Performance to welcome delegates of Vietnamese and foreign students
Dear delegates, teachers and students!
As the Secretary of the contest, based on the comments of the two Jury Boards written by Dr. Le Thi Thanh Tam and Dr. Vu Lan Huong, I would like to summarize the two writing contests this year.
Although today is the third time I have had the honor of standing here doing this job, I still feel very nervous. Because this year's competition - while continuing to maintain the unique flavor of past seasons, it has also created its own flavor thanks to works that are diverse in style, sophisticated in writing, sharp in thought, and have a charming and passionate tone.
Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Thien Nam - Head of the Department of Vietnamese Studies and Vietnamese Language said: The contest made me touched by the students' love for Vietnamese. Also because writing is one of the four most difficult skills for everyone, even for native speakers. Through the contest, students will have the opportunity to practice and improve their writing skills.
First of all, let me say a few words about the Vietnamese works of foreign students. About the Vietnamese articles of foreign students participating in the contestVietnam Letter 2019, compared to last year, although this year the number of entries is less (18 entries while last year there were 25 entries), the number of participating students is more (30 students), of which 4 entries are group work products. The 30 authors participating in the contest come from 7 different countries: China, North Korea, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Germany, Poland.
Dr. Dao Minh Quang - Chairman of Dao Minh Quang Foundation is the sponsor of this year's competition. He said: The Foundation wishes to support young people - creative people, who dare to innovate, dare to accept challenges to find the value of life as well as the meaning of their lives.
In their articles, they recorded what they saw and heard about daily life in Vietnam. They told us about the difficulties and confusion in the early days of coming to Vietnam to learn Vietnamese and how they adapted to their new life, along with their rich experiences: from the daily traffic jams to the time they suddenly got lost in a winding alley in Hanoi; from the joy of enjoying the cuisine of the Old Quarter to the excitement of attending a festival in the countryside; from the feeling of anxiety about the alarming level of environmental pollution to the touching and surprising feelings about the kindness of the Vietnamese people - who with just a smile can overcome all invisible barriers with the other person.
Vice Principal Hoang Anh Tuan expressed his gratitude for the support of Dao Minh Quang Fund for the activities of the School and the Faculty. He also called the Faculty a "diplomatic envoy" and "cultural ambassador" of the country when contributing to spreading Vietnamese language and culture to foreigners through attractive competitions such as VSL Pen and Vietnam Letter.
What is extremely valuable is that some articles have not only stopped at describing ordinary life, but also revealed efforts to explore and understand Vietnamese society and people. If we follow Leonie Elisha's journey of learning Vietnamese and experiencing Vietnamese culture to easily integrate into her Vietnamese boyfriend's family with interest, we will surely be surprised to know that there is a Polish guy who, after realizing his Vietnamese identity, did not hesitate to leave ancient and splendid Europe to return to his homeland, to live a Vietnamese life, like a Vietnamese, in both body and soul.
Dr. Dao Minh Quang surprised the guests by performing some songs about his homeland on an acoustic guitar.
And our emotions will surely be pushed to a climax when we hear about the extraordinary journey of learning Vietnamese of the blind young man Apichit Mingwongtham from Thailand. Perhaps because of some predestined fate, he used the light of his spirit, more precisely, the light of faith, passion and courage to overcome the darkness of his eyes, the darkness of his fate, conquer Vietnamese, and become a Vietnamese teacher for Thai people. To some extent, speaking in Buddhist terms, through Vietnamese, Apichit Mingwongtham has self-enlightened, self-illuminated himself, and is silently contributing to the mutual understanding of the two countries of Vietnam and Thailand. The author confided: “In short, Vietnam and I are bound by the love of the Vietnamese language. Vietnamese is a beautiful language with its melodious and up-and-down tones, its proverbs and idioms that are still true today and are still widely used in daily life. This is also one of the reasons why I am crazy about Vietnamese.” How happy it is that today, with the help of the young teacher Cao Thi Minh Tam, that enlightened person has come from Saigon to share his joy with us. Please give a big round of applause to congratulate Apichit Mingwongtham and the international students for their great efforts!
Vietnamese teacher Apichit Mingwongtham (Thailand) was awarded the 2019 Vietnam Letter First Prize and the Readers' Favorite Prize for his emotional article about his extraordinary journey to conquer the Vietnamese language.
Dear delegates, Dear teachers, Dear students!
Now it is time to turn our attention to the VSL Pen Contest for Vietnamese students. This year, the Organizing Committee received 43 entries from 43 students from 13 faculties in the University: Faculty of Vietnamese Studies and Vietnamese Language, Faculty of Literature, Faculty of International Studies, Faculty of Oriental Studies, Faculty of History, Faculty of Sociology, Academy of Journalism and Communication, Faculty of Philosophy, etc. With the difficult topic: "Who am I in this world?",The organizers of the contest did not dare to expect the writings of philosophers. They were young, passionate students, surely they would have ideas that still had the color of students?
Awarding the First Prize of VSL Pen Contest and First Prize of Vietnam Letter 2019
However, the feeling of surprise and excitement was the feeling we had from the time the contest was launched, from the time we received the first entries to the last. All 43 entries brought sincere concerns about themselves and life. Sometimes they wrote vaguely, but that vagueness was so honest. We not only need pages that sparkle with poetry and are skillful in language, but first of all, we need pages that are clear. There, the soul finds a way to speak up and manifest itself in language naturally. We are in the harvest field this year, where each ear of rice has its own fragrance, its own obsession. Many sentences read smoothly, simply and go straight to the heart like folk poems.
But what is most different, compared to previous seasons, is the fierceness in the writings. Congratulations to those who were not afraid of all the boundaries, the "usual" rules of the judges, the abstract rules of university writing competitions, the standards in "school ideas" to be ready to express themselves with all the thorns and sharpness. We have raised and put down many rough articles like a short story, a fierce diary about mistakes and regrets: should or should not award prizes. In the end, we chose to award prizes in a thorny and sharp way like what the contestants brought, so that they understand that we and they, all of us, deserve to meet each other in this seemingly small contest.
The contest attracted the attention of many press agencies.
Can you believe this is the literature of young people still sitting in the lecture halls:
“I see myself as a “young neem tree” that quickly puts on an old, somewhat excessive shell of “maturity”, when the tree trunk is still warm and pungent with the smell of resin! Perhaps it is because my ego is too big, when I always want to proudly pat my chest to tell others that I have “grown up” very successfully. The desire to assert myself in me has never stopped, it is so boiling and terrible that sometimes I don’t even understand myself. At the age of 19, I was “enthusiastic” like a broken-bridle warhorse, madly throwing myself into extra jobs that cost a lot of time just to earn a few pennies. Finally, after all those months, I realized that what I bought the most was probably nothing other than life lessons - things that I had vaguely heard about out there but no one had taught me about them." (excerpt from an article by Nguyen Huu Trung, Faculty of Oriental Studies),
The theme of the contest “Who am I in this world?” is actually an open question and it will never be closed, even when this contest ends. We want to share with you an eternal theme with the belief that all of us can rewrite and continue writing the pages of our life. VSL will become a memory, today’s awards will become memories. But we have written, hoped, met and read each other, that is more precious than any honor. Yes, congratulations to all 43 students who have made this contest valuable. We thank them, before thanking the 8 most impressive writers, the 8 writers who have reached out to connect us with their eternal thoughts.
Dear delegates, Dear teachers, Dear students!
We are not the ones who bring awards. You are the ones who make us feel worthy of being a place of greeting and hope.
Congratulations to the contest, congratulations to you, and congratulations to us on a contest season, a season of love, a season of thoughts and messages.
Results of the 2019 Vietnam Letter Contest
VSL Pen Contest Results
http://www.ussh.vnu.edu.vn/d6/vi-VN/news/Viet-Nam-trong-mat-em-1-702-18853
http://www.ussh.vnu.edu.vn/d6/vi-VN/news/Viet-Nam-trong-toi-1-702-18846
http://www.ussh.vnu.edu.vn/d6/vi-VN/news/Tieng-Viet-ngon-ngu-dinh-menh-cua-doi-toi-1-702-18844
Author:Dr. Dang Hoang Giang, Dr. Le Thi Thanh Tam
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