My teacher and the untold "bests"

In 2005, I was assigned to do research under his guidance. I was one of the first batch of PhD students to be supervised by the youngest Associate Professor in the country in the field of Linguistics at that time (and later, he became the youngest professor in the field of social sciences to be awarded the title at the age of 46). At that time, I still had many ambitions about some other branches of Linguistics, other than syntax, so I was somewhat confused. When I met him, he said: "I believe Duong can do it!". I knew he was encouraging me, but I naturally felt reassured and confident. Later I learned that he knew how to encourage his students' abilities. For him, no student was incapable of doing the job, the only difference was how much effort he put in. His belief in his students was both a motivation and a pressure, and for me, that was the starting point for everything I did later.

I still remember the days when he was in Korea, every morning I received an email from him. He told me what he had read, what he had written, what he had absorbed into his mind… And at the end of the letter, he always asked me for a corresponding answer, “What have you done?”. Needless to say, I was so nervous every time I received a letter from him, because I saw that he was so knowledgeable but still accumulated knowledge every day, like picking up more pebbles into his jar. That jar kept filling up, filling up, while mine still only had a few stones that he himself put in for me. Until one day, too impatient with my sluggishness, he emailed me a story that I will probably never forget in my life. He said, Confucius once said, if a scholar does not read a book for a day, he will look in the mirror and see a dirty face. He left it at that. But after reading it, I had to go wash my face to wake up, and two weeks later I sent him my first article.

Professor, Dr. Nguyen Van Hiep

I was playful, and used to be proud of my playfulness (I often blamed it on the word “youth”, because everyone my age was the same). Once, when I came back from a trip, I met my teacher. He asked me all sorts of questions about the trip, but then concluded with a sentence: “Actually, there is nothing more fun than finishing something related to science”. It was true, thinking about it, I found it to be true. Having fun, coming back feeling tipsy, but finishing an article, finishing a project, the joy lingers. My teacher had a lot of experience, so what he said made a stubborn person like me (after a while of arguing) bow my head and admit.

I often told him that he was like a dictionary. Whatever I asked, he would point me in the right direction, to any book, page, or section. He had a library of e-books that he was eager to share with everyone. But in my opinion, he only needed to integrate a search bar into his brain to be enough for those who needed to look up documents without having to access another e-library.

Prof. Dr. Nguyen Van Hiep was awarded the title of Professor in 2010 - the youngest professor in the field of Linguistics.

To become a scientist, he went through a difficult path. I often call him “the teacher of the best”, because I have never seen him come in second. When he was a student, he won first prize in Literature at the national junior high school level, and then continued to win first prize in Literature at the national high school level (I guess that if there was a national competition at the university level, the first prize would still be “the old way back” for him!). When he went to university, he won first prize in the Russian Olympiad for students of the capital’s universities when he was only a second-year student. Later, when I learned about his Russian award, I was extremely surprised, because he was very good at English and French, especially English, so I thought he majored in English as a student. It turned out that English was only his “left-handed” foreign language. Reading the translations of a self-taught English speaker like him, no one can criticize them, because they are so refined, any other translation would immediately lose that refinement. My friend - a person who has lived in the US for more than 10 years, whose English is like his mother tongue, once exclaimed like that when reading the translation of the bookLinguistic Semantic s- An Introductionby J. Lyons was translated by him and published as a book by the Education Publishing House in 2006 and reprinted twice in the following years.

Professor Nguyen Van Hiep, artist in everyday life

Erudite and profound, but if anyone asks me about him, I like to tell other side stories. That was the time I followed him to meet teacher Shimizu (Japanese, professor at Osaka University). Witnessing the emotion and touching to tears of teacher Shimizu when receiving a gift of a nunchaku from my teacher, I was extremely surprised. According to the understanding of "professionals", that is a priceless asset of a martial artist. That nunchaku has been with the teacher for a long time, and how close must he be to someone else before he gives it to someone else. From the nunchaku incident, I learned another interesting thing about the teacher. He used to be a famous karate coach, who used to teach martial arts to many generations of students. Then I remember the moment when he hugged the guitar among close friends from Saigon to Hanoi to play, playing the guitar and singing Trinh Cong Son's songs, deep and soulful. I remember the image of him in shorts and jersey, running after the ball with students during the seasons... Those simple moments seemed hard to find in a university professor, but fortunately, I often witnessed them when I followed him throughout the years of "learning the teaching profession". Perhaps because of that loving, harmonious, and close way of life, he had many friends who could devote themselves to him, and students felt proud and moved every time they mentioned him.

Prof. Dr. Nguyen Van Hiep and the football team of Korea University of Foreign Studies

In 2008, during a trip to take students on an internship and meet the teacher in Hue, I followed him to visit his house in Bao La village, Quang Phu commune (Quang Dien) - about 15km from Hue city. The road from the beginning of the village to the teacher's house was still unpaved, and when it rained, the road was muddy. The teacher's house had not been rebuilt yet, it was still a very old level 4 house, bearing the marks of many floods. The teacher showed me each place in the house, this place was knee-deep in water, that place was waist-deep in water, and the highest place was the family's flood shelter, so we just sat there waiting for the water to recede. Hearing that, I admired the teacher's will to overcome difficulties. From poverty, he was determined to escape suffering through education, and as a result, he conquered countless peaks. From a poor student, to an excellent student who was transferred to a postgraduate program right after graduation, to the youngest professor in the field at the age of 46, trusted by his superiors to hold the position of Vice Dean of the Faculty of Linguistics - University of Social Sciences and Humanities, then transferred to the Institute of Linguistics and appointed as the Institute Director. A long journey, marking the efforts of an outstanding son of Hue.

Prof. Dr. Nguyen Van Hiep and famous scientist - Prof. MAK Halliday

I have not had the opportunity to return to Bao La village, my teacher’s hometown, but on his Facebook, I was very happy to see a photo of him with his parents and friends in front of a spacious house, which was certainly rebuilt in 2010, partly thanks to the money he saved after a long time of “hard work” in research and teaching. He confided to his friends that this was the most worthwhile thing he did, with this house, every time the rainy season comes, he will be less worried about his parents in the countryside.

He has his name on dozens of books and research works at home and abroad. During his 20 years working at the school, he has published 9 books and monographs, including the bookVietnamese syntaxwon the National University's annual award for outstanding scientific work in 2011, 2 translated books, and nearly 50 articles published in prestigious domestic and international journals. His scientific reputation is not only known by domestic scholars, but also spreads internationally and is admired by many scientists. Teaching or research, for him, are both jobs he is passionate about. He often says, with passion comes success. With a person with such an endless passion for science, I will certainly have many more opportunities to write about him in the near future...