People tell stories about Uncle Ho in many foreign languages

Always strive for love of the profession

No matter how harsh the weather is, how tired you are, the presenters atKim Lien Relic Sitewill still complete their tasks with a gentle, sincere, and smooth Nghe accent. Hearing that voice, few people can imagine the intensity of work that these narrators go through every day, especially during peak times such as holidays, Tet, summer vacations...

The female tour guides at Kim Lien Relic Site are always remembered for their flowing ao dai, gentle Nghe accent and extensive knowledge about Uncle Ho. Photo: Dinh Tuyen

“Wearing traditional ao dai, our work includes welcoming guests at the registration office, giving explanations at relics, offering flowers, holding memorial ceremonies... During the summer, on average, 17 tour guides will welcome over 150 groups of visitors at the sites each day. On holidays such as April 30 - May 1, there can be up to 400 - 500 groups of visitors per day, all of whom must continuously explain and guide in the morning from 7am - 11:30am, in the afternoon from 1:30pm - 5pm. During the peak season, during the summer, we sometimes only get 1-3 days off each month. The work in the hot season, working outdoors is very hard and tiring to the point that many times while explaining, a friend fainted or had a nosebleed... In addition, to diversify the forms of propaganda, tour guides also have to carry out propaganda tasks outside the relics through thematic talks about Uncle Ho, writing propaganda articles for newspapers, website, exhibition explanation, building special topics about President Ho Chi Minh…”, Ms. Phan Thanh Quy - Deputy Head of Propaganda and Education Department, Kim Lien Relic Site shared.

Before choosing to stay in the profession with its initial difficulties and hardships, the interpreters had to go through a challenging journey with many hardships. Talking about the first days of her career, Ms. Quy recalled: “Having graduated from the Faculty of Foreign Languages, the historical knowledge from Uncle Ho's birth to his childhood, then his hometown and family, historical knowledge... were very strange to me. Besides, I needed to supplement many skills such as demeanor, expression, explanation, communication, writing... In particular, practicing a gentle voice, clear and easy-to-understand language so that guests from all regions could listen and understand. Among them, the journey to overcome one's lack of confidence and shyness was probably the most difficult thing to do, taking a lot of time. To confidently present, one needs a certain amount of knowledge about expertise, communication and social understanding".

Tourists hear stories about Uncle Ho when visiting his hometown. Photo courtesy of Huy Thu

Once the knowledge is fluent and the content is well understood, the presenter will have the ability to flexibly and emotionally adapt his speech to the situation and to each type of visitor. “The stories may be repetitive, but the emotions each time they are told and the reception from visitors are very different. The most touching is probably when welcoming groups of elderly people and doctors.veteran- Uncle Ho's soldiers who had experienced rain of bombs and bullets. Many of them could not hide their emotions and burst into tears, we ourselves could not hold back either" - Ms. Quy confided.

Ms. Pham Thi Oanh - one of 17 guides of Kim Lien Relic Site shared: “The members of the department are all female, most of them are young and raising small children. Half of them live in Vinh City, so going to work and being on duty on holidays and Tet is also a difficulty that needs to be overcome. Many days, the women have to take turns sleeping over to welcome the group early, and on New Year's Eve, they stay with their colleagues until the morning. With a modest income, if we don't have a love for this job, it will be difficult for us to stick with it for a long time.”

Besides their main job, the female tour guides at Kim Lien Relic Site (Nam Dan) also take on many other roles and skills. Photo: DVCC

The love for the work of Ms. Quy, Ms. Oanh and the members of the tour guide team was kindled by their respect for the father of the nation, by their pride in their homeland, by the precious emotions of tourists... "We consider ourselves a member of Uncle Ho's family and are happy to share stories about him. In return, we also receive a lot of precious feelings from tourists. It can be compliments, words of encouragement, respectful handshakes or small gifts such as hats, umbrellas, candy, bottles of essential oil... but they give us a lot of motivation" - Ms. Quy shared.

Learn to tell about Uncle Ho to many international guests

Among many funny stories about the profession, Ms. Quy always remembers the story of a Japanese tourist. During the whole visit, he listened to her attentively and enthusiastically. Before saying goodbye, he asked the interpreter to tell her: "I don't understand Vietnamese, but the words you say sound like a melody and I can read the sincerity in your eyes." Stories and situations like that are the motivation for Ms. Quy and her colleagues to try harder, learn more, so that they can tell stories of Uncle Ho to international friends.

Kim Lien Relic Site welcomes many international visitors every year. Photo: DVCC

From that determination, in 2019, the Presentation TeamKim Lien Relic Siteproactively asked the Management Board to create conditions for them to learn more English to serve their work. “Most people graduated from Literature and History majors, so starting over with English at this age is extremely difficult. Among them, Ms. Bui Thi Dam - Head of Propaganda and Education Department, born in 1972, is 50 years old this year but is still determined to study to the end. We ourselves and the Management Board do not set big expectations, just hoping to meet the requirements of explaining about Uncle Ho in English and communicating basically with tourists. To achieve that small goal, it also requires a lot of perseverance and effort.”

An English lesson of the Kim Lien relic site's explanations. Photo: DVCC

Having graduated with a degree in History Pedagogy, Ms. Pham Thi Oanh never thought that one day she would be able to explain Uncle Ho's stories in English. But she did it. Ms. Oanh recalls: “In the first lessons, my sisters and I realized that what we had learned in school was completely different from the knowledge taught by native teachers. Just to pronounce the word "is" correctly, we needed several lessons to correct it. At the same time, many people thought that what we were doing would not bring any results. Luckily, everyone studied together so we could encourage each other and look at each other to try. At that time, to keep up with the program, I had to take advantage of every free time to study and remember new words. I wrote and posted them all over the house. The most difficult skills were still pronunciation, stress, and pronunciation. To improve this skill, whenever there were Western guests, my sisters and I eagerly came out to chat, it was so much fun!”

The high-ranking Lao delegation was pleased to hear the explanation about Uncle Ho in Lao. Photo: DVCC

After 5 months of hard work and practice, 5 members of the department were able to confidently tell stories about Uncle Ho in English with standard intonation and pronunciation to international friends. After this small success, from the suggestion of the Management Board, they continued to conquer the goal of explaining in Lao. “Similar to English, we did not expect to be fluent in Lao but only set the goal of being able to explain stories about Uncle Ho. After the course, we were able to welcome high-ranking delegations from other countries to visit and received compliments from them. This means a lot to us,” Ms. Quy shared.

Comrade Bunthoong Chitmany - Politburo member, Permanent Secretary of the Secretariat, Vice President of the Lao People's Democratic Republic and his wife listen to a presentation about Uncle Ho in Lao. Photo: DVCC

Not only improving foreign languages, during the social distancing period due to the Covid-19 epidemic, the Presentation TeamKim Lien Relic SiteThey also equipped themselves with some new skills such as making historical documentary videos about Uncle Ho, participating in hosting programs, reading podcasts, giving online presentations... With what they have done and are doing, they themselves are concrete examples of the spirit of learning and practicing following the example of President Ho Chi Minh.