature Publishing House, 2009, page 224):

"Who comes to visit the swamps and seas of Dong Thap,

North Vietnam, the grave of the French invaders

My birthplace!”

Therefore, Mr. Nguyen Van Tung affirmed that the idiom "Chon rau cat nau" provided in the Vietnamese 5 textbook is correct. In localities where "rau" is commonly called "nhau", teachers can explain to students. Students can also use any term that is familiar to them./.

According to VOV