Professor, Doctor of Science Tran Ngoc Them: Willpower - success and a life full of surprises

Unexpected marks on the path of learning

Prof. Dr. Tran Ngoc Them was born in 1952 in Hien Da commune, Cam Khe district, Phu Tho province. Born and raised in a farming family, from a young age he, like many other rural children, often had to do farm work. As a playful child, he was often punished and beaten by his father for his mischievous antics. However, those were beautiful and profound memories of his childhood that every time he thought back, he still found them to be unforgettable memories. During his high school years, thanks to his intelligence, his academic achievements, although not outstanding, still left many impressions. In particular, he had artistic talent from a very early age, dreaming of entering the University of Fine Arts in the future. However, an unexpected opportunity turned Tran Ngoc Them's fate onto a different path. In 1968, because of his good academic performance, he was selected by the school to study in the Soviet Union, so his dream of entering the Fine Arts School ended there. During the years of studying in a faraway land, the beautiful Soviet Union, life was giving him a series of new surprises.

Professor, Doctor of Science Tran Ngoc Them/Photo: Thanh Long

In the Soviet Union, he was assigned by the Vietnamese Ministry of Higher Education to study Forestry Economics. He spent a year studying Russian as a preparatory course and reviewing the 10th grade program in Russian at Minsk State University. At first, learning Russian was extremely difficult for him. But with his utmost effort, after only one year of preparatory course, from not knowing a word of Russian, he became one of the top students of the class. After the preparatory year with excellent results in all social and natural sciences, the Vietnamese Embassy in the Soviet Union decided to transfer him to study Mathematical Linguistics at Leningrad State University. This was a new and very difficult major. At that time, no Vietnamese had successfully studied this major, so he was worried. He applied many times to change his major but was not accepted. Faced with that situation, he determined: "If the superiors have not agreed to transfer, it means they still believe in me. If I insist on transferring now and neglect my studies, I will be guilty. I must study with all my determination and ability." With that determination, he rose to become the leader in a class of mostly Russian students. For five consecutive years, he was the only student in the class who always achieved a perfect score of 5/5 and had many achievements in scientific research. He completed two essays, one of which was reported at the faculty-wide student scientific conference and one of which was recommended by the school for the school's scientific research competition.

The achievements he achieved while sitting in school are the dream of any student. From an average student, he became an excellent student and was selected to study abroad. From a person who knew no foreign language at all, after only one year he rose to become one of the top students of the class. From an extremely difficult subject, where no Vietnamese student had ever succeeded, he was determined to pursue it and achieved the best results that even Russian students and students from other countries wished for.

Job rotations are associated with scientific achievements.

Teacher Tran Ngoc Them in his youth (documentary photo)

Not only leaving unexpected marks on his academic path, Professor Tran Ngoc Them also had many job rotations, and with each change, he left very valuable contributions.

Returning to Vietnam at the end of 1974, he thought that with the outstanding achievements he had achieved in the field of Mathematical Linguistics, he would continue to develop and serve well in his work, but because at that time in Vietnam the computer system was still limited, the field of Mathematical Linguistics did not have enough conditions to develop, he returned to work at the Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Literature, Hanoi National University and completely switched to the field of Linguistics - a field somewhat different from the Mathematical Linguistics that he had studied before.

During his time at Hanoi University of Science, he combined teaching with scientific research and social work very well. Since 1976, while teaching and working for the Youth Union, he began to have articles published in specialized magazines.Languageand from then on, every year there were 1 to 2 lessons. In 1978, he researched and introduced a completely new major that had never been known in Vietnam before, the major of Text Grammar. By 1980, he had published results on this major at the age of 28. Young teacher Tran Ngoc Them was invited to lecture at a series of universities from Thai Nguyen, Hanoi to Quy Nhon. Based on these research results, he completed a monographSystemlinkdocument Vietnamese350 pages thick, published by Social Sciences Publishing House in 1985, when he was only 33 years old. The book was praised for both its systematic rigor (which he achieved thanks to his mathematical thinking) and its clear and attractive writing style (which he achieved thanks to his artistic talent). His results in this monograph were later included in the university and graduate school system, included in the reformed Vietnamese textbooks for grades 9-10, and are still widely used by Vietnamese linguists to this day.

Also from these results, he expanded and wrote a doctoral thesis (equivalent to a doctorate today) with the titleOrganizationgrammar- semantics ofdocument(on document)Vietnamesedefended at Leningrad State University in October 1987. When reading this thesis for the first time, Professor Dr. VV Bogdanov, his scientific supervisor, commented: “I have never read a text like this. It is wonderful. I read it straight through, very fascinated and passionate.” The thesis was assessed by the Council as exceptionally excellent and unanimously voted to recommend the Supreme Council of Academic Degrees of the All-Union (BAK CCCP) to allow it to be defended again (without any additional corrections) to obtain a doctorate degree (equivalent to a doctorate of science today). After 6 months of being assessed by BAK CCCP and another 6 months of paperwork, the thesisOrganizationgrammar- semantics ofdocument(on document)Vietnamese)was allowed to withdraw from the National Library to re-defend at Leningrad State University in November 1988 to receive a doctorate of science. This is a very rare case, not only for foreigners but also for Russian citizens.

In addition to typical worksVietnamese text linking system,he also wrote a bookQuestions and answers about Text Grammar, is the organizer and main writer (5 of 7 chapters) of the book.Text grammar and writing instruction; participate in writing the bookVietnamese Handbook Grade II; book translationText grammarby OI Moskalskaja, translated and organized the translation of the bookBasic elements of general linguisticsby VB Kasevich. In the early 1990s, he joined the group of founders of the Vietnam Linguistics Association led by Professor Hoang Phe and was elected the first Secretary General of the Association.

The fate of coming to Cultural Studies and participating in building the industryOrientalism

Mr. Tran Ngoc Them has made significant contributions to science and education in the country, especially in the two fields of Linguistics and Cultural Studies/Photo: Thanh Long

Having been very successful in linguistics, it was thought that he would continue to stick with this field for the rest of his life, but by chance he came to another field, which was cultural studies - a field that, before him, had not been clearly defined in Vietnam.

After successfully defending his PhD thesis in the Soviet Union, he returned to Vietnam at the end of 1988. At this time, the Ministry of Education and Training began to reform education at the university level. The first group of majors chosen to conduct the pilot reform was foreign languages. The Foreign Language Interdisciplinary Council was established with members from the Russian, English, Chinese, and Linguistics and Vietnamese Studies Councils. He was assigned to be in charge of the last Council. No matter what foreign language you study, you must have general knowledge of linguistics and Vietnamese studies, the most important of which is Vietnamese culture as the foundation. The idea of ​​building the subjectLiterature basechemicalVietnamwas born from there. In 1990 he built an outline. After it was approved, he started building the content. The first experimental curriculum ofLiterature basechemicalVietnamHe composed 2 volumes (each volume about 80 pages) published by Hanoi University of Foreign Languages ​​for internal circulation in 1991.

In April 1992, during a lecture in Ho Chi Minh City, he was invited by Professor Nguyen Ngoc Giao, Principal of Ho Chi Minh City University, to establish the Oriental Studies training program. Because this was a major that he was very interested in when he was studying in the Soviet Union, he happily accepted the offer and moved his whole family there. Here, he founded and was in charge of the Asian Studies Department under Ho Chi Minh City University in 1992 - the beginning of the formation of Oriental Studies in Vietnam; then founded and was in charge of the Oriental Studies Department under Ho Chi Minh City University of Foreign Languages ​​and Information Technology since 1995.

May 1995, course outlineLiterature basechemicalVietnamwhich he built for the foreign language university block since 1990 has been approved as a common subject for the entire general university knowledge block; at the same time, the bookLiterature basechemicalVietnamHis 500-page book was also published by Ho Chi Minh City University of Science in October of the same year. The publication of this book became an important event and received dozens of introductions and criticisms both domestically and internationally; a separate conference discussing this book was held in Ho Chi Minh City. In 1996, on the basis of the bookLiterature basechemicalVietnamInitially, he developed two books as textbooks.Literature basechemicalVietnamfor students (300 pages) and monographsSearching for Vietnamese cultural identity(670 pages). Both books have been reprinted many times, including“Finding the identity of Vietnamese culture”The European Union (EU) financially supported the World Publishing House to translate it into French and has been reprinted three times to date.

Don't stop at teachingVietnamese cultural foundationas a subject, in 1999 he participated in building the Master's training program in Cultural Studies. Right when the project was approved, he was invited to teach at the Korea International University in Seoul for two years 2000-2001. In 2002, he returned to Vietnam and established the Department of Cultural Studies under the University, and was assigned to hold the position of Head of the Faculty of Oriental Studies. In 2003, he decided to propose that the University transfer the position of Head of the Faculty of Oriental Studies to someone else to focus on building the Cultural Studies major. Along with building the team, he also chaired the building of the program to continue opening the Cultural Studies major at the two remaining levels: bachelor's and doctorate. After 5 years of efforts, the entire training system of the three-level cultural studies major: bachelor's - master's - doctorate was completed for the first time at VNU-Ho Chi Minh. In 2008, the Department of Cultural Studies under the School was transformed into the Faculty of Cultural Studies and he became the first head of the department.

In 2011, he retired from faculty management and moved to the Center for Theoretical and Applied Cultural Studies at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities - Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City.In April 2013, he published two new books:Theoretical and applied cultural issues(675 pages)Vietnamese culture in the Southwest region(885 pages).stainn beforecollection of research resultshisin g20 yearsvOn theoretical and applied cultural studies.back by Mr. Chcomposting, is a product of oneKey National University level scientific research topic chaired by himwith the participation of the staff in the department. Those are the research achievements of a talented and dedicated scientist. It can be said that in his life, Tran Ngoc Them did not miss any opportunity to devote himself to science. His life is like a movie, in which he participated in many roles and in each role he was very successful, also expressing himself in the most excellent way. About this, he once shared:“My life has few choices and I have always had to change careers. Because I have no choice, in order to survive, I have to have a strong will and determination to be able to do well the things that I initially did not like. From the determination to do well, passion has formed, and passion has helped me do better.”Perhaps his unchosen life brought him many surprises, and in turn, those surprises led him to very proud successes, so that today he has made significant contributions to science and training in the country, especially in the two fields of Linguistics and Cultural Studies.