A teacher dedicated to his profession

His love for his profession and his passion for the career of “cultivating people” made the professor forget his old age to “rejuvenate” with generations of beloved students and with the young sciences that he is one of the leading experts who have contributed to creating in Vietnam. These are Statistical Linguistics, Semiotics and an interdisciplinary subject: Logic and Vietnamese. These are the “unique” subjects that he has participated in teaching for the past several decades at many different universities.

Originally a Mathematics teacher (he graduated from the Faculty of Mathematics, Hanoi National University of Education in 1957), after receiving his doctoral training in Poland. Returning to Vietnam, Professor Nguyen Duc Dan became a leading figure in the subject of Statistical Linguistics at the Faculty of Philology, Hanoi National University since the 70s of the last century. The advantage of mathematical thinking helped him quickly grasp the basic knowledge of linguistics so that he could later train himself, work and research, becoming a talented researcher in many specialized and interdisciplinary fields with 18 published research works (including joint writings) and 40 professional articles published in domestic and foreign scientific journals. Among them, the most typical are works on Statistical Linguistics, Dictionaries, Logic-Semantics and Syntax, Logic and Vietnamese, Pragmatics... The remarkable point is that, nearly half a century ago, when many researchers still held high the positive doctrine of entering "narrow specialization" with the spirit of "the narrower the deeper", Professor Nguyen Duc Dan saw the inevitability of interdisciplinary research. Therefore, right from the beginning of "entering the game", in addition to the very specialized field (statistical linguistics), he aimed for a scientific horizon where there needed to be a close connection between many branches of science to be able to perceive the nature of the object in depth. With that sober perspective, he boldly drilled into many different points of a "giant" object, Vietnamese, on many research aspects at the word, syntax, and text levels. His research works and scientific articles therefore always have a unique feature that is not easily confused with other researchers. It opens a new direction in Vietnamese language research besides traditional research trends and monodisciplinary research.

Professor, Doctor, Meritorious Teacher Nguyen Duc Dan/Photo: Thanh Long

Generations of students trained by Professor Nguyen Duc Dan often learn from him strict research operations and tight thinking methods. This is a prominent feature in his scientific works. This result is due to the fact that he started out as an expert in logic and started out as a math teacher. Precise numbers combined with the habit of logical reasoning make his scientific works always have a complete structure. In which, all descriptions and analyses are based on solid scientific foundations, with clear evidence. Therefore, many new issues he explores, although not always easy to access for all those who are doing specialized research, are still convincing. That is not to mention, some theoretical issues when he applies them to practice create their own attractions.

It can be said that, in his whole life as a teacher, Professor Nguyen Duc Dan has never stopped researching, exploring and creating. He always considered research an extremely important task for university training, especially for basic scientific research centers such as Hanoi University of Science, Ho Chi Minh City University of Science in the past and now Hanoi National University and Ho Chi Minh City National University. Because without research, it is impossible to update with the world's scientific level and there is no "capital" to train students and postgraduates. Therefore, from three or four decades ago, he, along with many veteran teachers of the Department of Linguistics (now the Faculty of Linguistics, University of Social Sciences and Humanities), always paid attention to linking theory with practice, linking learning with scientific research right in the student team. There were many excellent students who, right from their second and third years, successfully wrote theses and scientific reports in their specialized research fields. Some excellent students who were guided by him for their university graduation theses (now called bachelor's graduation theses) had their research articles published in journals right after leaving school. Among them, many have now become famous researchers.

Photo: Jackie Chan

Professor Nguyen Duc Dan is a person who values ​​love. It is a love that is not only noisy and fleeting but deep and lasting. Since 1988, due to work requirements, he and a number of senior professors of the Department of Literature went to Ho Chi Minh City to build and develop a team of scientists in the South after the country was unified. The two thousand kilometer journey has never diminished his enthusiasm for the cradle of science, where he started his career from the beginning. That is the Faculty of Literature, Hanoi National University. Every year, "as scheduled", he often goes to Hanoi to teach at training institutions or participate in reviewing doctoral theses at a number of state-level doctoral thesis review councils. He is also an active member in teaching postgraduate topics and teaching basic and advanced subjects for high-quality students of the Faculty of Linguistics, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, VNU. Every time he went to the North, he never forgot his former students who were now working at the school and at agencies and research institutes in Hanoi. He often gave newly published books to his students. At the same time, he was also extremely excited when his students had a published work. His affection was quiet but profound. It was shown in every meeting, every minute of conversation. Not only joy, but even when someone was sad, had difficulties or had been wronged, he sympathized, shared, and encouraged them with simple but extremely touching words.

Professor Nguyen Duc Dan is also an enthusiastic and responsible person. Although decades have passed, many people in the Faculty of Philology still remember his great contribution in creating cooperative relationships with foreign countries. That was in 1979-1980, when he went to teach at the University of Paris 7 (France), he opened a new stage in teaching cooperation between the two universities, Paris 7 University and Hanoi National University. Many trips of teachers of the Faculty of Philology to France started from here. Just by creating a bridge for those who come after to continue "going abroad", it can be said that he is a person with a great sense of responsibility towards his colleagues and the younger generation.

The professor's training career has spanned nearly half a century. Now, in the three regions of Central - South - North, there are students trained by him who have become researchers, professors, and doctors. Not only that, he has also contributed to training many foreign students and researchers. Up to now, he has successfully guided a total of 10 doctoral and associate doctoral theses.

Awarded the title of Professor by the State in 1996, he has always promoted his professional capacity to both teach, research and train generations of bachelors, masters and doctors. Up to now, in addition to articles published in specialized journals, he has also published many valuable research works such as:Dictionnaire de fréquence du Vietnamien,Statistical Linguistics:World laughter collection,Dictionary of Vietnamese words of French origin(co-author), Research and Teaching AssociationLogic and Vietnamese,Vietnamese: used for general university,Introduction to Linguistic Statistics,Pragmatics,Linguistic statistics: some applications,Introduction to Formal Logic & Informal Logic,From wrong sentences to good sentences.

This year, Professor Nguyen Duc Dan is about to turn 79. Generations of students are still waiting for his lectures to learn from him a working style, training and tireless striving along with the knowledge he has accumulated from a lifetime of dedication to being a teacher and doing science.