Tran Quang Minh, 25 years old, graduated from Linguistics, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, with an average score of 3.91/4.
At the graduation ceremony in late July, Minh's speech about his journey from China to retake the university entrance exam in Vietnam, his feelings for his family and his late mother moved many people.
"I am proud of what I have achieved. I only regret that if I had studied earlier, my mother would have been able to attend."Minh said.
Tran Quang Minh. Photo: Character provided
Quang Minh is a former student of the Biology class at Thai Nguyen High School for the Gifted, Thai Nguyen province. He loves learning about Chinese culture and language, so since grade 10, he has been studying Chinese to prepare for studying abroad. After graduating from high school in 2018, Minh won a full scholarship to Chongqing University, pursuing a degree in Law.
In 2020, Minh returned to Vietnam for Tet but was stuck and had to study online due to the Covid-19 pandemic. His mother had cancer before, so he was always worried during the time he was away from home. This time when he returned home, he had time to take his mother on a trip and take pictures.
Minh said the pandemic disrupted his studies but also gave him more time to think about life. He decided not to return to China to continue his studies but to take the university entrance exam in Vietnam.
During his time in Chongqing, Minh met many friends from different regions and countries, so he often paid attention to each person's pronunciation and intonation. He was curious, learned about it, compared it with Vietnamese, Chinese... and found it interesting. Therefore, Minh enrolled in the Linguistics major at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities.
In 2021, Minh took the high school graduation exam, achieving more than 27.5 points in block D78 (Literature, English and Social Sciences), becoming the valedictorian of this major at the school.
Minh said that at first he felt pressure from his peers and finances, but he realized that he needed to be responsible for his choice and so he studied seriously. As soon as he started school, he set a goal of winning a scholarship so that he would not have to ask his family for money to pay for his tuition. Minh also tutored and translated Chinese to cover his living expenses.
Minh's secret to learning is to be proactive and not afraid to discuss topics he doesn't understand with his lecturers. Thanks to that, he won 7/8 scholarships to encourage learning from the school.
According to him, Linguistics aims to explain and understand the principles of language. Therefore, to gain more knowledge, in addition to reading a lot, he participates in scientific research, works on projects with teachers and follows graduate students to learn.
Quang Minh and his father (in white shirt) went on stage to receive a certificate of merit at the bachelor's degree award ceremony and honoring the valedictorian of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities on July 30. Photo: USSH Media
Since his second year, Minh, along with his teachers and seniors, have traveled to many regions to collect data and study the languages of ethnic groups. The materials he brought back, along with his diligence and seriousness, helped Minh win first prize twice in scientific research at the faculty and school levels, and second prize at the 2024 Science and Technology Award for Students organized by the Ministry of Education and Training.
In addition, Minh also has a number of articles published in the journal of the Institute of Linguistics and presented at international conferences.
Research experience also helped the young man from Thai Nguyen successfully complete his graduation thesis on the tone system in Hanoi dialect in young people's pronunciation, achieving a score of 10.
As the instructor, Dr. Ta Thanh Tan, a lecturer at Hanoi Pedagogical University, said that this topic arose during a field trip when the teacher and student went to Giang village (Ha Tinh) to study the Kha Phong language.
The thesis points out that the Vietnamese tone system in Hanoi has changed significantly over the past 100 years. For example, in the pronunciation of young people aged 18-30 today, the sharp tone is no longer a rising tone but has become a flat tone and then a rising tone. Or the asking tone no longer goes down and then goes up but only goes down gradually.
"Solid theory, standard research design, modern research techniques are the special points in Minh's thesis.", Dr. Tan commented. In addition, he was impressed with his students' dynamism and versatility.
Quang Minh (in black shirt) during a field research trip in Quang Tri on August 6. Photo: Provided by the character
