“My schooling story is a journey with many difficulties but also countless valuable experiences, bringing lessons that will follow me throughout my life,” Tran Viet Dung (31 years old) began to tell about his life. The 9X also feels grateful because his parents' hard work is the biggest motivation for him to strive to excel.

Born in Thai Binh, Dung contracted meningitis at 11 months old. Although he was taken to the emergency room in time, the consequences left Dung deaf in one ear. When the family discovered that he could not hear, Dung was 9 years old, it was too late to intervene. His parents then took Dung to see a doctor in several places, but the treatment costs were expensive and did not bring any results. In the end, the family had to accept that their son could only hear with one remaining ear. Throughout high school, because he always felt hard of hearing, Dung always asked his teachers to let him sit at the front desk. But thanks to that, the male student listened very attentively to lectures and achieved good academic results. Viet Dung successively passed the entrance exam to Thai Binh Specialized High School, then the Economics major at Foreign Trade University.

Studying at this school, Dung was inspired by the teachers of the Banking and Finance Department. Therefore, when he was in his final year of Economics, Dung decided to enroll in International Finance with the hope of working at a multinational company after graduation. During the course, in addition to the textbook, teachers often provided students with terms and reference materials in English. Dung recalled that those were "extremely miserable" days because he did not understand anything in class. Moreover, the loss of hearing in his left ear also made it difficult for Dung to fully absorb the lectures. Therefore, after returning home, Dung often had to turn on the recording to listen to it again, then look up and explain each term himself. While his friends were all fluent in English, Dung was self-conscious and did not know how to improve his weaknesses. “For a whole year, I practiced listening and grammar by myself through online materials. But really, when I was at a level where I knew nothing, self-study was very difficult. It was like a blind person walking on a road without any guidance, groping around so there were no results,” Dung recalled. In his first year of university, everything was very bad for Dung. Realizing that self-study was not working, Dung gathered all his money to register for an English course near the school. But because the number of lessons in the course was too small, Dung's English level still did not improve much. Dung continued to struggle to find an environment where he had to use English regularly at a low cost. After thinking for a long time, he made a bold decision: to continue studying for the English Pedagogy Faculty of the University of Foreign Languages, Vietnam National University, Hanoi. For a person who only scored 2.6 points in English in the high school graduation exam and only scored 235/990 in TOEIC in the entrance exam to Foreign Trade University, this is a big challenge. Therefore, although he was determined to study for group D for 5 months and had already applied for university entrance exam, Dung was still not confident enough to take the exam. It was not until his second year, when he had just completed a dual degree, that Dung continued to struggle and decided to study for another year. Thanks to his determination, in June 2012, Dung had just enough points to pass the entrance exam to Foreign Language University, even though his English score was only over 7 points.

At the time Dung pursued 3 university degrees at the same time, his family was still facing financial difficulties. To support his 2 children, Dung's father worked as a motorbike taxi driver, and his mother sold sugarcane juice. But "when you truly want something, the whole universe will conspire to help you" - a quote by writer Paulo Coelho in The Alchemist became a guiding principle to help Dung overcome that difficult period. While struggling with tuition fees, the landlady saw that Dung was gentle and hard-working, so she asked Dung to tutor her son in some natural sciences. After a while, seeing the results, the landlady continued to introduce Dung to the children of other friends. There were sessions when Dung taught 6 students per class for up to 600,000 VND. "That was 1/3 of the monthly living expenses of students at that time," Dung said. While studying, Dung also taught extra classes, enough to cover the tuition costs for all 3 programs.

Foreign Trade University allows students to register for credits, while at Foreign Language University, the school arranges a fixed schedule for first-year students. At first, Dung did not encounter any difficulties because he could register for a schedule that interspersed between subjects at both schools. However, after his first year, Dung began to have trouble arranging his time. There were times when he had to run between the two schools in one day, and did not even have time to eat. “On days when subjects overlapped, I was forced to prioritize Foreign Trade University. There were also periods when I missed a lot of classes and was not allowed to take the exam for that subject. Fortunately, Foreign Language University has a summer semester, so I often re-registered during this time. In addition to overlapping classes, if I had an exam overlap, I would also apply to defer the exam at Foreign Language University.” There were many periods of stress due to the huge amount of studying, Dung was exhausted when he had to compete with a dense, tight schedule from morning to night. Many times, the male student felt sorry for himself because he was tired and had no time for experiences or personal relationships like his friends. Things became even more dire when 100% of the lectures at the University of Foreign Languages ​​were in English. While most of his friends already had a foundation, were English majors or had awards and achievements in English, Dung still struggled with a jumble of new things. When a teacher learned that Dung went to this school with the desire to be good at English, she said this was a wrong thought, because to study English, students must have a foundation from before. When entering the school, no teacher taught the basics like Dung thought. Once, Dung confided to his mother that he wanted to give up. Mom said: “The important thing is that you feel that what is suitable and can be balanced. But before giving up, think back to the time when you were studying hard for exams. If you can still try, you should study for me. Before, I also really liked studying but did not have the conditions to do so.” That sentence made Dung feel that he could not let his mother down.

But “life is a dynamic balance”. Despite the pressure, after a long time Dung learned to adapt. “The whole semester and doing a lot of exercises in English forced me to explore and improve myself. Although the results were not as high as those of my classmates, I still saw myself improving every day”. In 2014, Dung completed the Economics program of the Foreign Trade University. At that time, he only had two degrees left to study: International Finance and English Language. Still planning to pursue finance after graduation, Dung realized that to do well in the industry, in addition to knowledge of Financial Economics and good English, he still needed to have knowledge of Law. Getting used to the learning cycle, Dung decided to study for another degree in Economic Law. By the end of 2017, Dung finished studying all 4 degrees.

After graduating, Dung found the job he wanted. In the evening, he still taught English. But teaching made Dung realize that he loved the education field. Starting from zero, Dung sympathized and understood the worries of beginners. He said that "my whole life is like a pathfinder". There were things that seemed suitable but in the end were not suitable. Therefore, he decided to quit his job in finance, focusing on improving his teaching ability and developing himself. After quitting his job, Dung studied and reviewed for the exam by himself, then achieved 8.0 IELTS, 990 TOEIC. Being deaf, according to Dung, was an advantage for him in learning English. Thanks to that, he had to learn to concentrate at the maximum level and train himself to be persistent and patient. “Every time I do a listening test, I always try to listen carefully at least 10 times, to the point of memorizing the script. Because it is harder for me to listen than others, I have to learn to concentrate. When I do the test, I feel like the whole world outside disappears, leaving only me and the test.” The journey to conquer English also helped Dung realize that foreign languages ​​are for the majority, not just those with talent. “Anyone can learn a foreign language. But most people rarely reach proficiency because they often get discouraged halfway,” Dung said. Having gone through many difficulties, there were times when he wanted to stop, but in the end, Dung still chose to face all the pressure. He believes that difficulties and pressure in life are things that always exist. “If we consider pressure as a tumor, fear and running away is no different than injecting a painkiller but the tumor is still there. The key issue is that we have to face and deal with that pressure. After each time we overcome a difficulty, we will become stronger and be able to face the next difficulties in life,” Dung contemplated. Made by: Thuy Nga Photo: Nguyen Hue Design: Minh Hoa Thuy Nga