Uncle Ho with Learning and Using Foreign Languages

Nguyen Quoc Khanh

Tran Phuong Uyen

K53CLC3

Uncle Ho with learning and using foreign languages

In 1923, the soviet’s poetry Osip Mandelstam had a talk with President Ho Chi Minh. “When I was about 13, the first time I knew some French words: liberté, égalité, charité (liberty, equality, charity) and that was the reason why I wanted to integrate into french cultue and to research the true meanings of these words, however, for indigenous french, they taught other minorities a different way” Uncle Ho said to the poetry. And the President continued to clarify his comment “They (the French) do not allow my people to own and read newspapers as well as magazines. Not only editions of new writers but also Jacques Rousseau’s or Charles Louis Montesquieu’s are all prohibited. So I decided to go abroad”

Although, at that time, the Western ideology “Capitalism” or culture was extremely strange and new to Uncle Ho, the story demonstrates Ho Chi Minh’s original ideas were very different from ordinary thoughts. Ho Chi Minh’s father Nguyen Sinh Sac always taught his children to have both feet on the ground. Thus, as a result of what he learned from his great father, Ho Chi Minh had a strong desire to go to empire countries such as England and France to explore  their secrects and then return home to help his people.

Although studying abroad was prohibited, He still decided to go with nothing in his hands, except for a little knowledge about French that he had learned from the school.

In the summer of 1991, He set his foot on France. French was a barrier in his very first step to find way rescuing the country as well as the citizens. Immediately, He understood that he had to communicate in French to live, learn and carry out revolution.  Due to that right and strong motivation, He could quickly find out many smart and creative ways of learning. Right on the ship leading to France, He took advantage of the free time to read and write French with two young returnee soldiers. They lended him some small books written in French. When arriving at Le Harvre city, He learn the language with Ms. Sen. In summary, He was taught by everyone around him. When He wanted to know how a specific object was called in French, He pointed at that object and asked, then he wrote the word on a piece of paper, stuck it on the most outstanding place so that he could learn and work at the same time. Sometimes He wrote the words on his arms. After a hard-working day, He cleaned them and then wrote different words. He always tried to apply the words into making sentences and used them flexibly. Jean Longuet, maternal grandchild of Karl Marx, chairman of “Le Peuple” newspaper, an agency of the Party Socialist had encouraged Uncle Ho to write about Viet NamHowever, at that time, Uncle Ho wan not good at French. When wanting to write something, He had to depend on Phan Van Truong lawyer. He was an intellectual loving the country, became a PhD in law in Paris. However, He did not want to sign his name and did not write all the things that Uncle Ho said. Uncle Ho was so uncomfortable because he was bad at French. He thought: “I want to support my country and express its current situation but I can not write in French. What should I do? I have to try my best to learn it” He got acquainted with the head of “L Vie Ouvriere” newspaper. He expressed a wish to write some posts, but he was shy because his French was bad.. Then the head of that newspaper said: “Never mind, write down anything you can. I will check your work before it is printed. There is no need to write so long. Five to six rows are fine” Having done the work, Uncle Ho wrote down into two copies, one of them was kept. The best time of being a writer in his carreer was when his first article was put in “L Vie Ouvriere” newspaper. It was in 1917, He checked again his article to know what was right, what was wrong and what had been corrected. After that, when realizing that the mistakes had reduced, the head of the newspaper told him: “Now you can write longer, seven to eight rows are fine.” Gradually, Uncle Ho could write a longer and longer article At that time, the head of the newspaper, who was his close friend, advised that he should write shorter. Shortening was as difficult as lengthening. Due to his persistence, he had successed. The second best moment of him was when his story about Paris was placed in the newspaper. In a working day, He usually read some pages in a novel to enhance his French knowledge and relaxed. He extremely liked the simple and clear writing style of Lev Tolstoi. Therefore, He also wrote a report about the poor quarter where He lived. Every morning, He wrote from 5 to half past six. He went to work at 7 when the weather was very cold. After a hard-working week, He completed his first product. He said to everyone in the L'Humanite newspaper: “I will very happy if my article was put. It depends on you to decide to put it on the newspaper or not. However, please help me check the French mistakes.”

In 1922, the newspaper Le Paria was born, and Ho Chi Minh was responsible for the roles as the main editor and other important positions in the office. However, it was a huge challenge for him, a foreigner from a small Indochina colony, who had many difficulties with French language. Uncle Ho said “Asian and African delegates will raise money, and other things will be my responsibility”.

The first headquarter of Le Paria was located in 16 Giancarlo, Paris then moved to an ancient house at 03 Macsede Patriacso in District 6. This was the place to publish Le Paria’s editions and also the home of "Union of the colonial people”. Le Paria, through its life, published 38 editions at total with a big French title in the middle, Arabia language on the left and Korean on the right. In addition, the newspaper did not have editors on duty due to personal reasons. Therefore, checking and trading works were given to Ho Chi Minh. Uncle Ho was considered as the greatest man of merit with strong writing ability, clear and flexible ideas.