In the final pages of his doctoral dissertation in Japan , Le Hoai Phong dedicated a section to thanking his maternal grandmother. Between the lines written in English, the Vietnamese man intentionally kept the words "maternal grandmother" in his mother tongue, placing them in quotation marks.
"Last but not least, I dedicate my deepest gratitude to my beloved "grandmother". Your love, sacrifices, support, encouragement, and even your "small money" gave me strength since I was a child. Everything I am today is built on the foundation you laid for me. I always love you from the bottom of my heart," Phong wrote.
A Vietnamese PhD student thanks her grandmother in her dissertation in Japan (Photo: Provided by the subject ).
(Last but not least, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my beloved grandmother. Her love, sacrifice, support, encouragement, and even the small amounts of money she gave me, have empowered me since I was a child. Everything I have today is built on the foundation she laid for me. I will always love her from the bottom of my heart.)