Viet Thanh Nguyen joins MPR News host Kerri Miller as he delves into the story behind his highly original, blistering, and unconventional memoir, “A Man of Two Faces.”
I'm so grateful to MPR News and especially to Viet Thanh Nguyen for speaking openly about his and his family's experiences about leaving Viet Nam and the life they have lived here in the US. I taught English in a community college in Denver where there were MANY Vietnamese students in the Writing Center where I tutored and in my classes. There were a LOT of Vietnamese students so they tended to congregate and continue to speak in their native language. I always encouraged them to continue to learn English, especially American English which has its OWN problems and peculiarities. We had computers in the Writing Center and our techs were the Vietnamese students. I got to be friends with several of them, and they would invited me along to Vietnamese restaurants/cafes to learn about their food (delicious!) and customs. Some of them because special friends and we remained in touch with each other over the years. Honestly, I HATED telling them not to speak their native language AND it sounded so lovely anyway! NOW looking back, I wonder how many of them felt like they were also refugees like Viet Thanh Nguyen. They did try HARD to assimilate into our crazy American life. The last comments about our "American life" rang so true for me. AND to me, that is the MOST embarrassing thing about being American, from the United States. I really feel the ONUS of it when I travel outside the US. I visited Buenos Aires, Argentina just at the same time Dubya was threatening war in Iraq. Each of the Argentines asked me separately, "Do you like Bush?" And of course I DID NOT! And was very much against a huge war in Iraq. AND WHY IRAQ??? It made no sense to me - and the Argentines would respond, "Bush scares me. Scares us." And I'd answer, "Me too." When the Iraq War started on May 3rd, 2003 (or was it April 3rd?), I was back in Denver, Colorado and we were having a HUGE BLIZZARD that very day. I wrote a poem I called "Snow Bomb" - for the blizzard and the beginning of that awful war. America is one crazy-ass place to live. And I've suffered a lot from my American roots. I experienced Medical Bankruptcy because of our VERY CRAPPY HEALTHCARE SYSTEM. Lost everything. So yeah, the paradox of "America"
Mr. Nguyen said that"there were something not to talk about it and don't want to talk about it" that makes me goose bum.
one thing make me respect Mr. Nguyen is that he pronounce perfectly when he say anything in Vietnamese.
I'm so grateful to MPR News and especially to Viet Thanh Nguyen for speaking openly about his and his family's experiences about leaving Viet Nam and the life they have lived here in the US. I taught English in a community college in Denver where there were MANY Vietnamese students in the Writing Center where I tutored and in my classes. There were a LOT of Vietnamese students so they tended to congregate and continue to speak in their native language. I always encouraged them to continue to learn English, especially American English which has its OWN problems and peculiarities. We had computers in the Writing Center and our techs were the Vietnamese students. I got to be friends with several of them, and they would invited me along to Vietnamese restaurants/cafes to learn about their food (delicious!) and customs. Some of them because special friends and we remained in touch with each other over the years. Honestly, I HATED telling them not to speak their native language AND it sounded so lovely anyway! NOW looking back, I wonder how many of them felt like they were also refugees like Viet Thanh Nguyen. They did try HARD to assimilate into our crazy American life.
The last comments about our "American life" rang so true for me. AND to me, that is the MOST embarrassing thing about being American, from the United States. I really feel the ONUS of it when I travel outside the US. I visited Buenos Aires, Argentina just at the same time Dubya was threatening war in Iraq. Each of the Argentines asked me separately, "Do you like Bush?" And of course I DID NOT! And was very much against a huge war in Iraq. AND WHY IRAQ??? It made no sense to me - and the Argentines would respond, "Bush scares me. Scares us." And I'd answer, "Me too."
When the Iraq War started on May 3rd, 2003 (or was it April 3rd?), I was back in Denver, Colorado and we were having a HUGE BLIZZARD that very day. I wrote a poem I called "Snow Bomb" - for the blizzard and the beginning of that awful war. America is one crazy-ass place to live. And I've suffered a lot from my American roots. I experienced Medical Bankruptcy because of our VERY CRAPPY HEALTHCARE SYSTEM. Lost everything. So yeah, the paradox of "America"
"They didn't want to talk about it. why shoul I make them talk about it". That's is. The past is scarry enough.
A parallel: Jewish victims of the Nazi regime often haven't been able or willing to talk about their experiences, either.
The black Americans put that in songs like "What's Going on!!!" or MLK!!!. Even Elvis sang about "In the Ghetto"