Proud to be HUFLITers #04 | Songwriter Nguyen Van Chung – The First Notes from the HUFLIT Lecture Hall

Music that began with one summer

His youth at HUFLIT was about far more than lessons in his major. It was also filled with lively days of activity, from performing arts festivals to the Green Summer campaign. It was precisely that environment that led him to friends who shared his passion.

It all started very naturally. First he volunteered to run the sound for his class. Then he borrowed a guitar and learned to accompany friends as they sang. And when the first stirrings of emotion arrived, he realised those feelings could only be voiced through music – and from there the first melodies were born.

That year, the song “Nguoi thay nam xua” (My Teacher of Years Past), which he composed, won first prize in the University’s 20 November duet contest. That very first song unexpectedly reached the professional stage through the voice of singer Nguyen Vu. It was his first success. Not loud, not ornate, but solid enough to give him the courage to step onto an entirely new path and challenge himself.

Lessons “outside the syllabus”

What does an artist gain from having studied Tourism? Songwriter Nguyen Van Chung’s answer: a great deal.

He did not enter the world with a blank sheet. The days spent planning a class camping tour, the University’s lively activities and his professional internships at five-star hotels taught him how to organise work. Textbook knowledge may be the foundation, but the soft skills learned through real-world exposure are what have stayed with him throughout his career.

Making art takes more than emotion. It takes a plan so you do not lose your way. It takes budgeting, scheduling and contingency planning for risks. It takes communication skills to pitch ideas persuasively to partners. Thanks to the practical lessons from his studies, his activities at the University and his experiences in life, he was never confined by his own limits. That is what created a distinctive Nguyen Van Chung – someone who knows how to change and adapt, moving from love songs to children’s music and family music, and continually reinventing himself to keep pace with the market.

“Specialist knowledge is the foundation others have distilled for you. But the soft skills from your days of activity at university are the compounding advantage that helps you survive out in the world.”

Provisions built on three “self” words

The world changes by the day. In this digital age, he believes that foreign languages and information technology – the two core strengths of HUFLIT students – are the tools that keep young people from being left behind.

But to go further, he distils students’ provisions into three “self” words:

Self-study: Take the initiative to seek things out; do not wait for others to place knowledge in your hands.

Self-awareness: See yourself clearly and understand your environment so you can adapt and avoid the shock of the gap between school and working life.

Self-improvement: Make yourself better every day so you can face any upheaval in society with confidence.

After many years in music and every kind of high and low, he leaves behind a wonderfully light-hearted perspective:

“Failure is normal. Failing proves you are moving. If you only ever see success, it means you are going downhill.”

That is the story of songwriter Nguyen Van Chung. No embellishment, no exaggeration – it began with the simple things he learned and experienced under the roof of HUFLIT. He is proud to be a HUFLITer, because this is the place that gave him room to try, to fail and to build priceless skills. And from the foundations laid at HUFLIT, Nguyen Van Chung matured step by step and made his mark on the road of music.