Personal Narrative: My Interview With Vietnam

The purpose of the interview was to learn about Vietnam, the country where my informant was born and lived until 1975 when Saigon was invaded by the North Vietnamese. In addition, I had desired to see Vietnam from a perspective other than the Vietnam War where Americans fought. However, there is another reason I chose Vietnam, I work with students whose parents are from Vietnam even though the parents are a younger generation their culture is alive and lived out in their community. Some of the students return to Vietnam every year for the Chinese New Year celebrations. Learning a little about Vietnam allows me to gain knowledge and perspective of their culture. The research project begins by searching the internet, retrieving …show more content…
Honoring the elders of the family is significant, and children are not allowed to talk back to their parents. He has high regard for work ethics, honesty, and true friendship. Politics in the U.S. is a concern for him, it has transformed over the years they have lived in the United States, and honesty does not seem to be important. The informant value of the family structure remains the same as the collective culture in Vietnam, honoring the elders in the family and family with two to three generations living in the same home. The adult children are to honor and take care of their elderly parents. Silence is a valuable skill, the ability to speak less, listen more. In the Vietnamese culture, it is not necessary to express your option or emotions in conversation many times. Having a delay in answering questions is a natural characteristic of that …show more content…
Further, using the first stereotype of Asian Americans, many just assume that all Asian Americans are successful and that none of us are struggling.
On the surface, it may sound rather benign and even flattering to be described in those terms. However, we need to take a much closer look at these numbers. As we will see, many other statistics show that Asian Americans are still the targets of racial inequality and institutional discrimination and that the model minority image is a myth.
The point is that just because many Asian Americans have "made it," it does not mean that all Asian Americans have made it. In many ways, Asian Americans are still the targets of much prejudice, stereotypes, and discrimination. For instance, the persistent belief that "all Asians are smart" puts a tremendous amount of pressure on many Asian Americans. Many, particularly Southeast Asians, are not able to conform to this unrealistic expectation and in fact, have the highest high school dropout rates in the country. (Le,