Personal Narrative: A Vietnamese Ironic Youth Movement

Words: 650
Pages: 3

The room was dark. My European history teacher was quoting what Louis XIV said to the soon to be Philip V, “Be a good Spaniard,” Mr. Terrell said, “but never forget that you were born a Frenchman.” And those words resonate with me now, except I’m not a Spaniard and I was not born a Frenchman, I’m a Vietnamese American and I was born Vietnamese. I like to think that I’m in touch with my Vietnamese culture, even though it’s hard at times. I live in America, a country where it’s a melting pot of cultures so much so that sometimes it’s hard to believe that there are so many people of different races getting along with each other. Hamburger and fries are much easier to get at the local McDonald’s than bún riêu, a type of Vietnamese vermicelli noodle soup common in Ho Chi Minh. English is much easier to speak because there are people constantly speaking English as part of their everyday language, …show more content…
I am, for the most part, a leader for the children to look up to and somewhat proud of that. I speak Vietnamese and give out instructions to line up the children for the Bible reading. I remember that there was a particular incident that stands out to me even now. “Why do we even need Vietnamese,” asked a young boy in my group as we were waiting for the priest, “can’t we all just speak English?” I frowned, my forehead crinkling and my eyebrows furrowing, before saying sternly once in English and once in Vietnamese, “It’s because it’s part of who you are; you are a Vietnamese American.” Later, I would find out that the boy would just continue to yell insistently in English at my Vietnamese Catholic church. I was obviously disappointed and not only that, I thought to myself, “It’s a terrible thing to never get to know your culture.” Even now, I try to speak a little Vietnamese now and then with that boy so he’ll know how great it is to be