"Teacher Ke - The respected teacher"

Also on these days a year ago, the teachers and all the students of the Faculty of Humanities had to say goodbye to a Teacher who, in my opinion, no one can replace. It has been almost a year, Teacher, the schoolyard is still the same, the Teachers and we are still the same, but why does it feel so empty and lacking without the presence of the Teacher. Luckily, I was one of the students who got to study the subject of Vietnamese Cultural Foundations from the Teacher, but for me, it was not just about becoming the Teacher's student, but I had heard of his reputation not only at the Faculty of Humanities but also on the forum of those who love Vietnamese history. My Teacher was very simple, with a high forehead and a face that always made the person opposite feel that he was always thinking and worrying about something very far away. The most honest and humorous moment that I can never forget was in a lecture on the Vietnamese Cultural Foundations, when mentioning the “special” character of the Vietnamese people, the teacher put his hand in his pocket and pulled out a pile of cigarette butts that had been smoked. Before the whole class could be surprised, the teacher said: “That’s how simple the Vietnamese are, after smoking, they just put them in their pocket, that’s it, no need for a trash can”, then the teacher hummed the melodies of the song Co gai mo duong, Truong Son Dong Truong Son Tay, the whole class had the opportunity to discuss and whisper to each other that “the teacher must have been in the art troupe in the past” to sing so well. But we didn’t know that the teacher was teaching us - the young generation born after the war, little aware of the songs that had accompanied the years, followed the footsteps of countless soldiers, guerrillas and all our compatriots who together overcame many hardships to make the country what it is today. The poems he read and the songs he sang in each lesson gave us a different feeling compared to other regular lessons.

It seems that the teacher is trying to instill in us inspiration and love for those folk songs, proverbs, and folk songs imbued with love for the homeland and the nation. As a history lecturer but also having worked for the Youth Union, it is easy to understand how much my teacher loves literature and art. Learning more about his biography, I also learned that he is a famous Youth Union activist of the former General University. For many years, he was the organizer and leader of the Youth Union activities of the History Department, then the Youth Union movement of Hanoi General University and Hanoi City Youth Union. While participating in teaching and research, Mr. Ke also held the position of Secretary of the Youth Union of the History Department, Deputy Secretary and then Secretary of the Youth Union of Hanoi General University, Party Committee member of the Executive Committee of the Party Committee of Hanoi General University, and member of the Executive Committee of the Hanoi City Youth Union. In the myriad of difficulties of the country at that time, overcoming the great challenges, the movement of studying, researching and political and social activities of the youth of Hanoi University of Science still has not many memories of the Teacher because we only studied one semester of his subject, but those were really interesting experiences for the new generation of students who had just stepped into the university. A person's personality is not expressed in words, but it radiates from the inner self of that person. Indeed, my Teacher was simple and humble, in the midst of a competitive society, when money dominates both emotions and overwhelms human personality, I suddenly realized that in that society there was a personality that I thought was wonderful. It is not for nothing that I mentioned that, it was a very touching memory between our class and the Teacher on the occasion of Vietnamese Teachers' Day, November 20th. I was one of the class officers of class K57 Oriental Studies, and obviously, following the tradition that we always did in the lower grades, on this occasion, we often gathered together and planned to celebrate November 20th for our teachers, and had small gifts to express our gratitude for their contributions to the cause of educating people. That year, my class monitor bought each teacher a tie and a bouquet of flowers. We all waited until class to be able to give those small gifts to the teacher. We really did not think much about the value of the gift because it was not worth much compared to what the teachers had given us. But we were wrong, that very afternoon, a late Friday afternoon, after the last class, my class lingered, the class monitor represented the class to present flowers and gifts to the Teacher, after the best wishes for the Teacher and the applause in the happy and warm atmosphere of teachers and students, the teacher gently put down the bouquet of flowers and held the gift box containing the tie and said: "I don't have the habit of receiving gifts from students, I know the class is very thoughtful when buying gifts and flowers to give to me, but please let me accept the greeting card on the gift box and the bouquet of flowers, as for the gifts, I will return them to the class", my whole class was still bewildered when the teacher continued: "I don't know how much this gift box is worth, but I'm sure it was bought with the money you contributed, it is also the money that your parents are working hard to earn to send to you for your education, so let me return this gift to the class, and the class should give this gift of mine to the boy with the high GPA "This subject is the best, but if that person is a woman, let her give it to her boyfriend or the man she loves." My class was silent when listening to the Teacher's words, it was not simply a word but a great lesson emanating from the great personality of a teacher. Life is constantly flowing, but in my Teacher, I see the slowness and stillness of time, not too hasty, my Teacher every day and every hour brings to us students love for life, our homeland, our people. When mentioning history teachers, people often think of teachers who always exude the profoundness of a historical researcher from appearance to personality, but my Teacher is completely different, he is cheerful and has a soul that is always full of youthful enthusiasm, is that a soul that is always young, always devoted to research projects or simply lectures. As a teacher, he was also a student in the Humanities department like us, and his teachers were also extremely respectable teachers that he always respected and was grateful for. That is not why in every lecture on the subject of Vietnamese Cultural Foundations, when mentioning the late Professor Tran Quoc Vuong, he always said to us students the two words "My teacher" with a sincere and grateful heart. Yes, it is just that simple, teachers in any era are always respected by generations of students, and for Teacher Ke it is no exception, he taught us many valuable lessons, and this is one of those lessons, the lesson of "respecting teachers and valuing education" in the career of cultivating people. That spirit is passed down from generation to generation and he also hopes that we will continue to promote it in this era, when sometimes the teacher-student relationship becomes blurred and somewhat distorted, forgotten.

It can be said that entering the university lecture hall, for each student like us, is a dream, and when that dream is realized, it is the teachers who will give us wings, give us strength and always be by our side whenever we stumble or lose our way in life. The University of Social Sciences and Humanities has given us that, this school has brought us dedicated teachers, always with a love for youth, for the career of cultivating people, and more than that, in that environment we not only learn about general knowledge, but also learn about human ethics, about the beauty in each beloved folk song of our homeland and nation. It has been a year since the day the teacher passed away, but his image is still here in the lecture hall, in every branch, blade of grass and more than that, that image is always present in the hearts of many generations of lecturers and students of Humanities. The above are the lines of thoughts that come from the special affection that I - a student who was honored to become your student - feel, like a stick of incense, a fragrant flower branch respectfully offered to you.