San Diu male student won national top prize in Russian language

Truong Hong Khanh, a 12th grade student majoring in Russian at Thai Nguyen High School for the Gifted, won the highest score in Russian at the national exam for excellent students in cultural subjects for high school students in the 2024-2025 school year.

(Dan Tri) - Truong Hong Khanh, a 12th grade student majoring in Russian at Thai Nguyen High School for the Gifted, won the highest score in Russian at the national exam for excellent students in cultural subjects for high school students in the 2024-2025 school year.

With 17.7 points, Truong Hong Khanh won first prize in the Russian language competition, achieving the highest score nationwide. This was Khanh's second time participating in the national competition.

In 11th grade, Khanh took the advanced placement exam and won second prize.

3 years ago, Khanh was the valedictorian of the Russian class at Thai Nguyen High School for the Gifted. For 3 consecutive years, Khanh won first prize in the provincial competition for excellent students in Russian. Last year, Khanh won a silver medal in Russian at the competition for excellent students in the coastal and northern delta regions.

However, the path of learning and taking exams was not always smooth for the young man from the San Diu ethnic group.

Truong Hong Khanh - 12th grade student majoring in Russian at Thai Nguyen High School for the Gifted (Photo: NVCC).

Khanh originally set his goal to enter the English major. When submitting his application, in the second choice, Khanh wrote "Russian major" just because it sounded "strange". But Khanh failed the English major. Russian major became the only choice. Khanh regretted and hesitated, whether he should study or not.

Finally, the boy decided to continue studying. Like most students in the Russian language class at the time, Khanh didn't know a single word of Russian. He didn't even bother to open his books and review the lesson beforehand as he usually did. However, during the first Russian lesson, as soon as the teacher taught the alphabet, the strange and new language immediately captivated Khanh.

"The Russian alphabet is very different from any language I've known before. It's a different writing system. Because it's so unusual, I find it interesting and want to explore and conquer it," Khánh said.

Khánh's difficulty lies in the scarcity of online Russian language learning materials. She primarily relies on resources provided by her teachers. She also tries to find the few Russian-language YouTube channels available and reads newspapers. Nevertheless, simply mastering everything her teachers taught helped Khánh win second place nationally, even though she skipped grades and started in 11th grade.

This year, Khanh took the exam again with the goal of improving her ranking. On the day the results were announced, Khanh wasn't the first to see her score. Her teacher knew her score first and informed her parents. Her classmates then told her.

"When my friend announced the results, I didn't react at all, my face was expressionless. My friend asked why I didn't seem happy about winning first prize. Actually, I was so happy, so happy that I froze," Khánh joked.

Truong Hong Khanh (on the left) receives a certificate of commendation from the Department of Education and Training of Thai Nguyen province (Photo: Provided by the interviewee).

From reluctantly studying Russian, the language has now become Khánh's passion. She loves Russian culture and cuisine and dreams of studying in Russia. Khánh has applied for a scholarship under the Russian Agreement, majoring in linguistics. Her goal is to become a Russian language teacher in the future.

Alongside learning Russian, Khanh is also improving her English. She has already obtained an IELTS certificate with a score of 7.5 and is continuing to study on her own.

Truong Hong Khanh at the event honoring outstanding ethnic minority students and youth in 2024 (Photo: Provided by the interviewee).

Sharing his thoughts about his student, Mr. Nguyen Binh Minh, head of the Russian-French-Chinese group at Thai Nguyen Specialized High School and also Khanh's homeroom teacher, said: "Truong Hong Khanh is a very diligent student, always striving to improve herself."

This is demonstrated by the fact that in 11th grade, she won second prize in the national advanced-level student competition, which allowed her to defer her university admission, but she still tried her best to achieve even better results in 12th grade.

Khanh has a calm, even somewhat reserved personality, is very humble, and always strives to learn, paying attention to even her handwriting. She is also a well-disciplined student, enthusiastic in all group activities, and well-liked by her classmates.

The fact that he won first prize in the national excellent student exam was not a big surprise to me because when Khanh took the exam, the teacher and student tried to improve to reach a higher goal."

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/giao-duc/nam-sinh-nguoi-san-dieu-gianh-ngoi-thu-khoa-toan-quoc-mon-tieng-nga-20250125163533693.htm