Valedictorian of Foreign Language University once met and talked with the President of South Korea

Three months after graduating from university, the life of the new valedictorian of the University of Foreign Languages (Vietnam National University, Hanoi) - Nguyen Tien Huy has changed a lot. He is known by more people and has received job opportunities with high salaries, in his favorite field of Korean language study.

“I never thought I could become valedictorian. I am very touched because my efforts at school have borne fruit,” Huy shared.

Since childhood, Tien Huy loved listening to K-Pop music, watching series, reality TV shows, enjoying Korean cuisine, and even learning Korean fashion style.

Although he started learning Korean on Youtube since 5th grade, Huy has to admit that Korean is a difficult language. “Korean is only easy in terms of the alphabet, but the pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar are all complicated, completely opposite to Vietnamese or English,” he shared.

To improve his Korean language skills, Huy applied many different learning methods, one of which was “hunting Koreans” at Hoan Kiem Lake. When he was a high school student, after each class, he often walked to Hoan Kiem Lake and talked to Koreans.

10x helps Koreans when they need to buy things, even once helping to “resolve” a traffic collision between Vietnamese and Koreans. Thanks to those “hunting Koreans” times, Huy had the opportunity to meet and get to know many friends in the land of kimchi. Many of them he still keeps in touch with now.

Because he liked Korean, when his high school friends were hesitating between universities, Huy chose the only goal: to study high-quality Korean language at the University of Foreign Languages. Huy passed his first choice to enter the school with a score of 33.42 in the D01 group (Math, Literature, English).

Despite having a good background knowledge of Korean, Huy wrote off-topic in his first-year midterm exam, which caused his average score for that semester to drop . Although he was very sad, that was a milestone that helped him determine to "take revenge" on his mistake, as well as practice being careful when reading the questions for the following exams.

After 4 years of university, the male student from Hanoi achieved a GPA of 3.88/4.0 and became the valedictorian of Hanoi University of Foreign Languages.

To achieve a high GPA, Huy said hard work and planning are the two top keys. Learning a language well may require additional “talent”, but that is only a supplementary factor and not a decisive one.

"To complete the large and urgent amount of homework assigned by teachers, I always make plans to solve them sequentially. This helps me a lot in solving my homework, and the new valedictorian can even finish it a week earlier than required," Huy shared.

Tien Huy took a selfie with President Yoon Suk Yeol and First Lady Kim Keon Hee.

During his state visit to Vietnam in the middle of this year, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and First Lady Kim Keon Hee visited Hanoi National University. Huy was selected as one of five young people to welcome and talk directly with President Yoon and his wife Kim during an exchange program with students and Korean language learners.

"I never thought I would have the opportunity to meet the head of state of Korea. So when the head of the department texted me, asking for my resume to send to Korea for review, I was so elated that I couldn't believe it. As much joy and happiness as I felt, I also felt so much pressure," the male student recalled.

Seizing this special opportunity, Huy demonstrated his excellent communication skills and knowledge about Korea. "After the student speech, I received a thumbs up from the President and his wife," the male student excitedly boasted .

Looking back on his brilliant 4-year university journey, Huy confided: “I always studied with the mindset of wanting to be better, not to get high scores. I was always serious about studying to turn knowledge into assets, not just to pass the subject. That is probably what makes me proud of myself.”

Huy is currently working as an interpreter at the Korean Association in Hanoi. In the future, Huy plans to apply for a master's scholarship to further study Korean and realize his dream of living and studying in Korea.

Some of Huy's achievements include winning the First Prize (collective) in the "Kuing Kuing Film Dubbing" contest organized by the Youth Union - Student Association of the Faculty of Korean Language and Culture, University of Foreign Languages, Second Prize in the "Quiz on Korea 2021 Hangeulnal Festival 2021" contest for students of universities in the Northern region; Second Prize in the Southeast Asia region of the 8th "Sungkyun Hangul Essay" Korean writing contest, winning the First Prize at the "Golden Bell Contest Hangeulnal Festival 2022" for students of universities in the Northern region.
In addition to his enviable achievements in competitions and many scholarships he received during his 4 years at school, Huy is also a permanent member of the program "Let's Speak Korean" season 1 and 2 of the Education - Children Channel of Vietnam Television (VTV7).

Trung Temple

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