From the darkness of cerebral palsy to the light of knowledge

Nguyen Hong Cuong was born with cerebral palsy and was once on the verge of death. Being a normal person is already difficult, but this Hue boy has done much more than that. In particular, he became a teacher, an inspiration, an English speaker...

Nguyen Hong Cuong was born in 1990 at a large hospital in Hue . Just one day after birth, his body turned purple, cold, and in critical condition due to lack of oxygen. Cuong was saved but at eight months old, he was still immobile. The doctor diagnosed: cerebral palsy, nervous system damage, motor paralysis.

Cuong's life and growth was a long journey of training for him and his parents. The level 4 house became the "training ground" and also the school for the unfortunate boy. His father - Mr. Nguyen Van Cu, former teacher of Dang Tran Con High School - taught his son every small movement and read books to him at every meal. The boy would not eat if his father did not read a story. Then, without realizing it, words seeped into Cuong's head. Then one day, when he was only 3 years old, Cuong picked up a book by himself... and learned to read!

Nguyen Hong Cuong, a self-taught person who has become a transmitter of English knowledge to many students.

At the age of 6, Cuong completed the second grade program with the help of his cousin. Cuong studied nearly 600 books in his father's bookshelf - from Kim Dung to research books. He spoke slowly and with difficulty, but his thinking was coherent, and his vocabulary was so rich that many people were surprised.

At the age of 8, Cuong was given his first computer. With only two fingers still moving, he learned to type little by little. A new world opened up - where he could write, study, research and later prepare hundreds of lessons for his students.

The journey to English began with a "student" love when Cuong was about 17 years old. At that time, his best friend moved to the US to settle down, Cuong was sad, locking himself in his room all day. Seeing that, another friend named Nhu - who was studying at an English university - "pulled" Cuong out of his sad world, convinced Cuong to learn English and she became his first English "teacher". "At first, I studied just to forget my sadness, but unexpectedly I really loved English. Thanks to it, I have changed a lot", Cuong said.

TTM School is a community education facility that teaches free IT - English - Life skills to poor children and students with difficult circumstances in Hue City. The founder is Mr. Nguyen Van Cu, Cuong's father. Mr. Cu said: "In 2002, when Cuong was 12 years old, all schools refused to accept him because of his illness. I opened TTM to create a learning environment for my son like normal children, and at the same time help many other poor students", Mr. Cu said.

Cuong studied English at TTM School for 6 consecutive years. By chance, he met, got to know and was taught English online by two American teachers - Mr. Phill and Mr. Lou. In particular, Mr. Lou, who is also disabled, has accompanied Cuong for 10 years, even flying from the US to Hue to meet his young student.

Cuong's efforts have brought results that many healthy people find difficult to achieve: training a friend to get a 630 TOEFL score, translating a biology thesis into English despite never having attended a single day of school.

At the age of 24, Cuong started earning money from tutoring. Then he became a training manager at E4T English Center in Ho Chi Minh City; he wrote online TOEIC textbooks to help many students achieve 750 - 830 points. After leaving E4T after 3 years, he built his own program called Dora-times - a communication training method based on Doraemon stories.

The Dora-times textbook series consists of 22 volumes, each volume 40-50 pages, all compiled by him with one finger.

Thanks to English, Cuong's world expanded. He became more confident, had more friends, joined the IZI English community, set up a group to teach the disabled for free, and was invited to be a speaker for the NO ORDINARY JOURNEY FOUNDATION (Canada). Many universities in Hue also invited him to interact and inspire students.

The most memorable moment for Cuong was on the night of October 14, 2018 at the event “Zero to Hero - Break The Limit” of IZI Vietnam. On a wheelchair, Cuong was brought onto the stage in front of 4,500 people. With a difficult voice, supported by a friend, he told the story of his journey to overcome his fate. The sentence that made the whole hall stand up and applaud for a long time was: “If you are afraid of communicating in English, then Cuong was afraid of communicating in… Vietnamese. Words do not come from the mouth, but from the heart.”

Teacher Nguyen Hong Cuong with TTM School students.

Over the years, through Facebook, YouTube, the pages “TTM - English is so easy”, “TTM English Group”, “TTM School”,… Cuong has persistently shared hundreds of free lessons.

Cuong still cherishes many plans, all of which are oriented towards learners and the community, hoping to contribute to the goal of making Vietnam a country with universal English proficiency, like Singapore. “With a foreign language, there will be opportunities, jobs, and economic opportunities… I just hope that more Vietnamese people will be good at English to change their lives,” he confided.

Source: https://baodaklak.vn/xa-hoi/202511/tu-bong-toi-bai-nao-den-anh-sang-tri-thuc-82a185b/