This page commemorates the 80th anniversary of the school's tradition and 30 years of development.University of Social Sciences and Humanities
The cultural performance welcomed the delegates from Vietnam and abroad.
Distinguished guests, esteemed teachers, and fellow students!
As the Secretary of the competition, based on the comments of the two judging panels, drafted by Dr. Le Thi Thanh Tam and Dr. Vu Lan Huong, I would like to offer a few concluding remarks on this year's two writing competitions.
Although this is the third time I've had the honor of standing here doing this job, I still feel extremely nervous. Because this year's competition – while continuing to retain the unique charm of previous seasons – has also managed to create its own distinct flavor thanks to works that are diverse in style, sophisticated in writing, insightful in thought, and yet undeniably charming and heartfelt.
Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Thien Nam - Head of the Department of Vietnamese Studies and Vietnamese Language, stated: "The competition moved me deeply because of the students' love for the Vietnamese language. Writing is one of the four most difficult skills for everyone, even native speakers. Through this competition, the students will have the opportunity to practice and improve their writing skills."
First, let me say a few words about the Vietnamese works of our foreign students. Regarding the Vietnamese essays submitted by foreign students to the competition...Letter from Vietnam 2019Compared to last year, although there were fewer entries this year (18 compared to 25 last year), the number of participating students was higher (30), including 4 group projects. The 30 authors came from 7 different countries: China, North Korea, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Germany, and Poland.
Dr. Dao Minh Quang - Chairman of the Dao Minh Quang Foundation, the sponsor of this year's competition - stated: "The Foundation hopes to support young people - those who are creative, innovative, and willing to accept challenges in order to find the value and meaning of life."
In their articles, the students recorded what they saw and heard about daily life in Vietnam. They shared the difficulties and uncertainties they faced when they first arrived in Vietnam to learn Vietnamese, how they adapted to their new life, and their rich experiences: from everyday traffic jams to getting lost in a winding alley in Hanoi; from the delight of enjoying the cuisine of the Old Quarter to the excitement of attending a rural festival; from the anxiety about the alarming level of environmental pollution to the touching and surprising kindness of the Vietnamese people – people who, with just a smile, overcome all invisible barriers between themselves and others.
Vice Rector Hoang Anh Tuan expressed his gratitude for the support of the Dao Minh Quang Foundation for the activities of the University and the Faculty. He also called the Faculty a "diplomatic ambassador" and "cultural ambassador" of the country for contributing to spreading the Vietnamese language and culture to foreigners through engaging competitions such as the VSL Pen Contest and the Vietnamese Letter Contest.
What is truly remarkable is that some articles have gone beyond simply describing everyday life, revealing 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 with her Vietnamese boyfriend's family with great enjoyment, we will surely be surprised to learn that a Polish man, after realizing his Vietnamese identity, did not hesitate to leave the ancient and magnificent Europe and return to his ancestral homeland to live a life as a Vietnamese person, both physically and spiritually.
Dr. Dao Minh Quang surprised the guests by performing several songs about his homeland accompanied by acoustic guitar.
Our emotions will surely reach a climax when we hear about the extraordinary journey of Apichit Mingwongtham, a visually impaired young man from Thailand, in learning Vietnamese. Perhaps due to 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 eyesight, the darkness of his destiny, and conquer the Vietnamese language, becoming a Vietnamese teacher for Thais. To some extent, in Buddhist terms, through the Vietnamese language, Apichit Mingwongtham has achieved self-enlightenment and self-clarification, and is silently contributing to mutual understanding between Vietnam and Thailand. The author confessed: “In short, I and Vietnam are bound together by a deep love for the Vietnamese language. Vietnamese is a beautiful language with melodious tones and proverbs that remain relevant and widely used in daily life. This is one of the reasons why I am so captivated by the Vietnamese language.” How wonderful it is that today, with the help of the young teacher Cao Thi Minh Tam, this enlightened individual has come from Saigon to share this joy with us. Please give a big round of applause to congratulate Apichit Mingwongtham and the international students for their great efforts!
Apichit Mingwongtham, a Vietnamese language teacher from Thailand, was awarded the First Prize in the 2019 Vietnam Letter Writing Contest and the Reader's Favorite Award for his emotionally rich essay about his extraordinary journey in mastering the Vietnamese language.
Distinguished guests, esteemed teachers, and fellow students!
Now it's time to turn our attention to the VSL Writing Contest for Vietnamese students. This year, the organizing committee received 43 entries from 43 students across 13 faculties: the Faculty of Vietnamese Studies and Vietnamese Language, the Faculty of Literature, the Faculty of International Studies, the Faculty of Oriental Studies, the Faculty of History, the Faculty of Sociology, the Academy of Journalism and Communication, the Faculty of Philosophy, etc. The challenging theme was: "Who am I in this world?",The competition organizers didn't dare expect writings from philosophers. They were fresh, energetic students; surely their ideas would still retain a hint of their student-like nature?
Awarding the First Prize of the VSL Writing Contest and the First Prize of the Vietnam Letter Contest 2019.
But, the feeling of pleasant surprise was what we experienced from the moment the competition was launched, from the first entries to the last. All 43 entries conveyed sincere reflections on themselves and life. Sometimes they wrote vaguely, but that vagueness was so honest. We need not only pages sparkling with poetic flair and skillful language, but above all, pages that are bright and clear. There, the soul finds a way to speak and manifest itself naturally in language. We are in this year's harvest field, where each rice stalk has its own unique scent, its own unique haunting. Many lines read smoothly, simply, and directly into the heart like folk poems.
But what truly sets this apart from previous seasons is the intensity of the writing. Congratulations to those who weren't afraid of the usual boundaries and conventions of the judging panel, the abstract rules of university writing competitions, and the norms of "academic ideas," and were willing to express themselves with all their sharpness and incisiveness. We scrutinized many rough drafts, like short stories or fierce memoirs of mistakes and remorse: should we award prizes or not? In the end, we chose to award prizes in a way that was as sharp and incisive as the contestants themselves, so they would understand that we and they, all of us, deserve to meet in this seemingly small competition.
The competition attracted the attention of many media outlets.
Can you believe this is the writing of young people still sitting in university classrooms?
“I see myself as a young, unripe winter cherry tree hastily donning an overly mature, aged bark, while its trunk is still warm and pungent with sap! Perhaps it's because my ego is too big, always wanting to proudly boast to others that I've successfully 'grown up.' My desire to assert myself never ceases; it's so intense and overwhelming that sometimes even I don't understand myself. At 19, I was as reckless as a runaway warhorse, frantically throwing myself into part-time jobs that consumed a lot of time just to earn a few pennies. Finally, after all those months, I realized that what I gained the most was probably nothing other than life lessons – things I had vaguely heard about elsewhere, but no one had ever taught me about them.”(Excerpt from an article by Nguyen Huu Trung, Department of Oriental Studies)
The theme of the competition, "Who Am I in This World?", is actually an open question, and it's never closed, even after the competition ends. We want to share this timeless theme with you, believing that all of us can rewrite and continue writing the pages of our lives. VSL will become a memory, and today's awards will become a memory. But we have written, hoped, met, and read each other's work—that is more precious than any honor. Congratulations to all 43 students who have made this competition so valuable. We thank them, before thanking the 8 most impressive writers, the 8 writers who have reached far to connect us with their enduring thoughts.
Distinguished guests, esteemed teachers, and fellow students!
We are not the ones who bring the award. It is you who have made us feel deservedly rewarded, as a place where we can open our hearts and hope.
Congratulations to the competition, congratulations to all of you, and congratulations to us all on a season of exams, a season of love, a season of reflection and sharing.
Results of the Vietnam Letter Contest 2019
Results of the VSL Writing Contest
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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