Grande collecte de l'Inalco" oral archives project: first alumni accounts

A partnership between Inalco and UVSQ-Université Paris-Saclay

The collection of oral testimonies was carried out from January 2025 in partnership with first-year students on the Master "Gestion des archives et de l'archivage" at UVSQ-Université Paris-Saclay: Thomas Bantchik, Adrien Bonneville, Clara Bucur and Solène Mottaz. They conducted interviews with seven actors and actresses from Inalco: Sylvie Servan Schreiber (student of Chinese), Alain Forest (student then teacher of Khmer), Madeleine Félix (daughter of Roger Bernard, teacher of Bulgarian), Catherine Dubreuil (student of Chinese then Vietnamese), Edith Ybert (student of Russian), Philippe Julian (student of Cambodian) and Marianne Bastid-Bruguière (student of Chinese). An interview with Françoise Moreux had already been carried out by Clément Fabre and Louis Pourre in 2024.

The archives held at Inalco helped them prepare the interviews and draw up questionnaires tailored to each individual. This project marks, for these students, a first experience of collecting oral archives as well as processing and indexing the interviews, on the Nakala warehouse. Inalco and its teams, Sarah Cadorel (Head of the Scientific Information, Archives and Heritage Department), Clément Fabre (Historian, member of Inalco's History Committee) and Vincent Drouot (ICTE and Digital Uses Unit), supervised and accompanied them during this project.

The beginnings of an ambitious project

Inalco has a rich history. Thousands of testimonials from former teachers and students are available. These few interviews therefore mark the beginning of this large-scale project, which seeks to illustrate and represent the Institute from multiple angles.

The interviews and their documentation have been processed to make them accessible and give a personal and plural vision of Inalco. These interviews focus mainly on the 1960s: the people we met lived through May 68 or witnessed cultural and political developments in the countries whose languages they were studying. These seven interviews underline the importance of their time at Inalco. For these former students, Russian, Mandarin, Khmer, Tibetan and Bulgarian are all languages they would not have been able to learn elsewhere, and which subsequently enabled them to launch their professional careers. This project highlights the long-term impacts of an education at Inalco, while creating a bridge between various generations and key moments in the school's history.

In addition to the political theme, the interviews address other topics such as the path that led the interviewees to enroll at Inalco, the organization of courses, a typical day at Langues O', language learning, descriptions of sociabilities, issues linked to the geographical spread of Langues O', the differences and commonalities between this institute and other university organizations, the career paths that followed their studies, etc.

An enriching experience: the little stories that marked the students

The richness and diversity of the interviews marked, surprised or moved the UVSQ Paris-Saclay students during this Grande collecte.
 

Adrien Bonneville:

I was particularly interested in the testimonies of several former Chinese students (Françoise Moreux, Catherine Dubreuil, Marianne Bastid-Bruguière) as commonalities emerged, particularly with regard to the mention of teachers and répétiteurs, and this without our having to say, beforehand, the names, while sharing personal anecdotes. I was able to hear their recollections of the teaching of Robert Ruhlmann (linguistics, literature and civilization), Odile Kaltenmark (ancient Chinese), Nicole Vandier-Nicolas (history), Jacques Pimpaneau (language) or the répétiteurs Li Tche-houa and Chou-yi Reclus, née Houang. I understood that one of Marianne Bastid-Bruguière's regrets was not to have been able to follow Jacques Pimpaneau's teaching, even though he is a reference for a "generation of students". I particularly remember Catherine Dubreuil's nostalgic and detailed account of her memories of the courses she attended. She acknowledged that the linguistics course was difficult, that the ancient Chinese course was complex to understand, and recalled the importance of repeaters in language learning. She also told us that Madame Vandier-Nicolas was "very friendly" and took care to "repeat herself" so that the students would understand. And Monsieur Pimpaneau was both "very funny and demanding".

Thomas Bantchik:

I was particularly struck by Madame Sylvie Servan-Schreiber's account of the events of May 68 at Inalco. While other alumni we interviewed had distanced themselves from this protest movement at the time, Madame Servan-Schreiber described a place where ideas and reforms were truly emanating, around the various commissions. She recounted several anecdotes, but the one that strikes me as the most emblematic concerns an opposition with her father that was both ideological and traditional. Madame Servan-Schreiber had been on guard duty with her sister Catherine, also a student at Langues O', for several days at the time - in anticipation of a police attack that would never take place - when her father issued an ultimatum. He ordered her to leave the Langues O' barricades, or she would never be able to return to her parents. Sylvie Servan-Schreiber immediately refused. And when her father imposed the same dilemma on Catherine Servan-Schreiber, the latter replied, "Between my sister and my soup, it's chosen, it's my sister!"

Clara Bucur:

One anecdote that stood out for me during Madeleine Félix's interview about her father Roger Bernard was when she spoke of the special relationship he had with his pupils; seeking to ease their journeys in Bulgaria and promoting language practice through total immersion. It's easy to see that Mr. Bernard wasn't just looking for a job, but also wanted to immerse his students in a multicultural environment. I also enjoyed learning that it was Léopold Sédar Senghor, the first President of Senegal, who helped Mr. Bernard find the funds for the Bulgarian Institute. He even joked that the road to Sofia passes through Dakar.

Solène Mottaz:

I was particularly touched by the different paths taken by the people I met to discover and become interested in Oriental languages. For Catherine Dubreuil, it was a return to the history of her family who had lived in Indochina, while for Alain Forest, rather an interest fueled by an experience in Cambodia at just 19 years of age. As for Marianne Bastid-Bruguière, it was a discovery and immediate interest in Chinese culture during a Sunday lunch with a Chinese family.

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In conclusion, through the harvesting of these personal stories, this project opens the doors of Inalco in a new way and, thanks to the participation of students, offers an intergenerational dialogue, as well as easy access to the diverse and plural history of Inalco.