Some memories about Professor Cao Xuan Hao

I entered Hanoi University in 1964, but before the Faculty of Literature was evacuated to Trang Duong - Dai Tu - Bac Thai in 1965, to be honest, I did not know who Cao Xuan Hao was. When I was in the evacuation area, with a lot of free time, people told me all kinds of stories, then I found out that in the Faculty of Literature there was a teacher named Ngoc (Phan Ngoc), a teacher named Hao Ngon Ngu, who was very good, but was not taught anything about "Nhan Van Nhan Veo", and was only responsible for translating foreign books into Vietnamese...

Associate Professor Cao Xuan Hao (1930-2007) - the greatest phonetician in Vietnam

The first time I knew Mr. Hao was like this. One day, it seemed to be a socialist labor Sunday, my class went to carry firewood or rice or something. I was walking on the village road with some seniors in the class, when suddenly I heard them whispering, roughly speaking in today's language, that was Mr. Hao. Seeing a female student, he put down his shoulder pole and pretended to rest, he was embarrassed with us girls. I looked out and saw a man who clearly looked like a scholar fanning himself nearby, with a slender figure, a gentle face, in short, very handsome (at that time Mr. Hao was only 35 years old). I looked at him like that, but I didn't dare to get to know him, back then we looked up to teachers with great respect, one thing and two things, but kept our distance, only when we studied a subject did we know that teacher. Moreover, it was Mr. Hao, a naive person like me knew, let alone Nhân văn Giai phẩm, oh my, I was so scared.

The second time I saw Mr. Hao was at a night of the Faculty of Literature's cultural festival. That night, the stage was set up close to the mountain, the kerosene lights were dim, and it was packed with people, both students from several classes and local residents. The program included both singing, dancing, and musicals. Halfway through, I suddenly heard Mr. Hao's guitar solo introduced, and then I saw him walk up, sitting on a chair, holding his guitar, looking like a real artist, very graceful (he used to be a composer at the Military Region 4 Cultural Group). He played a classical piece of music specifically for the guitar. At that time, we liked the rush of music.I am so sorryor holyOh, my dear flower!, but the teacher's music was very slow but profound, the microphone was slow and quiet, the guitar played to a deaf ear, I looked around and didn't see anyone with a dreamy face or eyes closed, absorbed in the teacher's melodious music. I only saw people talking to themselves. After the song ended, teacher Hao went down, clapping his hands slowly.

The third time, around 1967, I was in my third year, had grown up a lot, and was still evacuated to Dai Tu. I don't remember which of my seniors told me that Mr. Hao had some very good translations of novels, and Thang liked to read them so he brought them to Mr. Hao's house. It was the first time I sat close, face to face, talking to Mr. Hao, in a small room with thatched walls and earthen walls, and I didn't understand why he lived alone. I remember Mr. Hao said he still had a translation.Crime and PunishmentDostoevsky's, you can lend it to me, but only for 3 days and I'm not allowed to pass it on to anyone else (probably because he's afraid of losing it). Of course, I obeyed immediately, happily and secretly carrying a thick handwritten manuscript back to my room. Mr. Hao's handwriting was extremely beautiful, slightly tilted, even, the accents were clearly in the right place, not like mine: when writing the word "Thang", the sharp accent was removed all the way to the letter "g" at the end, the letter "a" had a flat stomach just like the letter "e", no different from my stomach, the one who wrote it, feeling hungry all day long, oh my, hungry all the time during the four or five years of student evacuation... I read all night long, I still remember it was a moonlit night, leaning the book against the window, reading with a syringe oil lamp (a special lamp for students at that time, made from an ink bottle, using a syringe with cotton inserted into it as a wick, this lamp burned brightly and used little oil). The next day I pretended to be sick and stayed home to continue reading. I read so passionately that I didn't even stop to eat that I stayed in the kitchen. I thought to myself, why is this Mr. Dot so talented? Mr. Tolstoy is not as talented as him, but Mr. Hao is also very talented, his translation is so good.

That afternoon I brought the books to return to Mr. Hao, he was very surprised because it had only been two days. He looked at me, asked me a few questions, and seemed to have obvious feelings for me. I took the opportunity to ask him if he had any translated books about the language or any of his writings that he could lend me. He said he had some documents, but he would prepare them first and come back in a few days to get them.

He is one of the researchers who shaped the face of Vietnamese linguistics.

A few days later, I visited the teacher's house, this time I stayed longer. I asked him about his experience in self-studying Russian (at that time I was studying French, but I wanted to learn Russian because I had studied it in high school). What I remember most is the part where the teacher pinned to the wall or hung up some cards with difficult Russian words or sentences written on them around his bed. Teacher Hao said that I had to do it like this, so that I could look at them every now and then, so that I could memorize them, otherwise I would forget them right away. So when I got home, I immediately imitated him in learning French, it was very effective, and later I also applied it to learning English, which was very effective.

Mr. Hao gave me three documents, including a translation of the famous book by Mr. Stephen Ullmann.Principles of Semantics, a topic of the teacher on "non-linear phonology" and a lesson on words that imitate sounds in Vietnamese. I took it home to read and was fascinated, many things were not similar to what the teacher taught, but I did not know how to have my own copy. I came up with a plan: flirt with the "Laotian King" (a Laotian student, real name is Udom Sitralôn, Vietnamese name is Le Hai Hoang) who also studied Language in my class, and invited him to each copy half. Hoang Lao was curious and liked new things. He was also an international student so he had pen and paper ready (at that time, I had only 16 dong in scholarship money each month, and I had to pay 15 dong for food, so the general principle was "increase and ask for a reduction" (some people even added "develop and take the wrong thing"). Luckily, Hoang Lao happily accepted. The two of us sat next to each other and competed to copy (of course, using Hoang Lao's pen and paper), it took several sessions to finish because the three documents were several hundred pages long, and I still have them to this day.

It was only after I graduated that Mr. Hao knew about this. One time, he praised me at the Institute of Linguistics that Thang had hand-copied my entire translated book. He also told some Soviet language experts who knew me. That's what everyone told me. At that time, I was young, and being praised by a superman like Mr. Hao, I felt so happy for days...

Let's talk about the "non-linear phonology" topic book that Mr. Hao lent us. This is the preliminary draft of the book that he later translated and published in France. Hoang Lao and I read and copied it, we were both fascinated. The theory was so good, so new, Mr. Hao's writing was beyond wonderful.

A few months later, we had to do our graduation thesis. Hoang Lao did it on Lao phonetics, and I did it on Tay phonetics in Trang Dinh district, Bac Kan. Without telling each other, Hoang Lao and I brought the passages from Mr. Hao's book, "tuong" into the section.Theoretical basis. I submitted my thesis to Professor Thuat (Professor Doan Thien Thuat), excited that this time he would definitely praise me profusely. Unexpectedly, he called me, asked me to rewrite it, and showed me the thesis of Thu (Dinh Le Thu, a Southern girl famous for being smart and good at studying in class) also written about Tay language, to show me as an example. Although I was upset, of course I had to listen to Professor Thuat, when I read it, I was surprised that Thu wrote so simply and easily to understand, without any theory of "linear/non-linear phonology", but the thesis was still as good as usual. So I followed Thu's way to revise my thesis, and when I defended it, I received a lot of compliments...

September 2011