(VOV) – ‘Over the past 60 years, we’ve been worried about the fatherland so we hold the Vietnamese nationality to be able to come back whenever we have an opportunity.’ This is the aspiration of 70-year-old Ngo Thien Hon who is living and working in Toulouse, France. Beginning as a teacher, he then worked in radio, and over the past 30 years his family has cooperated with French people who know the Vietnamese language to develop a radio program in Vietnamese for Vietnamese living in France.
Ngo Thien Hon and his wife
Born in the Mekong Delta province of Soc Trang, Hon went to France to study when he was a child, stayed there, and became a teacher to make his living. Hon participated in the anti-war movement in France with members of the Overseas Vietnamese Union, now the Vietnamese Association, in Toulouse. In the early 1970s, despite French government pressure to force resident Vietnamese to become citizens of their host country, Hon and his wife were determined to retain their Vietnamese citizenship. In 1975, Hon opened a restaurant as a way to ensure the family living and keep his original nationality. Hon recalls ‘In 1975 Vietnam was liberated and reunited, but in 1973 France’s education service told me to apply for French citizenship, otherwise I would no longer be employed. At that time, I was prepared to quit teaching to keep my nationality and show my loyalty to my motherland.’
In 1981, the French government allowed the establishment of several free radio stations. In 1982, with the support of French progressives, Occitanie Radio, a station for the Toulouse, gave the local Vietnamese community an hour broadcast every week. A radio program for overseas Vietnamese - called ‘Moonsoon’ - was born. Hon described the difficulties he and his colleagues faced in the early days. Hon says ‘After operating for a year or a year and a half, announcers and reporters began to leave the station to earn their living elsewhere. Some departed for Paris, while others got married. I was the only one to stay. When I had to decide whether or not to keep running the station, I made up my mind to continue, because Monsoon was the only station broadcasting programs in Vietnamese. VOV wasn’t yet available in the area at that time’.
Since then, Mr. Hon became the editor and presenter of the Seasonal Wind radio whose target listeners are overseas Vietnamese and workers in Toulouse who have no information about Vietnam and newly comers to France. To attract listeners, he produces a radio program with two parts- the first 30 minute-part is dedicated to news about Vietnam and the last 10 minutes to reports and stories about culture, society, Vietnam’s land and people. Hon’s selects materials for his programs from different sources including Tien Phong (Vanguard), Lao Dong (Labor), Sai Gon Giai Phong (Liberated Saigon), Vietnam Photo and Cuu Long (Mekong Delta) and Song Huong (Huong River) Arts and Literature newspapers. News sources from the internet were also used as materials for Hon’s radio programs. In addition, he has also extended his program by another 10 minutes to broadcast programs in French to serve French people and overseas Vietnamese, who can now speak Vietnamese. "Previously, I had to listen to radio and transcribe, like during the war, we had to write and then read the news and stories. It was very difficult then and I had to do this for several years. It’s now easier thanks to internet", said Hon..
Hon and his wife say they are always nostalgic about the homeland and want to do more to contribute to the homeland. The couple joined the France-Vietnam Support Association actively raising fund to help vision impaired people in Vietnam. Thanks to kind-hearted people in the Association, hundreds of vision impaired people in Vietnam are able to see. Hon and his wife plan to teach Vietnamese for the second and third generation of overseas Vietnamese people in France to help them learn more about the Vietnamese tradition and culture and promote the relationship between Vietnam and France.
Thuy Van – Dao Dung – VOV’s correspondents in France