The first Head of Linguistics Department

However, every time he worked in the documentation room, we, the young cadres, tried to get close to him to listen to him talk about all sorts of things. The stories he told were of an “encyclopedic” nature, so they were very attractive and appealing to us at that time. Later, I myself learned that before that, he was also a “teaching staff” of the department, but due to some reason, he (along with Mr. Cao Xuan Hao) had to switch to being a “documentary” and could no longer teach in class. Gradually, we also learned that he was Nhu Thanh, a famous translator at that time. And it was not until the 2000s, when I had the task of researching the history of the Linguistics Department of the Faculty of Philology in particular and of Hanoi National University in general, that I learned that he was the first Head of the Linguistics Department (for 02 years) of the Faculty of Philology when Hanoi National University was established in 1956.

Associate Professor Phan Ngoc was the first Head of the Department of Linguistics (for 02 years) of the Faculty of Philology when Hanoi National University was established in 1956.

Perhaps the things I have just briefly mentioned about Mr. Phan Ngoc as above may only be known to a few people like me before. As for later times, from 1980 onwards, when he moved to work at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies under the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciencesdo Professor Pham Duc Duong was in charge, so his position was "senior expert". The research works he published during this time were as follows:Language Contact in Southeast Asia1983,Learn about Nguyen Du's style in The Tale of Kieu1985,Vietnamese culture, new approach1994,Vietnamese cultural identity1998,Trying to Consider Cultural Studies - Literature Through Linguistics2000 and many other works have been enthusiastically received by readers.2000Among those projects, two projects were donated by the Vietnamese State.State Award about science and technology

As for myself, I have a few memories that will follow me all my life about Professor Phan Ngoc. Here, I would like to recount just one impressive memory about his extensive knowledge and enthusiasm for historical linguistics. In 1979, I enrolled in the first course of Associate Professor (now Doctor) training at Hanoi University of Science. There was a group of three Professors who guided me as a PhD student, in which Professor Nguyen Tai Can was the general Professor in charge and responsible for guiding my thesis. Because my thesis topic was related to historical phonetics, Professor Nguyen Tai Can asked me to "seek a master" from many teachers, including Professor Phan Ngoc, to learn more about this field. Therefore, I have visited the small house on Bui Thi Xuan Street countless times to ask him about the history of Vietnamese phonetics in the work of H. Maspero, which he translated from the French handwritten translation in the documentation room of the Faculty of Philology. At that time, in the field of historical phonetics, there were almost no documents written in Vietnamese, Mr. Phan Ngoc wholeheartedly and enthusiastically taught me many difficult things in H. Maspero's work. Perhaps, without his wholehearted help, writing the part of my thesis related to the historical phonetics of Vietnamese at that time would have been extremely difficult.

Photo: Jackie Chan

Then, in 2011, I had the opportunity to visit him again. That day was November 19, after the Linguistics Department had organized a meeting to congratulate the teachers in the Department, I asked Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Van Chinh, then Vice Head of the Linguistics Department, to drive me to visit Mr. Ngoc. That day, after drinking water and asking about his health, I saw that he seemed very happy, so I boldly told him:

- Sir, it's been a long time since we've had the chance to visit you. We have a few "anecdotes" related to you that we'd like you to tell us clearly.

He smiled and asked me again:

- Okay. But what is it that you are so curious to know?

- Sir, I would like to ask you a few stories related to you that I have only heard people tell but do not know the truth. As you know, in the former Department of Linguistics of Hanoi University of Science, there were many "freaks" in foreign languages ​​such as Mr. Hao, Mr. Can, etc. We, the descendants, admire you for your ability to use the foreign languages ​​that you know. Besides Chinese and French, which are the languages ​​you learned at school, other languages ​​such as Russian, English, Italian, Greek, and German were self-taught. So how did you self-study to get the results you have?

- Well, it is true to say that I studied by myself, but it is not exactly like that. That is thanks to the "instructions" of my father. When he was working in Hue, instead of sending me to the National School, he sent me to study at the "Convent" school here. According to him, studying at the Convent school gives me the opportunity to learn Latin. As a historical linguist, you must know how important Latin is to Western languages. Thanks to seven years of studying Latin at the "Convent" school in Hue, later on, along with my knowledge of linguistics, I had the opportunity to "self-study" languages ​​that I was not taught at school. That is the key to using different languages ​​of Latin origin, sir.

- But Latin is difficult to learn, isn't it, teacher?

- It is difficult, but it is necessary to learn because foreign languages ​​are the “key” to open the door to the world. My grandfather chose and guided me to strive.

Listening to him explain that, we understood that his foreign language ability had a reason and was also thanks to his own efforts. Then I continued to ask him another question:

- Sir, we know that your nickname and the name you use in some translated documents is Nhu Thanh. I heard that the name Nhu Thanh combined with your name Ngoc creates a very profound meaning?

- I would like to tell you that the name Nhu Thanh that I use is the name my grandfather gave me, not the one I chose. Perhaps when he chose this nickname for me, he was secretly reminding me. That name is a shortened way of saying "historical" that the ancients used to advise. I use that name to obey my grandfather's teachings.

- Sir, do you remember the original text of that "legendary" sentence?

- At this age (that year he was 86) and right now, I cannot remember everything. But I still remember a part of the proverb used to name Nhu Thanh that my grandfather chose for me. That sentence, in Sino-Vietnamese, is "Bần tế ư thích, dung ngọc nhu vu thành đa". If you go home and find out the meaning of that whole sentence, you will know my grandfather's intention when naming me.

Photo: Jackie Chan

I wrote down the Sino-Vietnamese pronunciation of the sentence the teacher read, and when I got home I looked up the original Chinese text of the sentence "The poor and the humble are fond of each other, and the jade is like a wild beast.” (rice 贱 water water black number water number water number) and then emailed Pham Anh Sao to see if those Chinese characters were correct with Sino-Vietnamese pronunciation. Then I asked Dinh Thanh Hieu (whom we in Literature call the "corner ghost" of Chinese idioms), a lecturer in the Sino-Nom department of the Faculty of Literature, to help me explain and find the origin of that sentence. Hieu told me that the full sentence in the poem "Tay Minh" by the great Confucian Truong Tai of the Song Dynasty is "number 貴 number rice Number number Number number number number,rice 贱 water water black number water number water number” (Wealth and honor are blessings given to me by the Queen Mother; Poverty and lowliness are favored by me, and I am pleased to be in your city."Wealth and happiness are the blessings of heaven for our lives; Poverty and sadness are to hone us into jade"). So the nickname Nhu Thanh that Mr. Phan Vo chose for teacher Phan Ngoc spoke of all the "gains and losses" in his life. And in real life, teacher Phan Ngoc overcame all the "poverty and love" to "turn poverty into jade".

On May 29, 2015, while at the lecture hall at 19 Le Thanh Tong to celebrate the 80th birthday of Professor Ha Minh Duc, Mr. Tran Hinh said that the school wanted him to write memories about Mr. Phan Ngoc, but what he knew about him had already been written. He hoped that "linguists" like me, if they know anything more about him, would write to the school. Honestly, in writing about memories of teachers, in our old Faculty of Literature, there were many people who knew a lot and wrote very talentedly; but I knew little and did not have the talent to write. Thanks to a few memories like the above about Mr. Phan Ngoc, I would like to write a few lines like that to celebrate his 90th birthday.

Hanoi, June 4, 2015