Romantic scientist of Quang

Professor Hoang Trong Phien was born in 1932 in Hoa Vang, old Quang Nam (now Da Nang). It was a poor land but famous for always producing talented people. At the age of 13, he enthusiastically participated in the revolution. In 1946, the national resistance war broke out, he joined the guerrillas and then worked in the Trung Man war zone (in Quang Nam) and was admitted to the Party when he was not yet 18 years old. Right from his youth, he became Deputy Secretary of the Youth Union of Quang Nam Da Nang. In 1954, he gathered in the North, studied at the Central Campus called "Duc Tai Hoc Hieu" (Nanning, China) and then returned to study at the University of General Sciences, course 1 (1956-1959). He delved into the study of Linguistics and grew up attached to this science.

Professor, Doctor, People's Teacher Hoang Trong Phien was Head of the Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Philology (1972-1973); Head of the Department of Vietnamese for Foreigners, Hanoi National University (1973-1984).

While working in the enemy's rear area of ​​Quang Nam, due to the policy of long-term cadre development, Hoang Trong Phien was sent by the Quang Nam Provincial Party Committee to attend junior high school, then high school at Le Khiet School, Quang Ngai. That was the only high school in Inter-zone V during the resistance war against the French. This is a famous school that provided the country with many outstanding talents. When mentioning his hometown, Professor Hoang Trong Phien often expressed deep pride. When he was excited, he often used the phrase "A man from Quang Nam" with pride. When mentioning that beloved school, he never forgot his old teachers. He said that in high school, he studied literature with teachers such as: Le Dinh Ky (later a lecturer at the Faculty of Literature), Le Tri Vien (later a lecturer at Hanoi Pedagogical University). As for math, he studied with people like Professor Hoang Tuy, Professor Hoang Chung...

When we first entered the first year, before we had even attended Professor Hoang Trong Phien’s class, we had already heard many anecdotes about his life and work. There is a phrase that both Vietnamese and foreign students often use to “distinguish” him from other teachers in the school. That phrase is “very Hoang Trong Phien”.

Photo: Jackie Chan

The anecdotes created around him generally show the affection of generations of students for the teacher who was a "second senior" (second generation) of the Linguistics research community in the school and also in Vietnam. Compared to the history of the Faculty of Philology, he was a graduate of the first course, which some people call the first generation, in terms of the course.

When we studied with him, we were very curious and interested. He was a man of eloquence. His "eloquent" teaching voice added wings to the knowledge he imparted to our class. He "overwhelmed" us, the country students, about many issues outside of our deep expertise in Linguistics. During class, he often told stories about Russia. Through his stories, we imagined Russia as a paradise. There were vast birch forests. In winter, everywhere was vast white snow. The white color was so pure that we felt like swallowing it into our mouths with a cool, sweet feeling. Through Hoang Trong Phien's endless words, the boys in our class opened their mouths wide, imagining that there were a group of fairies before our eyes. They were female students from Belarus, Ukraine..., all of them wearing blue skirts, white shirts, blond hair hanging down over their shoulders, blue eyes the color of the Volga River. Hoang Trong Phien was a man who loved Russia to the core. Russia was not only a major scientific center of the world but also a place that gave wings to his extremely romantic soul. Where it flew to, only he knew. But certainly, in class, it appeared faintly in many of the lessons he taught us. Both in the subject of stylistics and in the subject of general linguistics. I remember very well that at that time, when teaching general linguistics, he did not use Vietnamese books. In front of him was only a thick Russian book. He used it to teach us directly. He was one of the first teachers to introduce general linguistic theory and introduced Ju. S. Stepanov in Vietnam. If I remember correctly, it was the bookView carby Ju. X. Stepanov (published in Moscow). Later, he also introduced the bookJazùk kak sistemno-strykturnoe obrazovanieby VM Solnsev (published in Moscow 1977). Professor Hoang Trong was one of the first Associate Professors to be “well-trained” in the Soviet Union and his direct use of “original” documents in teaching is also a manifestation of his burning love for the country that trained him.

Having devoted his whole life to the School, the Faculty, and the career of cultivating people, Professor Hoang Trong Phien has guided and helped many generations of students to grow up and make many contributions to society. The first book he wrote wasVietnamese grammar (sentence)) (University and Technical Education Publishing House, H. 1980) has been reprinted many times and is still read by many generations of students.

From left to right: Associate Professor Nguyen Thach Giang, Dr. Trinh Ho Khoa, Prof. Dr. People's Teacher Hoang Trong Phien, Prof. Dr. People's Teacher Le Quang Thiem/Photo: Bui Tuan

Talking about the training and research career, Professor Hoang Trong Phien is one of the few seniors of the Faculty. He was the first person to build the Vietnamese language department for foreigners and was the first official head of the Vietnamese Language Department. The title of Head of the Vietnamese Language Department at that time was both prestigious and important. It was important because he had a four-story building in Bach Khoa ward, with his own account and seal. The head of the department was given autonomy no less than the principal of a small university. Trong because he was assigned to manage all international students studying Vietnamese language and Vietnamese culture of the Ministry of Universities and Vocational High Schools at that time. Bearing a great responsibility, in a not small position, he still maintained the personality of a teacher, a communist. Anyone who met Professor Hoang Trong Phien found him to be a kind and tolerant person. In his position, he protected and supported cadres with good expertise, opened foreign language classes for young cadres. When he needed money for research and translation, he asked his superiors for money. Many scientific conferences often borrowed the premises of the Vietnamese Language Department to receive additional financial support from him. Students wrote their theses with him, if the topic could be used for language teaching, he would sign it and get money to type it (at that time there were no computers so typing was the dream of students. Almost 100% of theses were handwritten). Professor Nguyen Thach Giang and Professor Bui Phung called him the Great Benefactor of the scientists of the Vietnamese Language Department.

In teaching, Hoang Trong Phien has a very special style. When he teaches Vietnamese Stylistics in class, his voice often hums. Especially when he reads poetry, listeners have the feeling that the series of sounds emitted sometimes resembles rolling waves, sometimes murmurs like a gentle wind blowing through the birch trees, and sometimes is as exciting as a symphony reaching its climax. At those times, only Professor Hoang's eyes are seen in ecstasy. He seems to forget all about time and space, his mind seems to be absorbed in the magical echo after each line, each word. The happiest thing is when teaching about the comparison technique, he often uses the "vivid visual" method that makes students gasp in surprise. Once, enthusiastically teaching a class of nearly 100 students, he walked slowly in the aisle between the classrooms and hummed a folk song:

Your wrist is as white as ivory

Her eyes are sharp as knives.

Suddenly, he held up a female student’s hand and said, “This wrist is as white as ivory.” The whole class was stunned. He was really talented. I thought that when he was lecturing, he wouldn’t pay attention to anything, but he chose the hand of the most beautiful girl. The hand was slender, plump, white and very sexy.

He has an art of lecturing on linguistics in general and Vietnamese in particular. These subjects are abstract and dry, but through his lectures they become lively and attractive. He activates and transmits to students a love of Vietnamese. It is said that, in the lecture hall of Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, students from other classes gathered around to watch a Vietnamese professor perform and lecture on practical Vietnamese. That professor was Hoang Trong Phien when he was a visiting professor at the school.

That is Hoang Trong Phien's style. The idiom that students of all generations used to joke about him, "very Hoang Trong Phien", has become an adjective phrase with its own unique identity that cannot be confused with anyone else.

It can be said that, during his many years at university, wherever Hoang Trong Phien appeared, there was laughter. In this Quang Nam scientist, the artistic quality is still the basic quality that makes up his entire career and life. It is this quality that is a factor that makes his life always soaring, open-minded, creating the lovable quality of Hoang Trong Phien. The professor's life spanned decades of hardship, he went through all the joys and sorrows to achieve his dream. Leaving behind him are the lovely years full of memories that to this day, when excited, he still recalls with passion and utmost pride. Many articles about him, poems written by students to him have demonstrated this.

At the age of 80, Professor Hoang Trong Phien always lives very young and still participates in training high-quality human resources. In his scientific career, in addition to his contributions to research, he has guided 32 PhD students to successfully defend their PhD theses, many of whom are now Associate Professors, Professors, and good managers. He truly deserves the title "Modern Quang Nam Scholar" that generations of students have given him, in addition to the affectionate phrase "Our Professor Hoang" that foreign students often call him.