Our Teacher - Some Short Songs

My teacher was well-educated and talented, but his small paper could only express a few ideas. Moreover, he was very heroic, Confucianism "permeated deep into his bones" (Professor Phan Ngoc's words), he did not want others to talk about him and he himself did not want to talk about the word "I".
When I was in high school, one of my teachers at that time - Professor Vu Ngoc Khanh - once criticized me for not knowing how to present the board and said: "I have a friend named Nguyen Tai Can, a talented person, with very beautiful handwriting, writing on the board is hard to compare. If you could learn from him, you would learn a lot". Another time, Mr. Dang Van Dai, who taught me in secondary school, told my father: "Mr. Nguyen Tai Can just passed the Associate Doctorate ¹ in the Soviet Union with Mr. Nguyen Canh Toan".
My father was happy and explained to me: "Uncle Can was my father's old Head of the Library Department at the Department of Education of Inter-Zone 4 a long time ago. He is a very good person."
Then a few years later I entered the Faculty of Literature at Hanoi University. At the end of the summer of my second year (1962), along the road lined with royal poinciana trees in the Faculty of Literature dormitory in Lang village, I saw a man wearing a fedora, sunglasses, and a suit leading a motorbike into the faculty.
The students whispered to each other: “That’s Mr. Nguyen Tai Can!” My memory awakened, and with my youthful curiosity, I approached him, but didn’t learn anything more.
A few days later, I was extremely surprised to see him in a very simple outfit sitting smoking tobacco at a tea shop next to the school gate, his demeanor very relaxed, and his upperclassmen gathered around him, laughing and talking happily with him... Then, after that, luck gave me, for the past 35 years, the opportunity to live and work with him, he guided many generations, including me, to grow up with Vietnamese Linguistics.
The scientific personality of Professor Nguyen Tai Can can be summarized in eight words: “Profound - wise - talented - strict”. Each word only needs to be given an example. By successfully describing Vietnamese noun phrases, going so far as to consider “word types” as the center, he reset the entire system of describing Vietnamese grammatical structures (1960). By correctly placing the linguistic position of “single word”, he affirmed the comprehensive influence of this “isolated” characteristic on Vietnamese (1960). Those thoughts are very profound, and today have become the basic contents of scientific discussions about Vietnamese.
As a wise man, he thoroughly understood Linguistics, Sino-Nom, Historical Linguistics, and the fields of Vietnamese Linguistics. The appearance of his work was very broad and each field was very profound. He understood the past and the present, quickly grasped the problems of modern linguistics while being able to discuss and propose very unique opinions on ancient linguistics.
Professor Can was also a talented person, he was rich in poetry, wrote poems very quickly and well, especially Chinese poems. His selected poems are certainly considered one of the last Chinese poets of this century. In the lecture hall of the Vietnamese Studies Department at the University of Paris 7, there are a pair of Nom parallel sentences on faded red paper, the handwriting is very beautiful, advising students to study hard. That was the parallel sentence given by Professor Nguyen Tai Can to the faculty, the first time I saw it, I suddenly remembered an old poem by Yen Lan:
“My teacher when he first came,
An old bookcase, a brown curtain
Pair of dragon and butterfly paper couplets
"Long sips following the ink strokes".
Dr. Vu Duc Nghieu, in my department, told me that in the Southeast Asia department, Cornell University in the United States, there is also another Nom parallel sentence of his with the content of advice to students that he gave when he came there to lecture.
Speaking of his talent, we must also mention a teacher with an extremely good teaching method. He conveyed extremely abstract things to his students in a very concrete, vivid way of speaking, sometimes mixed with witty, folk colors, which after learning, can never be forgotten.
There are many stories about the teacher's strictness in science. When I was close to him, he scolded me a lot and gave me sincere advice. A funny story: once a student wrote a thesis with him, but because he did not do as he was told, he ran away. Not long after, worrying about the graduation exam, the student had to come see the teacher. He brought tea and medicine to thank the teacher. The teacher accepted him immediately, but then forced the student to stay at his house, cook, eat, and write until the thesis was finished.
There are many anecdotes about him, but above all is his heart in building the Vietnamese Linguistics industry. Throughout his life, he only focused on one goal: training and building academia, building a team, building in a formal, modern direction but not far from the reality of Vietnam. He was very sad about the professional work he could not do. Professor Hoang Trong Phien said: "Professor Nguyen Tai Can has breathed new life into our industry, has trained many students for our country's linguistics, he deserves the noble titles of science".
My teacher lived a simple life all his life, simple to the point of being frugal, although he lacked nothing. At home as well as when traveling abroad, he always maintained a unique style that he often said was that of a “Nghe An native”.
On the occasion of my teacher's 70th birthday, far away from home, I remembered him and on a cold, snowy winter night I wrote some awkward Tang Dynasty poems to send to him in his hometown:
"Time flies, my teacher is seventy,
Miles of years of joy and sadness,
A life of teaching a pure mind
Three steps of hardship, the heart is not calm.
Students generation after generation respect,
Friends near and far are welcome.
Tea pouring, sad story of a new year²
"Binh Dan's heart is not diluted".
Quebec, 1995


Second short song
Five years later. 2000
Time flies so fast. Mr. Can is seventy-five years old, and all of us, his Linguistics students that year, are now almost sixty years old. We were so happy to see him still healthy and agile. But he told us: “I just hope to be healthy enough to work, if I live as long as my grandfather, I only have a few years left! I have to try to finish writing my plans.” I was startled. Since his retirement, he has worked day and night, busier than when he was in office. Writing books. Receiving students and researchers. Instructing young cadres. He wants to impart knowledge and honesty and rigor in science. He has not overlooked any detail about science. Since his retirement, he has written and published three books. All the books are the result of a lifetime of thinking, and the names are already difficult to hear: “Historical Phonetics of Vietnamese”, “Ly-Tran Chinese”, etc. Now he is almost finished writing the book “Ancient Chinese-Vietnamese”, and also intends to continue writing about Chinese in the countries of the region, and to make a Vietnamese Etymological Dictionary (already finished up to the C letter). On this occasion, I remember two stories about him.
Professor Keith Taylor is a famous Vietnamese scholar in the US, an expert in Literature and Ly - Tran history, asked to study with the teacher in a Nom script course. He recounted that after the course, he was very surprised to meet a Vietnamese scholar who was knowledgeable, friendly but very strict, with a very unique teaching method, very linguistic but highly practical, with obvious effectiveness. He learned with the teacher nearly 500 of the most popular Nom scripts and even knew how to use them to read texts, after only a short time of diligent study.
Not long ago, there was good news. This year, the State considered awarding the Ho Chi Minh Science Prize, round 2, to outstanding scientific works of our country. The group of works: "Issues of Vietnamese Grammar and History" by Professor Nguyen Tai Can is one of the very few scientific works of the Literature group that passed four rounds of strict voting by the country's scientific community before being presented to the State. The teacher was abroad, I sent an email to inform him of the news. A few days later, I received his letter. He was happy because his colleagues trusted him, but immediately told me that he had to focus on his work before thinking about being praised. Two years ago, the State awarded him the First Class Labor Medal, at that time he was away from home, when he returned, he emotionally told his brothers in the Party cell: "I have followed the Party for nearly 50 years, I always have to try to be an honest and consistent person".
I remember in 1996, when the Faculty of Linguistics was established at our school, we were all happy, the teacher was also happy, but then he thoughtfully said to me: “Establishing the faculty is to think about ways to develop training and academics, trying not to fall behind the international level, but establishing the faculty just to isolate the administration is not advisable. You must always think about the connection, not only between linguistics and literature but also with other majors, and must try to think far and long-term, there are many things that require a lot of perseverance to see results”.
He advised us to live simply, to do science without chasing after formalities because it is easy to be infected with falsehood. Recalling an old story, he told: “When I was in Inter-zone 4, I was once elected as an Emulation Soldier, and the office of the Zone Party Committee gave me two rewards: one was to be given priority to bathe with soap once a week and two was to be allowed to drink rice water first, every afternoon, in the communal kitchen for several months, thanks to which I was cured of edema. Our country was so poor, now it is better, but we cannot be extravagant. Science and technology have not developed yet, so we cannot get rich quickly.” I was touched.
My teacher, every time I think of him, I see a great scientific personality, a great intelligence of a person who courageously entered into new things while still maintaining tradition, always thinking of development. I heard that his age was quite difficult, but my teacher always: "Binh Dan, his piety never faded".
Hanoi, autumn 2000

The third part
Things Unsaid
Our teacher is now eighty years old. Looking at him, he is still agile, although his back is more bent and his hair is grayer:
Ten years later, the teacher is older,
Homeland, world affairs, many nights thinking a lot.
But in science, his thinking is still youthful, passionately creative and his work is truly magnificent. On the way, he received the Ho Chi Minh Science Award, he stepped up to the stage of honor with his predecessors: Dao Duy Anh, Hoang Xuan Han, Tran Duc Thao, Dang Thai Mai, Tran Van Giau, ...
"Binh Dan's faithfulness is undiminished" is the teacher's character.
It started from a literary suggestion by scholar Hoang Xuan Han more than ten years ago that it was possible to rely on the taboo words in the text of Truyen Kieu to find out the origin of the original Kieu through the developments. My teacher struggled, agonized and decided to tackle a problem that no one had done before: using the method of Historical Linguistics to study the text. His recent groundbreaking articles have stirred up public opinion in the field of ancient studies about new, very bold ideas that have a scientific basis.
When you were 70, I respectfully wrote you some verses from afar. Now you are 80, also from afar, I would like to send you some more verses:
Just then our teacher was eighty,
The mind has no rest day by day.
Ten years and six books to make a name,
A thousand pages is no joke.
He set a good example for young people,
The student studied the teacher until he was exhausted,
Teacher, I am healthy, happy, and joyful.
Friends and disciples everywhere.
Seoul, May 2005
I respectfully sent this poem to my teacher via email on his birthday. A few days later I received a very touching reply letter from him, along with his reply:
"Eighty is not even a hundred,
Happy birthday, year after year.
Still trying Yoga: according to Taoism,
Always relax: meditate.
Still according to Trang Tu: happy butterfly life,
Still learning Ngu Cong: extracting silkworm intestines
Live: stay, Die: return, depending on fate, fortune
That is the response to thank the guest for his understanding.
The last sentence left me speechless with emotion.
Our teacher's continued academic success is due to his modern and correct way of thinking. He has a firm grasp of linguistic theoretical sources in different historical contexts. Boldly but carefully, he has successfully applied linguistic theories to native materials, both modern and historical, opening up very new ideas.
Our teacher, while realizing the practical difficulties of research, persevered step by step to popularize the advanced ideas of Oriental studies. Our class of students at that time first learned the names of Meillet, Bodouin De Courtenay, Sherba, Polivanov, Dragunov, Kholodovich, Jakhontov, ... through his Grammar lectures. He suggested and disseminated very important academic ideas related to Vietnamese but did not follow the classical way of teaching purely theory, but he did very specific things.
During the difficult war years, when the school was evacuated to Dai Tu district (Thai Nguyen mountain area), my teacher entered his forties. Nowadays, forty seems very young, but at that time, Mr. Can looked old and austere. He had many wrinkles on his forehead from thinking.
At Dai Tu, my teacher continued to develop the ideas that had been formed. I still remember the two scientific reports that he presented in turn in the bamboo hut of the elementary class in Hung Dao hamlet, Van Tho commune, during the scientific conference of my Faculty, in the summer of 1966.
The famous book “Vietnamese Grammar” (words - compound words - short phrases) (1975) was drafted by him in 1967 in Dai Tu, and was just completed when the evacuation ended and he returned to Hanoi (1969). Professor V. Xonxev once said: “Nguyen Tai Can, he really created a school of Vietnamese linguistics”.
In fact, he sought a stronger field that was difficult for anyone of his contemporaries and even after him to do without capital: Research on historical Vietnamese linguistics. He carried out three research projects at the same time: Han-Nom, Vietnamese historical phonetics and Vietnamese historical grammar. He advocated involving both students and colleagues in doing so. Half of his Ho Chi Minh Science Award in 2000 was in this field. And then he continued in several recent books.
My teacher retired in 1992, now more than a year old, but he has not rested. The number of pages he has written in the past ten years is longer than when he was working. He is still diligent, creative and thorough in academics but very gentle in dealing with people. He still advises us to be honest and humble. He is not happy when he hears students being subjective and speaking loudly when they have not yet learned thoroughly. I remember his words: “We must always innovate but we must be truly open-minded. Debating is to learn from each other and develop. Don’t be competitive and vain. Even if people say something different from what you say, we can still learn something.”
Dear teacher, we understand that there are times when we have not satisfied you, but we are always assured that you are there to guide us. We always tell each other that you are a gentleman. All your life, when lining up, you always stand at the back, but in fact, you stand in front. Now, teacher, in your eighties, you are still strong and alert. We feel warm inside.
Seoul, Summer of the Year of the Rooster, 2005

The Fourth Part: Epilogue

Our teacher disappeared into the sunset,
Incense smoke everywhere makes someone sad
So our teacher, Professor Nguyen Tai Can, passed away.
Although he passed away, he left behind a magnificent academic legacy for posterity, but it will also leave a big void in the country's Linguistics and Cultural Studies that cannot be filled by Literature overnight:
"Who rides the golden crane where?
But now the Yellow Crane Tower alone remains standing"
As a gifted, intelligent, hard-working teacher; a true scientist who left behind many fond memories for colleagues and generations of students, we: Although our hair has turned white, we still feel elated in our steps forward in academia.
A few years ago, before 2000, a thoughtful friend suddenly asked me: "The poem you wrote to honor your teacher when he was seventy years old, the last two lines are a bit strange, can you explain?". I replied: "That's right, those two lines moved my teacher very much":
"Pouring tea, a sad story of the past year,
"Binh Dan's heart is not diluted"
I have a deep meaning but it is not convenient to explain now, so I will have to wait for another occasion.
After 2000, when my teacher received the Ho Chi Minh Prize for Science and Technology, I explained to my friend: “Mr. Can is Mr. Kim Ngoc in social sciences in our country”. My friend was surprised and then shared: “You are right, he is indeed Mr. Kim Ngoc. The Ho Chi Minh Prize has relieved him of all the stereotypes and loneliness that he could not express for decades”. He was determined to be at the forefront of innovation in academia, to be at the forefront of professionalizing research work and international integration, so at times he had to… pay the price”.
Having been exposed to contemporary advanced scientific ideas and skills, with a sense of innovation, he was excited and eager to contribute his acumen, talent, and intelligence to the country with the desire to quickly join his colleagues in building the country's Linguistics foundation in the early days.
My thinking is different. I do not want to follow the beaten path in building a new foundation, Linguistics. I want to take a shortcut, as we often say nowadays. According to me, if science follows the beaten path, it will never catch up with the world, but to take a shortcut, it requires vision, capacity, organization, information, and most importantly, consensus. I know all those complex aspects.
He has the qualities of a leader in science because he inspires his colleagues and students. But not all colleagues share his passion.
In the fall of 1985, I was assigned by the school to be in charge of the Vietnamese Language Department (replacing Mr. Hoang Trong Phien). Mr. Can supported me not because of any power issues, but because he wanted me to bring a new way of thinking from Linguistics to a language practice department that we have long been used to teaching in the traditional way. But he was also worried and told me: "Duc, be careful, remember to look ahead and behind and be cautious in every action, especially with older students and those who have not studied abroad. Changing a method is not easy, so take it slow, do it as far as you can, then you will succeed." It is true that he has valuable experience from practice.
I listened to my teacher, but the reality of this subject is much more complicated than that, and every time I encounter something complicated, I remember my teacher's advice.
He always encouraged me, sometimes he went to Hom market and stopped by my house to drink water and asked me about my work and gave me some ideas. He said: "The goal cannot change, but sometimes you have to go straight, sometimes you have to go in circles, sometimes you have to zigzag." It was touching when he also told me to be honest, poor but not greedy, even if it was a pack of cigarettes or a candy because in the German environment, working with foreign friends, sometimes people also gave me this or that, even if it was small, everything had to be transparent. I understood that.
Since the Renovation, the teacher's mentality has been more relaxed. He still works with all his heart and soul. I see that he never stops working, if not doing personal work, he works with other agencies: sometimes the Institute of Languages, sometimes the Institute of Han Nom, sometimes this conference, that conference... he is skinny because he doesn't eat enough, his skin is pale, sometimes he smokes continuously. I also try to dissuade him, every now and then I save a glass of wine or something and I want to give him, but he always tells me: "Love is the bigger thing, go home and take care of your wife and children and take care of your home". I have the feeling that he is always sleep deprived, not only because he stays up late and wakes up early but also because he thinks about worldly affairs. Sometimes I tell him to be careful not to get tuberculosis. I see him jokingly reply: tuberculosis in the past was different, but nowadays there is medicine to take to cure tuberculosis.
There are also personal matters that, without the guidance of my mentor, I would have gone in the wrong direction on the scale of values ​​that I had chosen. I still remember that during my time as Head of the Vietnamese Language Department (around 1986-1987), some officials at the Ministry of Higher Education saw that I was capable of doing my job and wanted to ask me to work at the Department of International Cooperation. At that time, this department was considered a very feasible position, because there were many opportunities to interact with international people and to travel abroad, even if it was only for short trips. Shortly after that, the Head of the Organization Department of the Ministry also suggested to the Principal that I come to the Ministry to be a manager in a department that was still lacking in staff. With these suggestions, I also felt excited, so at times I was reluctant and wanted to change jobs.
One afternoon I went to see my teacher for advice. He was not happy and just said softly: "I did not train Duc to do this job"! I immediately understood what he meant. He was not only dissatisfied but also annoyed with my way of thinking. At night. I felt very regretful. Whatever scale of values ​​I choose, I should try to follow it for the rest of my life with all my might. From then on, I was at ease doing my academic work and no longer had any other dreams. Life became more peaceful, more natural and I also reaped more. Every time I think about the past, I immediately think of my teacher's profound advice and also see that there were times when I was incompetent.
The teacher told me: "If you want anything, you have to try hard. Only with strength can you be independent. It's the same for a country and for a person. Relying on others is not good. Once your support, for some benefit, compromises with others, you will be the first to be in danger. It's easy to become "orphaned". There's an old folk song that says:
The rain of bubbles flutters,
Mom is getting married, who will I live with?
According to the teacher, I realized that I always had to try a little harder. He was also very democratic, cheerful, and easy to approach. Wherever he went, there was laughter (“Cù nhu Cẩn”), and when students heard him teach, they gathered together to see his pedagogical skills and his high cultural background.
For Mr. Can, the biggest lesson is to maintain character and work hard. In academics, one must pay attention to every detail.
He had retired for five years, the school and faculty enthusiastically supported him, but according to the principle that medals are rewards that must start from the lowest level, so Hanoi National University only proposed that the State award him the Third Class Labor Medal. After waiting for a long time, there was no result. Suddenly, one day, a representative of the Ministry of Education rushed back to the school to say that Mrs. Nguyen Thi Binh, Vice President of the State, after reviewing the teacher's profile, did not agree to sign the award decision. Everyone was surprised, then the representative of the Ministry explained that the Vice President had said: "I know Mr. Can well, he must receive the First Class Labor Medal to be worthy, but if he presents the Third Class Labor Medal, I will not sign." Therefore, our Ministry had to go back to redo the procedure. On the anniversary of Vietnam Teachers' Day that year, he was awarded the First Class Medal.
He was awarded the Ho Chi Minh Prize in 2000. Not only was he happy, but we were even happier because his work and contributions were recognized. In 2008, he was awarded the special title of People's Teacher, not the usual title of Excellent Teacher. That was the initiative, the heart and the resolute attitude of the Board of Directors of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, enthusiastically supported by the Hanoi National University. He was touched. In his life, he was always a person who knew how to "keep himself in the midst of adversity", knew his own strength and showed true sincerity. He rarely criticized others, was very strict and rigorous in his profession, but when it came to evaluating other things, he was always understanding.
Spring 2009. After Tet, Le Quang Thiem and I visited the teacher and said goodbye to him so he could go to Russia. The teacher and I talked to each other all day, drank tea and talked about many things. The teacher was happy. At the end of the day, the teacher kept us for dinner. But Thiem and I asked to leave so the teacher could rest. The teacher saw us off to the yard. Spring came, and the teacher's yard had a peach tree that was blooming beautifully. The teacher and I stood under the tree's shade. Not knowing what premonition it was, for the first time, the teacher suddenly hugged each of us one by one and kissed us very intimately. We were very moved. We also did not expect that it would be the last time the teacher hugged us before leaving forever.
The year before, on the first anniversary of my teacher's death, I brought a bottle of corn wine from Moc Chau to burn incense to pay respect to him. We stood under the shade of the peach tree from before. The peach tree was in full bloom again. On the twenty-third day of the first lunar month, after Tet, I stood absent-mindedly under the tree, my heart filled with nostalgia for my teacher, leaning on an old poem by Vu Dinh Lien:
Peach blossoms again this year
Don't see the old scholar
The people of old
Where is the soul now?
My teacher has gone far, very far. But his spirit is still here, now, still beside us, the students who are not very good or smart. But thanks to his guidance and care for half a century, we have achieved some maturity.... Being his student is really difficult!
 

Late Winter of the Year of the Dragon, 2012