Ho Chi Minh's high level of Chinese impressed many China diplomats. A diplomat recalled in his later years: "It was the first time I met Ho Chi Minh when I just joined the work, and I was very worried that I could not complete the translation task well. However, when Ho Chi Minh talked with Zhang Dingcheng (then the Attorney General of the Supreme People's Procuratorate), he almost spoke Chinese, but with a slight Cantonese accent. "
Besides being proficient in Chinese, Ho Chi Minh also speaks French, Russian and English. As we all know, Viet Nam and China have a long-standing relationship. As early as the Qin Dynasty, north-central Vietnam was a part of China, and Chinese has been used in Vietnam for thousands of years. Surprisingly, after the establishment of democracy in Vietnam (North Vietnam) in 1945, Ho Chi Minh quickly announced the abolition of Chinese characters.
There were three languages in Vietnam at that time. The Latin letters created by French colonists include Vietnamese, Chinese and Nan. 1On September 2nd, 945, Ho Chi Minh read the Declaration of Independence in Putonghua in Bating Square, Hanoi, which marked the abolition of Chinese characters in Vietnam. Since then, Chinese characters have become the official language of Vietnam.
Vietnamese Putonghua is a character based on Latin alphabet, which uses inflectional letters and nine inflectional symbols. Because Vietnamese often uses more than one inflectional symbol in the same letter, Vietnamese is easy to identify and looks very distinctive. But Chinese characters have been used in Vietnam for thousands of years, and many history books are written in Chinese characters. Why did Ho Chi Minh abolish them as soon as he came to power?
The reason is actually very simple, only four words, "Go to China!" Ho Chi Minh certainly doesn't want to admit this. He explained: "Chinese characters are really difficult to learn, which is very different from Mandarin Chinese characters popularized by French colonists. Even if ordinary people have studied for two years, they may not be able to master it. "
In Ho Chi Minh's view, if we continue to promote Chinese, it will be detrimental to Vietnam's literacy work. On the other hand, if you learn some Latin letters, you can master them easily. Obviously, Ho Chi Minh is quibbling. He is good at Chinese and knows that it is not difficult to master it. For example, after the founding of New China, the illiteracy rate in China was even higher than that in Viet Nam. As a result, after the literacy campaign, the illiteracy rate dropped significantly.
It can be seen that Ho Chi Minh was eager to abolish Chinese characters just to try it in China. Ironically, when talking about his experience in learning foreign languages, Ho Chi Minh said, "If we learn five words every day, we can learn 500 words in one hundred days and 900 words in six months. After learning 900 words, we can read newspapers in this language. In this way, our desire to master three or four foreign languages is not difficult to realize. "