The person who "learns but never gives up"...

In memory of Professor Nguyen Tai Can, we send you the following story written by Associate Professor Vu Duc Nghieu on the occasion of Professor Nguyen Tai Can's eightieth birthday, printed in the Hanoi National University Newsletter in 2006 to learn more about the Professor. This year, celebrating the eightieth birthday of Mr. Nguyen Tai Can, I know that I should have a research paper to add a professional voice as a gift to celebrate the teacher, then it would be "appropriate". But I haven't finished writing the research paper yet, so I'll just tell a few simple stories, like small memories during the time I was close to the teacher at Cornell University (USA). It happened a long time ago, because "This has been over ten years"... 1. In 1993, I was teaching at Cornell University. One day in late autumn, at noon, Professor G. Diffloth called me: "...Mr. and Mrs. Can are here. They are staying at Fairview (the name of a guest house of the school) phone number ..." It was known in advance: The teacher and Ms. Nonna would come for three months according to the plan of the Southeast Asia program (SEAP - a large and powerful research center of Cornell University located at Steward Ave. Ithaca NY.) but I couldn't pick them up because I had class time. I immediately called to say goodbye to the teachers and let them rest after the long flight. That evening, I went to Fairview to visit the teachers. The conversation was not over because we had not seen each other for a long time and there was work ahead. With a lot of emotion, the teacher read me a new Chinese poem he had written on the flight to Cornell. I could not remember the poem anymore, but one thing was for sure: I found it very good, authentic, and very much in line with the teacher's mood at that time. (It is known that the teacher had written nearly two hundred poems in both Chinese and Nom on different occasions, especially in communication with scientists and friends, but recorded them in a separate notebook, no one had the opportunity to read them all at once). The next day, I took the teachers to do some paperwork and introduced them to some people. The day after that, the teacher told me to take them to the library. Cornell University's Olin Library with its collection of books on Southeast Asia, can only be described in one word: wonderful. Down in the basement, in the Chinese books section, I saw the bookJade... (a book describing the dialects and vernaculars of Southern China; I only remember the name of this book, which is often called that), the Teacher stood still for a moment like someone meeting an old friend in a dream, then said to me: "If only I had this book ten or more years ago. I just saw it today...". I said: "I will borrow it and make a copy, Teacher." The Teacher agreed; and a new idea arose: the Teacher did not have a library card, but wanted to have books to read right away; I would borrow books for the Teacher and the Teacher using my ID card. Immediately, a stack of books in Chinese, Russian, French, and English were picked up and checked out. For nearly two months, every three or four days, this happened once. Diligently and regularly, the Teacher and the Teacher competed to "devour" one book after another. If you looked at the list kept at the Orlin library during those days, everyone would be surprised and wonder why the person with that ID (me) had such a formidable reading ability. Lisa (I changed my name, not my real name), a student at the school, my friend, who worked part-time at the library, was also very surprised and asked: "What are you researching and writing that you read so much these days, and in several languages, at the same time. It's terrible". After I explained everything clearly, she was no longer surprised. 2. SEAP (SouthEast Asia Program) invited the Master to come as a scholar to collaborate on scientific research, more specifically to work with G. Diffloth on related issues. When I told the Master that in DMLL (Department of Modern Languages ​​and Linguistics), Prof. Diffloth was my supervisor, that last fall semester (1992) I and Prof. Nguyen Van Loi (also a guest of SEAP) went to listen to Prof. Diffloth lecture a whole course on Southeast Asian languages, the Master encouraged me to take the time to listen and said: "He is an international leader, if you have the opportunity, you should take the opportunity to study". I told him that this fall (1993) this course was also being taught and I was still listening, he said he would also attend; and then he listened to most of Professor Diffloth's lectures. When it came to the part about the Vietnamese-Muong languages, we were free to exchange and discuss. The "Two Gentlemen" exchanged and presented supporting documents so enthusiastically that many times I and the students (about five or six people, both American and Thai, Canadian, studying right in Professor Diffloth's office) did not know whether they were exchanging with each other or taking turns lecturing for everyone to hear. "Sounds in unison"... when they met, the "Two Gentlemen" could hardly stop talking about their expertise. One afternoon, the Teacher asked me to wait so that we could go to his place for dinner together. (My office was only about ten steps away from Professor Diffloth's office, so every time he came to work with him, he often stopped by and left his towels and clothes in my room). I waited until late to see the Master come over to get his coat and say: "It's late, we've been talking too much, it's so interesting. Let's go home. Mr. Diffloth told me to go to his place and he'll drive you home." I stood up and went with the Master to Professor Diffloth's room. When we entered the room, Mr. Diffloth said something (in French, I didn't understand). The Master replied, and the conversation continued "smoothly" as if nothing had happened. I stood there like a statue, "enduring the situation", not understanding anything, because the "Two Men" spoke French, not English, and they considered me to be the one involved. I was forced to "realize" that: Professor Diffloth had completely forgotten to drive the Master home, and my Master, caught up in his work, had also "forgotten" the matter of getting dressed and getting ready to go home. It was almost an hour later that the "two gentlemen" smiled and said "fini'' the story then "Au revoir". I walked out. I was hungry. It was dark in winter. Cold. The teacher and student walked home, and our Professor Diffloth was also leisurely on his way to the parking lot. I was so amused that I recalled what happened. He also laughed: "He" was absent-minded. He told me to get my shirt and then turned around so he could drive me home. But after only going to Nghieu's room to get the shirt, he had already forgotten". I said: "Well, the teacher is not bad either. You must be waiting for dinner at home right now". When I got back to Fairview, I told him the story, Nonna could only shake her head and laugh: "I can't understand". 3. During the three months he was at Cornell, I had the opportunity to be close to him often, he told me many stories of the past and present and gave me advice and guidance on many things, from life to study and work. Both the teacher and the teacher always warned and advised me about taking care of my health, about eating and working, especially when I was away from home and alone. One day, I was called to the teacher's place for dinner. After eating, it was quite late, so I said goodbye to the teacher and the teacher to go home. The teacher asked me to wait for him to go outside for a cigarette to get some fresh air, and to take the opportunity to see me off for a while. The teacher and I walked slowly and talked. The snow was flying all over the sky. While talking, I suddenly looked up and saw my house (on East State Street, about a kilometer from Fairview) right in front of me. I took the teacher back to Fairview. It was on Michaell Street from Fairview to East State Street that winter night that the teacher once again "criticized" me for not doing my thesis early; and I asked and talked to the teacher a lot about the thesis that I had defended in 1996 when I returned to Vietnam. A few days after that conversation, the teacher gave me a photocopy of the handwritten manuscript of the textbook.History of Vietnamese Phonetics, told me to take it home and read it and then say what I thought. I read it slowly and carefully, and could not contribute any ideas. Putting myself in the position of a third-year student, I marked a few places and told the teacher that the writing was a bit "heavy", and that it might be difficult for students to understand. The teacher agreed. As for the teacher, I relied on my position as a student, and did not feel shy about saying such things (like another time, the teacher had just finished a poem and read it to me - during his time at Cornell, he wrote three poems, two Tang poems, one in Han script, one in Nom script, very funny, and one in Luc Bat - After listening, a while later, I called the teacher and said that the two words (...) were too sad and inappropriate, and suggested that the teacher change them. Later, the teacher called me back and said that he agreed and changed it like this...). Although I had known the teacher's personality through other books, the book itselfHistory of Vietnamese Phoneticsmakes me respect and admire more than anything the honesty, fairness and impartiality in the Teacher's science. Regardless of who provided a little bit of material, who did some data, regardless of whether it was a famous researcher or a young student... The Teacher always took very specific, complete, clear and respectful notes. The work was not a big deal, but such a heart in science made the later generations of students respect him even more. 4. Telling stories about the Teacher, I cannot help but tell a few stories about Ms. Nonna. When I went to Corell with the Teacher, she attended the class and talked to the group of Russian teachers there. A colleague I knew at Cornell (very fluent in Vietnamese) asked me: "What does she teach and research in Vietnam?". Interestingly, a few years later, another colleague in Hanoi also asked me the same question. I answered both times in the following general sense: "... She was my teacher at the University. I don't know much about her work. One thing is certain: in the relevant professional fields: linguistics, Vietnamese studies, she was a lecturer, since 1984 a professor specializing in linguistics; at the same time, a lot of her work, in itself, played the role of a bridge between us and the outside through the Soviet Union during the time we were living with war and bombs. She researched and introduced Vietnamese language, Vietnamese linguistics, and Vietnamese literature abroad through research results that we rarely saw because they were published far away. Regarding linguistics, at Hanoi University, she made efforts to introduce new subjects such as Translation Theory and Typology. She wrote textbooksGeometric typeCurrently, she is still officially teaching in the field of linguistics; then, together with Professor Nguyen Tai Can and Professor Bystrov, she researched and wrote the book Vietnamese Grammar; then, she researched the historical grammar of Vietnamese and had some very valuable initial results. During the years of bombs and bullets, she evacuated with the school and the faculty, also living on rice coupons and mixed rice like everyone else, and at the same time raising her children, doing scientific research and teaching. Regarding her overcoming difficulties to do research, I would like to tell you just one story: In the 1970s, there were no photocopy machines in Vietnam. There was a fairly large manuscript of a Nom dictionary being prepared for publication. If the publication date was on schedule, it would take another three years. The two of them (Mr. Can) shared the copy, because they calculated that even if they finished copying in a year, they would have the materials to use two years earlier than if they waited for publication, and publication was not certain to be on schedule... In the end, everything happened exactly like that. And that's not all. I learned that they even hand-copied the A.de. Rhodes dictionary when there was no copy yet"... My colleague at Cornell widened his eyes and gasped; and my close colleague in Hanoi said: "It sounds a bit scary". I said: "As for me, I knew about this before you, so I was scared before you for a long time"... During the three months at Cornell, she also talked to me a lot, from raising a small child to researching and teaching languages. At that time, she told me: "This North American region has a very typical raccoon, have you seen it, Mr. Nghieu?" I replied: "Yes, I have. We are here in Ithaca, so we often see them. What I find most interesting is when I ride my bike at night and see it crossing the street, it runs backwards but its eyes catch the headlights, the two black hairs around its eyes make its face look both dark and cunning, just like an escaped prisoner. There are also two raccoons in the corner of my garden that come here from time to time." She liked it very much and tried to wait, diligently walking around the Fairview area, placing bread in some places to lure the raccoon to come, just to see it, but it was not until she was almost done with work and leaving Cornell that she saw it. When she saw the raccoon, she was very excited, and called the Teacher to come out to see it together, but it was too late. That's how she found the raccoon, but I know she was also a "book hunter". I still remember, one day, I saw a "garden sale" next to Fairview (a sale in the yard, in the garden of an American family of furniture and belongings that when they moved to another place, they no longer wanted to bring along, and sold at very cheap prices, every penny was worth it, both very economical and seemed to be mainly for fun). She prepared to go see it. The Teacher said: "Why go, there probably won't be anything interesting". But she went anyway and later returned cheerful. It turned out that she "hunted" for the famous Webster's dictionary printed in 1862. The owner only asked for 6 (six) dollars. I went to Fairview, and she excitedly told me about the rare book she had bought and showed me. The dictionary had faded with time both on the cover and inside, and was the same size as the large-format English-Vietnamese dictionary first printed in Hanoi in 1978. Anyone who knew about this (including Professor Diffloth) thought it was extremely lucky, because it was a dictionary from the "Gone with the Wind" era. Now, she considers that Webster's book a "family heirloom", as well as another "family heirloom" item, the steel helmet from the time of the evacuation against the destructive war of the US, which she still carefully preserved. When I write these lines, she is far away from Hanoi. Thinking of her, I mentally calculate: it has been more than ten years since that day... Yet it feels like it happened yesterday. 5. Like many others in the same field of literature, I have attended and listened to discussions about the research works and books of the Master many times. Recently, a few of my friends in a neighboring field said: "The research of the Master Can is "awesome", but please tell us more specifically what is special". I replied: "How can I say it all, because I do not know all of the Master's research in detail. But talking about the books that I like the most, besides the bookSome issues about Nom scriptwith a series of very good and valuable articles on methods (linguistics and philology), new ideas, new material discoveries, ... roughly like this: a. The bookVietnamese Grammar: Words - Compound Words - Short PhrasesThe two most valuable things are the proposal to apply the concept of "language" corresponding to the concept of morpheme for Vietnamese grammar, and the description of the structure of Vietnamese noun phrases. It is the proposal to apply and clarify the grammatical value of "language" that has created a pivotal change.brought profound innovations in the perception of Vietnamese linguists in general while describing Vietnamese.. This is clearly shown in research and teaching documents on Vietnamese, everyone can easily see. As for the structure of Vietnamese nouns described in this work (applying the method of description according to distribution position), it has contributed to many improvements and changes in the classification of word classes, a very important task in grammar research and description. Also in this work, for many different reasons, to avoid too much confusion, the new idea of ​​the Master about the central element (main element) of the noun phrase was presented starting on page 216 of the 1975 edition with the name "two elements T1 and T2 in the central part", which recently, researcher, Associate Professor Cao Xuan Hao and many others in studies on this issue, often mentioned and highly appreciated. The sentences in point c. page 216, are gentle, a bit "patient", butreally an ideain the grammatical analysis of the relevant issue... b. The bookHistory of Vietnamese Phonetics, it can be said that, up to now, it is the most complete and systematic research work on the history of Vietnamese phonetics, and its special feature is that: the origin relationships, the contact relationships between Vietnamese and familiar languages, between Vietnamese and Chinese; the influence of Chinese on Vietnamese and other minority languages ​​in Vietnam... have been analyzed with consistent methods, evaluated reasonably in the whole general context, making the problem perceived and presented more comprehensively. Thanks to that, in the textbook, the origin and evolution of sounds belonging to the system of initial sounds, medial sounds, vowels, final sounds and tones of Vietnamese, the steps of evolution of Vietnamese phonetics from the Proto Viet Chut period (corresponding to the familiar term Proto Viet Muong) through the division into two branches Poong - Chut and Viet - Muong, then from common Viet Muong to Nguon, Muong and Viet separated, from early Vietnamese to modern Vietnamese... become much easier to visualize. c. ProjectOrigin and formation process of Sino-Vietnamese readingFirst published in 1979, reprinted with revisions and supplements in 2000, is the first work in Vietnam to systematically and fundamentally research this issue. In addition to other scientific values ​​that many researchers have mentioned and introduced, the special thing I want to add is that, unlike the works of B. Karlgren (1915), H. Maspero (1912), T. Mineya (1972), Vuong Luc (1958), Ly Vinh (1952), J. Hashimoto (1984), SA Starostin (1989), this work restores and defines the system of 8 vowels in Thiet van (coincidentally, in 1992, WH Baxter also restored the system of 8 vowels); at the same timeResearch the entire process of evolution through different stages of the consonant system and the Chinese rhyme system from the Iron Age to the period of formation of Sino-Vietnamese reading. The process of evolution and transformation through the stages during those three centuries, it cannot be said that it did not exist, both H. Maspero and SA Starostin ignored it. H. Maspero only presented the Chinese phonetic system at two points in time: the time of Thiet van and then switched to the system at the time of the formation of the Sino-Vietnamese reading method.One of the differences and advantages of the work Origin and formation of Sino-Vietnamese reading compared to the work of H. Maspero is right there.Before ending these small stories that "make no sense" but are unforgettable to me, I remember another thing. In 2000, Professor Nguyen Tai Can received the Ho Chi Minh Prize for a group of scientific works. (The award certificate mistakenly stated that it was for a group of works in the field of culture and art. When I saw that, I told him that I had to ask him to rewrite it correctly, he just smiled and said: "It's okay, people made a mistake..."). The University of Social Sciences and Humanities at that time gave him a souvenir, a large porcelain plate, on which was printed a sentence from the Analects of Confucius, written in Chinese characters, in blue enamel: "Hoc nhi bat yem, hoi nhan bat quan" (meaning:never get bored learning, never get tired teaching). It's certainly good; but the important thing is that I find it appropriate, because it's very appropriate for the recipient./.