I belong to the world
My father is Chinese; my mother is Vietnamese. But I belong to the world.
I was raised in Vietnam, and spent most of my childhood in Saigon. Among an extended family of roughly 30 relatives, I was considered the most special kid. Because one of my parent isn’t from Vietnam. Moreover, I was put in French School since the early years of kindergarten which kind of set an invisible barrier between me and my relatives. I had trouble communicating with them since my Vietnamese vocabulary is very limited – I’m still trapped in that situation today, but only worse.
French Culture
Early Education
At the age of 3, me, my mom and dad moved to Hanoi due to my dad’s job. I went to Lycee Alexandre Yersin, my first French school. I was a very good student and was offered to jump a grade, from Grade 1 to 3. But unfortunately, I didn’t know what multiplication was so I failed. And I dislike Math ever since. In fact, I didn’t even know that I was sent to higher classes to take the tests; I thought that my classroom was too crowded.
On the other hand, I showed great interest in English. Since the French School offers English as a subject for Grade 2 students and above, I got the chance to learn this brand new language. My mom, who has been observing my progress, noticed that I have an extraordinary talent in linguistics. Therefore, she hired a tutor to teach me English a level higher than what I was studying at the time.
I moved back to Ho Chi Minh City at the beginning of Grade 4, and enrolled in Ecole Francaise Colette – another French School – while still pursuing my studies in English. In addition to attending English classes in school, I also went to extra English centers 3 times a week for 4 hours per time. I was only a 4th Grader.
The Virtual World
As quickly as I grew up, I got used to using the Internet. A friend at school introduced me to Forums. I signed up and interacted with a lot of older kids (High school and College students), and even went to an offline meeting. Believe it or not, I was only a 5th Grader. I also started to chat, starting among the Vietnamese community.
By the time I reached Grade 6, middle school, I was a pro in surfing the net and chatting, comparing to most children my age, who didn’t know how to use a computer yet. I began expanding my social circumference to overseas by playing online games – for example: Maple Global. I had a chance to practice my written English with other kids around the world - from the Middle East, to Europe, and to as far as the Americas – while still having fun.
A New International Environment
In Grade 8, I started to learn Chinese – Mandarin as a 3rd language at school. Then in the 2nd semester, I switched educational systems for the first time; I moved from French school to Saigon South International School. And that was the turning point of my life.
In this school, I continued learning Chinese – Mandarin. But I no longer converse in French, which really degrade my proficiency in the language. However, I can still understand what people are saying and write intermediate essays in French. I just couldn’t talk fluently anymore.
Because Saigon South International School has so many Korean students, I am more or less influenced by their culture – not that I haven’t shown interest in their culture before, but now it’s becoming prominent. I hear Koreans talking in their native language in the hallways and in class all the time. So I decided that I will learn Korean to understand them and the actors in movies. I studied Korean in a language center for a few months and even studied with a private tutor for half a year. That would explain why I can read and write in Korean, understand basic sentences and words, when I don’t even understand it. I also listen to Korean music. In fact, 90% of the songs in my Itunes are in Korean. Bizarre, right?
Language Issues and Cultural Clashes
Just last week, I had an online argument with my aunt, Vietnamese but raised in the USA, about my education. I’m leaving to the United States next year due to immigration papers so I wanted to discuss with her about my new high school and courses. My aunt was criticizing my choices of languages and education systems. She thinks that studying Chinese is useless in the Americas and the IB Program is not the only thing to make me successful in life. I disagreed and was mad at her for not respecting my choices and priorities. She forced me to learn Spanish. And I was like “Why would I start a brand new language again?”. However, I don’t totally ignore her suggestion. I am planning to learn Spanish, but only after high school, when I’m pretty fluent in Chinese. I think I won’t have trouble in learning Spanish in my late teen years because I’ve studied a much harder but similar language before – French. I’m still mad at her right now; she thinks that studying Spanish and English will make me number 1.
I often complain to my mom and ask her why did she put me in a French school in the first place, when I am not going to France to study; and because of that, I have so much trouble communicating with others and expressing my ideas in an appropriate manner. My mom told me that, before, our family wasn’t able to put me in an American school because of financial shortages. That’s why I went to a French school instead, and now I have to switch educational systems. And I’m all messed up, culturally. I mostly speak Vietnamese with family members and sometimes Vinglish (Viet-English) when I can’t remember a word, Chinamese (Chinese-Vietnamese) with my dad, Vrench (Viet-French) with my brother and sometimes Vinglish also. This brings me a lot of misunderstanding and disadvantage when I’m with my family; but internationally, knowing a lot of languages is my advantage.
After the argument with my aunt, I had a talk with my mother. And she said, “You know, there’s something about Vietnamese immigrants living in the States. They have a different view than us.” My anger was somehow soothed a little. Now that I’m sitting here typing this, I’m also thinking about why my aunt acted that way. She’s the only aunt I talk to every time I have trouble with my mom because my aunt has a more open-minded views about mother-daughter relationships. Maybe because she lives in the States and I go to an American school. But when it comes to education, I was bewildered at what she threw in my face. I think that the reason why Chinese seems so important to me is because I was raised and is currently living in Asia, where China, Japan, and Korea are boss while she was raised in the Americas, where the United States and Spanish culture/language…are boss.
Languages and My Future
I chose Chinese is because in a few decades, China’s economy is going to thrive and therefore, studying the language will prepare me better for the prosperous Chinese market. Since I love languages so much, I was planning to do a job that involves traveling around the world, interacting with a lot of people and cultures, and that is: International Business.
However, the reason why I kept staring at my PSAT booklet the other day, in the College Majors session, is because I currently have another idea in mind. I want to major in Social Work as well. Why Social Work? Because the world needs more people to do those things. We all know that the world’s wealth is not evenly distributed and that is the main factor leading to poverty. So to make the world a better place, I want to major in Social Work.
My current dream is to double-major in International Business and Social Work. International Business will be my source of money and I will use that money to do Social Work. A way in, a way out. I am just in the middle, transporting wealth.
Globalization, Problems, and Resolutions
After reading my super long and boring story, if we talk in terms of globalization, you’ll see that I am pretty globalized. I act and think like the Westerners but I live and study like the Asians. However, I’ve never went to a Chinese nor Vietnamese school so I feel like I’m losing fragments and fragments of the Asian culture; my relatives criticize me all the time and said that I am disrespectful, that I act too much like a “foreigner”, that I should learn to become more “Vietnamese”…Every time I say “It’s okay when you say this at my school!!!”, they would snap back “But Vietnamese don’t and you’re Vietnamese.” And my face would go: -__-”.
Asian Culture
Another problem I’m facing is that I don’t even recognize my sense of identity anymore, since I’m exposed to so many cultures at the same time; but I’m working my way to preserve it (one of the reason why I study Chinese is because I want to understand my father’s native language). See? Chinese is more useful to me.
Notice that earlier I base my educational decisions on relative outcomes. I study Chinese to interact with my paternal relatives, and to prepare myself for the Chinese business market. I choose International Business and Social Work to fulfill my passions: to interact with a lot of different people and cultures, to speak a lot of languages, to make money fast, to travel around the world; and to help reducing the gap between the rich and poor. Maybe if people consider two sides of things, they will be able to come up with possible solutions to confront the negative effects of globalization.
Isn’t it the best of both worlds? (:
Bibliography:
I lost the link to the Asian Culture picture. Credits to whoever owns that picture.
How come your parents enrolled you in a French school and didn’t send you to a Vietnamese school? Your aunt is speaking from an American perspective. If you were to stay in the US, Spanish would be very useful. But I have to agree with you that you will probably return to Asia after your studies, do business here and then Chinese will be much more valuable. And as you say, it is also a part of your culture. Just for that reason I think it is great you learn the language. It’s important, especially because you are a bit confused about your identity. Chinese is part of your heritage and by learning the language you will open doors in understanding more where you come from. THe IB program is one of the best programs in the world and certainly of a higher educational standard than a standard American High School diploma in the States. So if you can, do IB! The curriculum is also more internationally focused.
kholley said this on September 27, 2009 at 11:10 am