Song about the Teacher

This year (1996), my teacher, Professor Nguyen Tai Can, turns seventy years old. I want to write a few lines as a student's gratitude to him. But it feels so difficult!

My teacher was well-educated and talented, but his small paper could only express a few ideas. Moreover, he was very heroic, Confucianism "permeated deep into his bones" (Professor Phan Ngoc's words), he did not want others to talk about him and he himself did not want to talk about the word "I".

When I was in high school, one of my teachers at that time - Professor Vu Ngoc Khanh - once criticized me for not knowing how to present on the board and said: "I have a friend named Nguyen Tai Can, a talented person, with beautiful handwriting, writing on the board that no one can compare to. If you could learn from him, you would learn a lot". Another time, Mr. Dang Van Dai, who taught me in secondary school, told my father: "Nguyen Tai Can just passed the Associate Doctorate (later called Associate Doctorate) in the Soviet Union with Nguyen Canh Toan".

My father was happy and explained to me: "Uncle Can was the head of my father's old Tu Thu department at the Department of Education of Inter-zone 4 the other day, he is a very good person."

Then a few years later I entered the Faculty of Literature, Hanoi University of Science. At the end of the summer of my second year (1962), along the road lined with royal poinciana trees in the Faculty of Literature dormitory in Lang village, I saw a man wearing a fedora, sunglasses, and a suit leading a motorbike into the faculty.

The late Professor, People's Teacher Nguyen Tai Can was one of the country's leading experts in Linguistics. He made great contributions to the establishment of the Linguistics major at Hanoi National University/Photo: Bui Tuan

The students whispered to each other: “That’s Mr. Nguyen Tai Can!” My memory awakened, and with my youthful curiosity, I approached him, but didn’t learn anything more.

A few days later, I was extremely surprised to see him in a very simple outfit sitting smoking tobacco at a tea shop next to the school gate, his demeanor very relaxed, and his upperclassmen gathered around him, laughing and talking happily with him... Then, after that, I had the chance, for the past 35 years, to live and work with him, he guided many generations, including me, to grow up with Vietnamese Linguistics.

The scientific personality of Professor Nguyen Tai Can can be summarized in 8 words: "Profound - Wise - Talented - Strict”. Each word only needs to be given an example. By successfully describing Vietnamese noun phrases, going so far as to consider “word class” as the center, he reset the entire system of describing Vietnamese grammatical structures (1960). By placing the correct linguistic position of “sound one"In our language, he affirmed the comprehensive influence of this "isolated" characteristic on Vietnamese (1960). Those thoughts are very profound, and today have become the basic contents of scientific discussions about Vietnamese.

As a wise man, he thoroughly understood Linguistics, Sino-Nom, historical linguistics, and the fields of Vietnamese linguistics. The appearance of his work was very broad and each field was very profound. He understood the past and the present, quickly grasped the problems of modern linguistics while being able to discuss and propose very unique ideas about ancient linguistics.

Try Prof. Dr. People's Teacher Nguyen Tai Can and Prof. Dr. People's Teacher Dinh Van Duc

Mr. Can is also a talented person, he is rich in poetry, writes poems very quickly and well, especially Chinese poems. In his poetry collection, he is certainly considered one of the last Chinese poets of this century. In the lecture hall of the Faculty of Vietnamese Studies at the University of Paris 7 (France), there is a pair of Nom parallel sentences on faded red paper, the handwriting is very beautiful, advising students to study hard. That is the parallel sentence given by Professor Nguyen Tai Can to the faculty, the first time I saw it, I suddenly remembered an old poem by Yen Lan:

“My teacher when he first came,

An old bookcase, brown curtain

Pair of dragon and butterfly paper couplets

"Long sips along the ink strokes".

Professor Vu Duc Nghieu, in my department, told me that in the Southeast Asia department, Cornell University in the United States, there is also another Nom parallel sentence of the teacher with the content of advice to students that he gave when he came there to lecture.

Speaking of his talent, we must also mention a teacher with an extremely good teaching method. He conveyed extremely abstract things to his students in a very concrete, vivid way of speaking, sometimes mixed with witty, folk colors, which after learning, can never be forgotten.

There are many stories about the teacher's strictness in science. When I was around him, he scolded me a lot and gave me sincere advice. A funny story: once a student was writing a thesis with him, but because he did not do as he was told, he ran away. Not long after, when he was worried about his graduation exam, the student had to come see him. He brought tea and medicine to thank him. The teacher accepted him right away, but then forced the student to stay at his house, cook, eat, and write until he finished his thesis.

Late Professor, People's Teacher Nguyen Tai Can at his 80th birthday celebration (2005)

From left to right: Professor, People's Teacher Hoang Trong Phien, Associate Professor, Doctor of Science Do Van Khang, late Professor, People's Teacher Nguyen Tai Can, late Professor, Meritorious Professor Nguyen Cao Dam

There are many anecdotes about him, but above all is his heart in building the Vietnamese Linguistics industry. Throughout his life, he only focused on one goal: training and building academia, building a team, building in a formal, modern direction but not far from the reality of Vietnam. He was very sad about the professional work he had not done. Professor Hoang Trong Phien said: "Professor Nguyen Tai Can breathed new life into our industry, trained many students for our country's linguistics, he deserves the noble titles of science".

My teacher lived a simple life, simple to the point of being frugal, although he lacked nothing. At home as well as when traveling abroad, he always maintained a unique style that he often said was that of a “Nghe An native”.

On the occasion of my teacher's 70th birthday, far away from home, I remembered him and on a cold, snowy winter night I wrote some clumsy ancient verses to send to him in his hometown:

“Time flies, my teacher is seventy years old.

Miles of years of joy and sadness,

A life of teaching a pure mind

Three steps of the world, the heart is not calm.

Students generation after generation respect,

Friends near and far are welcome.

Tea pouring, sad story of the year²

Binh Dan's heart is not tarnished”.

(Québec, 1995)

Since his retirement, he has written and published three books. All of them are the reflections of a lifetime, and the titles are difficult to read:Historical phonetics of Vietnamese,Chinese literature of Ly - Tran,… Now the teacher is almost finished writing the book.Ancient Chinese - Vietnamese, and also intended to continue writing about Chinese in regional countries, making a Vietnamese Etymological Dictionary (finished up to the rhyme C). It was started from a literary suggestion by scholar Hoang Xuan Han more than ten years ago that it was possible to rely on the taboo words in the text of the Tale of Kieu to learn about the origin of the original Kieu through its developments. My teacher struggled, worked hard and decided to tackle a problem that no one had done until now: using the method of Historical Linguistics to study the text. He started with the Kieu Duy Minh Thi version (1872). A massive documentary study was published. Then came a large book researching the 19th-century Kieu Nom texts. By continuing to study the taboo words in the story, he boldly became the first person to make a new proposal about the time Nguyen Du composed the Tale of Kieu when the poet was just over thirty years old (1787 - 1790). His recent groundbreaking articles have stirred up public opinion in the field of classical studies with new, bold ideas that have a scientific basis.

When you were 70 years old, I respectfully wrote you some verses from afar. Now you are 80 (2006), also from afar, I would like to send you some more verses:

                                    Just then my teacher was eighty,

The mind has no rest day by day.

Ten years and six books to become famous,

A thousand pages is no joke.

He sets a good example for young people.

The student studied the teacher until he was exhausted,

Teacher is healthy, teacher is happy, teacher is so happy,

Friends and disciples everywhere.

                                                                        Seoul, 5.2005

After writing it in Seoul, I sent it to him on his birthday. A few days later I received a very touching letter from him, along with his reply:

“Eighty is not even a hundred,

Wishing you many more years to come.

Still trying Yoga: according to Taoism,

Always relax: meditate.

Still like Trang Tu: happy butterfly life,

Still learning Ngu Cong: Pulling out the silkworm's intestines

Live in, die in fate,

That is the response to thank the kind-hearted guest"

                                                              Moscow,6 2005

My teacher's continued academic success was due to his very modern and correct way of thinking. He had a firm grasp of linguistic theoretical sources in different historical contexts. Boldly but carefully, he successfully applied linguistic theories to native materials, both modern and historical, opening up very new ideas.

On this occasion I remember two stories about him.

Professor Keith Taylor is a famous Vietnamese scholar in the US, an expert in Literature and History of the Ly - Tran period. He asked to study with the teacher in a Nom script course. After the course, he recounted that he was very surprised to meet a Vietnamese scholar who was knowledgeable, friendly but very strict, with a very unique teaching method, very linguistic but highly practical, with obvious effectiveness. He learned nearly 500 of the most common Nom characters from the teacher and even knew how to use them to read texts, after only a short time of diligent study.

Another time, a professor at Hanoi Pedagogical University who taught Vietnamese Literature introduced an American student to meet him to learn about Vietnamese folk song language. This student was good at Vietnamese, and he thought the teacher would let him listen to some lectures and illustrations, take notes, and bring them home. Unexpectedly, the teacher did not do that. The teacher tested his Vietnamese, talked about the linguistic principles of folk songs, introduced some folk song writing techniques, then gave him homework to practice writing folk songs, and then after a week he brought them back to the teacher for correction. At first it was very difficult, but he kept practicing, and then he was able to do it. The teacher praised and corrected him, until he understood the basics through practice, then he explained the theory. The teacher said that once the student practiced writing a few sentences:

                                                “I have been in Hanoi for a long time,

Know Hoan Kiem Lake, know Chuong Duong Bridge,

Visit the thirty-six streets,

It feels like meeting my second homeland again."

The teacher said that although it was not good, it was in accordance with the law, so it was good and very respectable.

Not long ago, there was good news. This year (2000) the State considered awarding the Ho Chi Minh Science Prize, Phase II, to outstanding scientific works of our country. Cluster of works: CVietnamese Grammar and History Issuesby Professor Nguyen Tai Can is one of the very few scientific works in the Language and Literature sector that passed four strict voting rounds of the country's scientific community before being submitted to the State. The teacher was abroad, I sent an email to inform him. A few days later, I received his letter. He was happy because his colleagues trusted him, but immediately told me that he had to focus on his work before thinking about being praised. Two years ago, the teacher was awarded the First Class Labor Medal by the State, at that time he was away from home, when he returned, he emotionally told his brothers in the Party cell: "I have followed the Party for more than 50 years, I always have to try to be an honest and consistent Communist".

Knowing that he was such a serious and profound researcher, in 1985 when Professor Nguyen Dong Chi - Deputy Director of the Institute of Han Nom passed away, Professor Nguyen Khanh Toan intended to invite him to become the Director of the Institute, but he considered and refused. At the same time, he introduced a student to join the Institute's leadership. He confided to me: “I don’t dare to criticize the good intentions of my superiors, but after thinking it over, I can’t accept it, Duc. Experience shows that I am passionate about science and professionalizing activities. When I accept a job in scientific management, I immediately think about proposing new ideas, finding ways to make international contacts to find information, improve working methods and standardize activities. But doing so in our country is not good because it will affect the personnel and interests of this person and that person, and then cause trouble. We are inherently perfectionists, so we are often afraid of change. If we try to innovate, it will easily cause conflicts and sometimes even bring trouble, so I think that’s okay, let’s just try to do science well according to our strengths. From now until the end of my life, God will give me as much life as I can, so I will try to follow that direction, it will be more peaceful and more reasonable.” Those were the heartfelt words he confided right before the Doi Moi.

Spring 2009. After Tet, Le Quang Thiem and I visited the teacher and said goodbye to him so he could go to Russia with his family. The teacher and I talked to each other all day, drank tea and talked about many things. The teacher was happy. At the end of the day, the teacher asked us to stay for dinner, but Thiem and I asked to leave so the teacher could rest. The teacher saw us off to the yard. Spring had come, and the teacher's yard had a peach tree that was blooming beautifully. The teacher and I stood under the tree, not knowing what premonition we had, for the first time, the teacher suddenly hugged each of us and kissed us very intimately. We were very moved. We also did not expect that it would be the last time the teacher hugged us before he left forever.

This year is the first anniversary of my teacher's death, I brought a bottle of corn wine from Moc Chau to burn incense to pay respect to my teacher. We stood under the shade of the peach tree from last year. The peach tree was in full bloom again. On the twenty-third day of the first lunar month, after Tet, I stood under the tree, my heart filled with nostalgia for my teacher, leaning on a verse by Vu Dinh Lien:

This year the peach blossoms again,

Not seeing the old scholar,

The old people

Where is the soul now?

My teacher has gone far away, but his spirit is still here now, still beside us, the students who are not very good or smart, but thanks to his guidance and care for half a century, we have achieved some maturity.

Quebec, 1995- Hanoi 2012