(Based on Dau tu newspaper)

In the images of US President Obama’s trip to Vietnam in May 2016, it is easy to recognize a Vietnamese man with a stoop head, bold figure, always appearing very close to the US President. That’s Mr. Anh Pham, from Bac Ninh, President Obama’s interpreter.

Anh Pham has a deep, slow voice with the same way of choosing words and conveying the emotions that Mr. Pham put in when translating the speech “moving Vietnamese hearts” given by the US President at the Convention Center, made a strong impression.

Pham was born in Bac Ninh, attended high school in Hanoi, graduated from Foreign Trade University before going to the US to study master’s degree at Princeton University.

He also “joined” for the World Bank and IMF-International Monetary Fund- before working as a translator for the US Government.

Pham was President Obama’s interpreter when General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong visited the US in July 2015.

During the first meeting with President Obama in 2014 in US, he told President Obama that: “My biggest dream is when the president visits Hanoi for the first time, let me work as a translator, when you  gives a live speech to the Vietnamese people”.

And the visit of US President Obama to Vietnam in May 2016 made Mr. Pham’s dream come true.

Why did I become a translator for the President of the United States?

Investment Newspaper interviewed Mr. Anh Pham, who holds dual US and Vietnamese citizenship.

In fact, in 2000, when President Clinton paid an official visit to Vietnam, he was also invited by the US embassy to translate for US Trade Representative Charlene Christefsky. On the day President Clinton spoke at Hanoi National University, Mr. Pham sat right next to the American interpreter’s cabin. At that time, he was looking forward to one day working as a translator for an American President visiting Hanoi.

Sir, in the 90s of the last century, you must be from a well-to-do family to be able to study English well?

– Oh no! Quite the contrary, ma’am.

I was born in Bac Ninh town in 1976 in a family where both parents are officials. My father studied at a university in Leningrad in the former Soviet Union and was a lecturer at Pedagogical University I before joining the army in 1972. My mother after graduating from Pedagogical University I worked as a teacher at secondary schools in the North, Bac Ninh until 1984 – when my younger brother was born and the whole family moved to Hanoi to live with my father.

At that time, it can be said that both my parents were temporary so-called elite young intellectuals, but in 1984, when they moved back to Hanoi, the family lived in a thatched-roof hut built temporarily against the wall of our military office of my parents.

There is never a more precious possession in the house than an old bicycle and a double bed that four people share.

When I grew up I was very thin, I never had more than two pairs of trousers to change into, and the shirt was mixed with the military and police clothes that relatives gave to me.

Starving, studying, I didn’t have anything tangible or intangible of value at that time.

My father taught me a little Russian at home since I was 8 years old, but I only knew a few sentences and several things, but I was not very good at it.

The summer before entering 10th grade was 1989, my parents sent me to study French in the evening at Tran Phu, but at the end of the first semester of grade 10, my academic results were not good, so my father told me to stop learning French.

During the political upheaval in Eastern Europe, my father said to me: “The Russian language is now worthless. The world changes, Vietnam will probably move closer to the West. You should know English now.”

My father gave me money to study English at the English center, but I am interested in French, so I did not study English much.

In May 1990, a classmate and I excitedly visited the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum on the opening day. By chance, when we passed the One Pillar Pagoda, we met a British tourist living in Malaysia. Seeing the guest boasting that he spoke several languages, I really wanted to say a compliment like: “You can speak so many foreign languages!”. I was embarrassed when I couldn’t say such a simple sentence even though I’ve been studying English for a few months.

I was so embarrassed that I decided to study by myself from now on by going to Uncle Ho’s Mausoleum and One Pillar Pagoda to speak English with foreign tourists, instead of going to a center that costs my parents money.

At that time, there was no modern learning technology like now, it must not be easy to learn English by yourself, right?

– It’s true that it’s much harder than now, but if you find the right way, it’s easier and more fun.

I gave up all school-style English studies and only went to “One Pillar Pagoda University”.

From 1990 – 1995, sunny days as well as rainy days, even in 1992, after entering Foreign Trade University, I still spent the whole day mainly in this area with many foreign tourists to play and speak English with fellow backpackers.

During the day, I talk in English with tourists, at night I read English books again so that the next day I have new words and ideas to say. If I meet a good friend, I will ask them for an address where I can write a letter every day.

Sometimes, I write letters to exchange with dozens of people in different countries.

Only 6 months later, I realized my English has improved unbelievably.

When my English is good, sometimes I also work as a tour guide to earn some money to support myself and support my family. I earned my first coins (one $10 bill and one $5 bill) from this job in 1991 in the middle of 12th grade at Chu Van An High School.

I’m very curious, what was the chance that helped you become an interpreter for the US Chargé in Vietnam at such a young age?

– After a while of talking, reading, writing, my English improved very quickly and I began to be hired as an interpreter. In the years 1994-1995, the number of people who spoke updated English, that is, the living English of the world, were very few in Hanoi, so there was a lot of demand for translation. When I was young, I thought money was not important, knowledge was also there, so people came to invite me to translate a lot.

Since 1994, I have been working as a volunteer translator for Operation Smile, an American charity that annually sends American doctors to perform free surgery on children with anomalies facial defects such as cleft lip and cleft palate.

At the end of 1995, I worked as a volunteer interpreter for a reception at the Metropole Hotel at the end of the Smile Surgeons’ surgery. I was only 19 years old then.

When I finished translating, an elderly Western man came up to me and complimented me on my good translation and asked if I would like to translate for him. I politely asked, “Sir, who are you?” He gave me his business card and I learned it was US Chargé d’Affaires Desaix Anderson, who had just arrived in Hanoi to lead the US liaison office.

Of course, I was overjoyed, so gladly accepted.

That moment was the moment that changed my life.

I immediately went to Uncle Desaix’s office to sign a contract as a translator for 2 years.

As a contract interpreter of the US Liaison Office, I was accompanied by the Chargé d’affaires to meet many Vietnamese leaders from central to local levels.

Through my work, I have also met people on both sides of Vietnam and the United States who have now become famous figures, such as US Ambassador Ted Osius of the US, or Ambassador Vu Quang Minh of Vietnam.

These brothers at that time were just young diplomats.

Two years working with him is my real two years of university. At the age of 19, when people were still young, I was trusted to speak on behalf of him to speak sincere words of affection in Vietnamese to Vietnamese leaders.

Uncle Desaix was a loyal, honest, tolerant, sincere teacher, friend, and godfather, and a Democrat. I learned the first years of my life with that teacher, of course, I couldn’t go any other way. Thanks to Desaix, I have Princeton University in the US, and thanks to Princeton, I have traveled to countries like Cairo, Beirut, Beijing, Pyongyang, IMF, WB, newly married, then two sons, then new there’s Obama and Biden, there’s the Oval Office and the amazing sessions at the White House.

Uncle Desaix passed away in 2021, leaving me with inconsolable grief.

Having a relationship with the US Chargé d’affaires in Vietnam, your path to graduate school in the US must not have been too difficult?

– Uncle Desaix is an alumnus of Princeton University and when he returned to the US, he was invited to teach an annual course for Princeton University students on Vietnam and East Asia.

In Hanoi at that time, I had another overseas Vietnamese friend, Mr. Ly Tran, who worked at Citibank, who was also a Princeton alumnus. Those two loved me, and Mr. Lee frequently urged me to apply for graduate school at Princeton.

During my first trip from Vietnam to the United States in the summer of 1997, Mr. Ly introduced me and I was fortunate enough to visit Princeton and meet the Admissions Director of the School of Public Administration and Diplomacy named after Princeton. Woodrow Wilson (WWS) of Princeton is Mr. John Templeton.

Mr. John gave me a tour of the school and let me participate in a panel discussion of the summer program students. This visit made such an impression on me that that fall I decided to apply only for the WWS MPA (Master of Public Administration) program.

The strongest treasure for me to be admitted is that I have letters of recommendation from Mr. Ly, and Mr. Desaix.

In the spring of 1998, Mr. John sent me a handwritten letter informing me of my acceptance. In August 1998, I returned to WWS as a fresh graduate student.

I remember in August 1998, I went to the US to study in my pocket with only 500 USD from my parents.

Princeton gives me $1,100 a month for accommodation. Both me and my younger brother Pham Tuan Minh’s tuition money later came from scholarships from American universities My parents couldn’t have enough money to send my two brothers to study in America.

For silly reasons, I spent my first year there when I was expelled from school, causing me to roam the world from Egypt, Lebanon, Thailand, and China until three years later. In September 2002, Princeton University agreed to accept me again.

As far as I know, you seems to be the only person at Princeton who was expelled and re-admitted to the school. It must have been a memorable moment in your life?

At the end of my first year, just because I had no sympathy for a professor, I made the foolish haste decision to skip his final exam.

I thought that like in Vietnam, students could pay to retake the exam next time. That mistake caused my grades to drop, and that’s why Princeton expelled me at the end of the summer of 1999.

For the next three years, afraid to confess to my parents about my failure at Princeton, I left Hanoi to go to Egypt, Lebanon, China, and Korea to find and do public works.

Failure at Princeton really forced me to take a deep look inside to identify the strengths, weaknesses, potential that could help me grow.

When I applied again for admission to WWS in the fall of 2001, I had little hope of being accepted by the school again.

On the night of April 1, 2002, Mr. John sent me an email informing that WWS had decided to give me a second chance. I was at that time at the IMF World Currency Fund office in Hanoi, with my head down on the table and crying with joy.

The old Princeton University motto was “In the service of the nation – In the service of all nations”.

In the 18 years since I graduated from Princeton, although my thoughts on public service and what it means to be “Serving the Nation – Serving the World” have both changed, I can proudly say that My loyalty to the school’s ideals of public service only deepened.

I think you is very lucky to be received back by WWS.

– Yes, I am very lucky. And actually America and the American people have been very kind to me. I think the root of everything good I have today comes from the Americans who work at the Woodrow Wilson School of Administration and Diplomacy (WWS) at Princeton University.

In the three years I attended, the school gave me 150,000 USD in scholarship money, which is a large amount of money my parents could not provide for me to study. I always thought that it was a loan where I had to pay both principal and interest whenever possible. Every year after I graduate, I deposit a small amount of money into the alumni fund.

A few years ago, my family decided to donate to the school a small annual fund with the amount of donation increasing each year. We present this gift in honor of Chargé d’Affaires Desaix Anderson.

What jobs did you do after graduation? What opportunity led you to become an interpreter for the US Government?

– After graduating, I followed the typical path of my majors of working in development through organizations such as the IMF and the World Bank.

In 2011, when I got my green card, it was also the time when Vietnam – US relations heated up thanks to the pivot policy to East Asia and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

I miss my old job as a translator, and want to contribute to promoting Vietnam-US relations, so I  contacted the US Department of State.

It was another turning point that determined the joys of my life during the last years of the Obama administration.

The two years 2015-2016 brought the highest achievements of my life after graduating from Princeton. In 2015, I worked as President Obama’s interpreter when welcoming General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong to the US.

In 2016, I accompanied President Obama to Vietnam on a trip to Vietnam The official visit lasted three days.

The trip back to Vietnam to work as an interpreter for President Obama in 2016 must have been a very important trip in your life?

In 2000, when President Clinton paid an official visit to Vietnam, I was also invited by the US embassy to translate for US Trade Representative Charlene Christefsky.

The day President Clinton gave a speech at Hanoi National University, I sat right next to the American interpreter’s cabin. At that time, I very much look forward to one day working as a translator for an American President who is visiting Hanoi.

My trip to Vietnam in May 2016 marked a 20-year journey since I was fortunate to contribute a little effort to the process of normalizing relations between the two countries when I was invited to act as an interpreter for the Chargé d’affaires of America in Hanoi in many important meetings, then interpreter for President Obama.

But I’m really curious why in the United States there must be many Vietnamese people who are good at English, especially Southerners who have settled there for a long time, but a North Vietnamese like you was chosen to be the translator for President Obama?

– Actually, I don’t think my English is too good. Although this year is my 32nd year that I speak English almost daily, but my English accent is far from the standard of a native speaker.

About why I was chosen to translate for the President of the United States. The main reason here, in my opinion, is that the Vietnamese translators in the South have left Vietnam a long time ago and have little chance to come into contact with the Vietnamese language we use in Vietnam today.

Using a translator like myself who speaks Northern Vietnamese while also understanding the English language of US politics and policy is a less risky option.

Before such an important trip, do you have any worries?

– What worries me the most is that something happens that keeps me from completing the quest. Since two weeks before the trip, I have increased my health protection. Translators work by voice, so I pay special attention to avoid getting sick, fever, sore throat. At home and after boarding the plane I try to cover up to keep my neck warm.

The days before leaving, every minute, every second in my head, I only had animations about upcoming work situations. I practiced walking, rehearsing in my head until I memorized the words and ideas that I might have to say. I flipped through the different options, translating the ideas I suggested for President Obama’s speeches.

The feeling of impatience and anxiety made it impossible for me to sleep during the 14-hour flight from DC to Seoul and then 4-5 hours back to Hanoi.

I couldn’t sleep, so I listened to the same old songs over and over again when I grew up in Hanoi. Those are sentimental, simple, and red songs that friends growing up in the North are probably familiar with, such as: “Rice village, flower village”, “Starlights at night”, “Construction song”, “Trau” you over the mountain”,… I feel like this music sets me in the right mood for the job I’m about to do.

Finally, after more than 20 hours of travel, I also arrived, and smelled the familiar home air at Noi Bai airport on the night of May 19, 2016.

It is a somewhat spiritual coincidence that, on that very day three years ago in Washington DC, I asked President Obama that I wanted to go to Vietnam with him.

Can you tell us about your schedule when you were in Hanoi ?

– To prepare for the visit of a US President, a lot of people have to go ahead, which means arriving at the site of the visit some time before the President arrives. Interpreters also go in the front desk to have time to prepare, rest, to ensure they do their best work. Usually two interpreters accompany the President to assist each other.

I arrived in Hanoi on the night of May 19, 2016, and the President arrived on the night of May 22, 2016. During the three days of early preparation, I had the privilege of being a silent observer. I watched silently as Hanoians eagerly awaited President Obama’s arrival, and few people I met during those three days knew that I was the one who would work closely with the President. People say words of expectation and welcome that make me happy and moved.

The family and friends who met me on those days all expressed some excitement, some pride, some wistful anticipation of the special guest coming. With them, I had the opportunity to brag about the jokes I used to joke with President Obama, that I was the deputy part of the visit, and that I am so important that the President is even my right hand (because it is usually the President who sits to the right of the interpreter).

The US President’s visits abroad are often large campaigns of human strength, power, and huge logistical requirements. Probably, there must be nearly 2,000 people working on the American side. I feel I am the luckiest of them all.

It is known that in the near future, you will be a moderator for a group discussion called “Vision and Meaning of Reconciliation (US – Vietnam)”, can you share more about this event?

– Upcoming in Washington DC, on October 11, 2022, the American Institute of Peace will organize a seminar on the US reconciliation process for the three Indochinese countries. I have also accepted to participate as a facilitator of a discussion called “Vision and Meaning of Mediation”.

Born in 1976 after the war, I cannot speak as someone who has been through the war. War or reconciliation was for my generation or younger, so it was somewhat abstract because we didn’t have to go through that time.

For example, I don’t know how to evacuate. I don’t know the days when Hanoians suffered because of American bombs.

Regarding the vision, I still remember that, right from the moment President Clinton announced the lifting of the embargo and even before that, the relationship between Vietnam and the United States contained many seeds of optimism, because the starting point was too low due to The war pushed the two countries’ relations into the depths of history and relations.

During the visit of General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong to the White House in 2015, President Obama repeated the aforementioned vision by affirming strongly that the US is not interested in changing the political regime in Vietnam. Male. This is what I understand to be the general attitude and understanding of the bipartisan United States, not just the views of the Democratic Party.

How do you expect that during the term of President Joe Biden, the relationship between Vietnam and the United States will have more progress?

-On September 20, 2022, I had the opportunity to meet and talk with President Biden. I told the President that Vietnamese people are very grateful for the gift of more than 40 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine that the United States has given to Vietnam recently, which I believe the President has a decisive influence on. in that.

At the same time, I also said that I would like to accompany the President to visit Vietnam before he ends his first term. President Biden laughed and said he couldn’t promise me that, but he immediately told the secretary to take note of my request and get all the relevant information.///