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Tran Trung Duc, 32, graduated in July 2024 with a master’s degree in International Chinese Language Education from BLCU, ranking in the top 4% of his class with a GPA of 3.94 out of 4. The school is one of China’s leading institutions for Chinese language and cultural studies.

“I never imagined this day would come,” Duc said. “Nine years ago, I was still lost, trying to find my direction.”

Born in Lai Chau Province in Vietnam’s mountainous northwest, Duc moved to Hanoi in 2011 to study mobile phone repair. But with limited job prospects, he struggled to find stable work.

On his mother’s advice, he pivoted to general medicine at Phu Tho Medical College. Despite graduating with honors, he remained unemployed and eventually took a cashier job at a supermarket near the Chinese border.

That was when everything changed. Frequent interactions with Chinese-speaking customers sparked a passion for the language, and a dream of studying abroad.

Late start, bold leap

In 2016, Duc enrolled at Hekou Vocational College for a one-year Chinese language course. With no formal background, he relied on a rigorous self-study routine: handwriting texts, shadowing audio and correcting his speech repeatedly. Being of Chinese descent gave him a small edge in speaking and listening, but the rest was hard-won.

He quickly excelled: acing the HSK (Chinese proficiency test), winning a campus speech contest, and tutoring other learners online. This momentum carried him to Yunnan Normal University, where he earned a full scholarship for a degree in International Chinese Language Education. His test scores were so strong he skipped the first year entirely.

Over the next four years, Duc became a standout student, winning accolades in national and international competitions. He placed in the top 27 at the COP15 biodiversity speech contest in Kunming, won a poetry recitation competition and received national recognition as one of China’s top international students. He graduated with a near-perfect GPA of 3.99.

His success earned him a scholarship for his master’s at BLCU. His thesis tackled common pronunciation pitfalls for Vietnamese learners of Chinese, earning praise for both academic depth and real-world applicability.

“His thesis was one of the best we’ve seen,” said Associate Professor Wang An Hong of BLCU. “He’s remembered not just for his academic excellence, but for his humility and quiet determination.”

Duc’s fluency and pronunciation skills also earned him the global championship title, twice, in the “Chinese Bridge – Dubbing Show,” where he stunned judges with professional-level Mandarin voiceovers.

“His Mandarin is on par with professional broadcasters,” Wang noted.

Now an online Chinese instructor, Duc is leading a team focused on pronunciation training and HSK test prep. He plans to apply for a PhD at Peking University and hopes to one day join the faculty at a university in Hanoi.