B7 Bis: The cozy school in my life

In 1965, I was selected by the government to be an international student sent to Vietnam to study Vietnamese. There were over 30 Chinese students in the 65th class, all boys, very suitable for the wartime circumstances of Vietnam.

Author: Professor Chuc Nguong Tu is a distinguished professor at Li Giang Academy - Guangxi Normal University (China).

During 1965-1967, the Vietnam War was in a rapidly escalating phase. We took the international train to Hanoi, and had to get off the train to avoid planes as soon as we left Dong Dang station. On the way, we could still see anti-aircraft artillery and anti-aircraft missile positions. Although the US had not yet dared to touch Hanoi, the heart of Vietnam, the capital was filled with an atmosphere of readiness to fight. The bodies of passenger cars were painted in camouflage, trucks were covered with camouflage, on the rooftops of high-rise buildings there were anti-aircraft gun emplacements, and on the sidewalks of the streets there were many personal bomb shelters. I was very impressed with that type of shelter and considered it a clever creation of a simple culture: the shelter was made of a prefabricated cement pipe buried in the ground, about 1 meter deep and had a lid, just wide enough for a person to squat. When the alarm went off, passersby could just jump in and close the lid. Simple but very practical.

The Vietnamese side arranged for us to study at Hanoi University, so B7 Bis became our place to live and study. At that time, the white building of the Polytechnic University had not been built yet, so B7 Bis was naturally a rather “impressive” house in the Polytechnic University campus. The house had four floors in total, the first floor was the office and dining room, the fourth floor was the classrooms, the second and third floors were the dormitories, each room had three students living together. On the west side in front of the house, there was a bomb shelter for international students.

Having just arrived in a strange land and people, not knowing the language, and at war, we were all bewildered and uneasy. However, with the very thoughtful and enthusiastic care and help of the Vietnamese Department, after a very short time, we were able to integrate into our Vietnamese friends, and our living and studying were all in order.

During my time studying at B7 Bis, the deepest impression was still the war. We witnessed war crimes with our own eyes: standing on this side of the Red River, looking at the fire at the Gia Lam oil depot caused by a rocket attack, it seemed as if an American plane had dropped a small atomic bomb; going to Phu Xa village in the northwest of the city, seeing the tragic scene of the farmers in the suburbs, we felt both pity and hatred… We also witnessed the victory of the army and people of the capital of Vietnam: seeing three rockets flying into the sky and then gathering at a point in the air, an enemy plane was shot down; one evening, walking through the street, I saw with my own eyes a fat American pilot being tied up by his elbows and escorted towards Hoa Lo.

How difficult is the material life. Although you allow us to buy goods at the International Club, we still feel that there are many things missing. In the lesson, to let us know about the special dishes, the author mentioned all kinds of delicious and famous dishes in Hanoi, just pho alone, there are many kinds, such as chicken pho, beef pho, ... but because of the limitation of material conditions, we only get the reputation but not the food.

According to the agreement between the governments of China and Vietnam, each month our side gave us 125 Vietnamese Dong as a scholarship, of which 80 Dong was for food expenses and 45 Dong was for pocket money. At that time, the exchange rate between the Vietnamese Dong and the Chinese Yuan was 100/73, so with that amount of money, we lived comfortably. However, because of the extremely poor material conditions, the Faculty's service staff had to overcome many difficulties to ensure that we ate well: every day we still had three full meals, a glass of milk for breakfast and fruit for dessert, usually a banana, for lunch and dinner. Seeing that most of us were from Northern China and liked to eat cakes, the cooks “invented” a type of steamed cake similar to the Chinese “bao zi” cake, still white and spongy on the outside, with half a boiled duck egg as the filling inside. Honestly, it was not very appetizing, but it was very satisfying: the cake carried the warm feelings of the school staff towards the Chinese students. You must know, according to the standards, the kitchen staff only had two meals a day. Thank you to the people of Hanoi for raising us while they themselves had to tighten their belts to persevere in the resistance.

Because it was wartime, our education had to be in line with the requirements of combat readiness. We were always ready to evacuate, each equipped with a small backpack containing a few essentials, a water bottle, a pair of “resistance” sandals made from car tire tubes and a hard beret, and if we added a rifle, we would become a true Hanoi militia. At that time, most of the Vietnamese students were evacuated to the countryside of Son Tay and other provinces, and the entire large Polytechnic campus had very few students. In the evening, after dinner, we often took a walk in the Polytechnic campus. However, whether in class or resting, we always had to be alert, ready to run the aircraft alarm. At that time, the loudspeaker in the dormitory room and the outdoor loudspeaker system had become familiar and indispensable to everyone. The loudspeakers announced victory, the loudspeakers condemned the enemy, the loudspeakers reminded the people, the loudspeakers warned, the loudspeakers announced peace, until today I still remember by heart some sentences learned from the loudspeakers: “There is no electricity tonight”; “There is a group of enemy planes operating in the sky over… Hanoi, compatriots be ready to be vigilant, when there is an alarm, quickly take cover”; “There is a group of enemy planes flying near the sky of Hanoi, compatriots take cover”; “The enemy planes have flown far away, please return to normal activities”; “Currently, in the sky of Hanoi, only our planes are operating, the militia and self-defense forces should not shoot”… Thanks to the loudspeakers, we learned a lot of information and learned many Vietnamese words. In particular, through the loudspeaker in the room, for the first time I heard President Ho Chi Minh read the Appeal to fight against the US to save the country, which resounded throughout the mountains and rivers. His deep voice gave great strength to everyone, I felt the blood in my body boiling, wanting to hold a gun and join my Vietnamese friends in battle. It must be admitted that installing speakers in the rooms of international students was an initiative of the Vietnamese Language Department.

When we first entered the school, our Vietnamese level was not even at the level of a few pages, everything had to start from zero. At that time, there were no properly published textbooks, only poorly self-compiled and printed textbooks. Meanwhile, the teachers who taught us did not know Chinese. That means the teachers were “blind” to Chinese, the students were “blind” to Vietnamese, in this situation where teachers and students were “blind” to each other, the teachers taught according to their wishes, the students imitated the teachers, both sides could only communicate using words with Chinese characters explained after each lesson. It was not until the second year that the school arranged a teacher who knew Chinese to teach us. This arrangement of personnel and teaching method, at first, caused many difficulties, forcing both teachers and students to find ways to understand each other, but in the end, it turned out to be very effective. From that, I realized one thing: compulsory and proactive are two positive factors that promote teaching and learning. After becoming a teacher, I also paid attention to applying those two factors.

To improve teaching effectiveness, teachers have come up with many ways. I still remember Ms. Thanh, a slim person who had just graduated from the former Soviet Union and returned to Vietnam. When she came to class, she asked us to take turns “telling news stories”. So we had the opportunity to practice speaking Vietnamese very effectively.

Despite many difficulties, the Faculty organized us to go on a field trip to a fairly large village (I think it was called Dai Tu) located in the southwest of Hanoi. There, we both studied and worked, from which I learned the names of farming tools such as hoes, spades, spades, plowshares, etc.; learned the names of many types of trees such as yam, grapefruit, jackfruit, etc. Also there, we walked on the brick-paved village road - an infrastructure project contributed by the sons-in-law with cheo money - and learned some knowledge about Vietnamese culture and customs. How effective and impressive that field trip was!

To be fair, we Chinese students were all very hard-working and good at studying. Outside of class, we also took extra classes. At that time, Hanoi had many small private bookstores. We often went to those bookstores, sometimes to buy books, sometimes just to practice speaking: lingering for a long time, chatting with the shop owner, then buying (or not buying) a cheap book! This way of studying, which cost us a lot of saliva but no money, helped us quickly grasp spoken Vietnamese.

At that time, at B7 Bis, the number of countries sending students to study as well as the number of students living and studying here was not much, it seemed like there was only one Mongolian girl, one Bulgarian guy, two Indonesians, a Cuban couple and us. So the Chinese students had the most “prestigiousness”. The Faculty and the School both paid attention to us. I still remember, once at the New Year celebration, although we only sang a chorus, Principal Nguỵ Như Kontum stepped up on stage to present flowers.

Memories are not always just beautiful and happy things. During that time, an unpleasant incident happened to us. For the convenience of traveling, the Cultural Office of the Chinese Embassy bought each of us an “Eternal” bicycle. The bicycle was brand new, ran very well, and everyone took good care of it. Then one evening, we all went to see a performance at the Opera House. When we got our bicycles back, some of our friends found that their bicycle bells were missing. This was a small and very normal thing, and should have been ignored. But we lacked the right mindset and reported it to the school. Not long after, the school announced that the case had been solved and the exact number of missing bells had been returned. Looking at the 100% new bells, we realized that our Vietnamese friends had bought new bells to return to us. We felt regretful and learned a lesson from that.

During my first time studying abroad, I was fortunate to meet beloved President Ho Chi Minh twice. The first time, he came to the Chinese Embassy to watch the performance of the Chinese Railway Circus, accompanied by Prime Minister Pham Van Dong. Before the performance began, we students stood around him sitting in the middle, and we talked very intimately and happily. Looking at him, I was very moved: it turned out that a great man was very ordinary, how great! The second time, in the summer of 1966, President Ho received Chinese students at the Presidential Palace. He kindly taught us many things. I thought to myself, a head of state who was at war, busy with a thousand things, yet cared about the studies of ordinary students like us, what a deep gratitude, nothing could compare. After the meeting, I had the honor of writing a letter to him on behalf of all the Chinese students to express my gratitude.

In 1967, we returned to Vietnam to participate in the Cultural Revolution. With the Vietnamese language skills I had accumulated during less than two years of living and studying at the Vietnamese Language Department, I entered the translation and teaching profession, and from then on became a person who lived almost all his life in Vietnamese.

27 years later, in 1994, I was once again sent by the State to study abroad in Vietnam. Still the Vietnamese Language Department, still the B7 Bis building. I found the teachers and staff here still enthusiastic, still attentive, still working systematically, still very... Vietnamese Language Department. The only difference was that the Department had matured comprehensively, had a reputation in and outside of Vietnam and had become the strongest "on-site Vietnamese language export" facility in Vietnam. The situation of the Vietnamese Language Department at that time was so clear that it will be left outside the scope of this memoir.

This year I have turned 70. My career and life have been closely linked to the Vietnamese Language Department in particular and the Vietnamese language in general. I have been, am and will try to contribute my small efforts to the cultural exchange between China and Vietnam. By the way, my eldest grandson was born on Vietnam's National Day - September 2, 2004. Is it fate, destiny, or both?

B7 Bis is truly a warm school in my life. As a former student, I would like to sincerely thank Mr. Dao, thank Mr. Thoi, thank Ms. Thanh, thank all the teachers who taught me whose names I can no longer remember! Thank you to the Faculty of Vietnamese, thank you to the University which is now called the University of Social Sciences and Humanities – Vietnam National University, Hanoi!