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Okay, so today is April 26th, 2025. My name is Lana Nguyen and I'm here today with my dad, Viet Nguyen, on behalf of the Houston Asian American Archive at Rice University. Dad, can you please state your full name and

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where and when you were born? Hi, I'm Viet Q. Nguyen. I'm a Lana dad. I originally born in Vietnam, Saigon.

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And now here in Houston. Can you say the year as well? What—your-your-your birth date? Oh, the born years is September

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27th, 1969. Okay. Thank you. How many siblings did you have? Oh, a big family, I had ten. Surprise, huh?

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Yeah. So, can you describe your relationship with your siblings? I actually closer with my sister and my brother. The only one brothers are really close to Bác Hoang. Uncle Hoang. And then most of my sisters are very close,

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too. And what about your parents? What's your relationship with your parents? With my mom. Closer with my mom.

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You know, because my dad's, that's a certain big amount of time that he not with me. That's why. Yeah. Can you explain why he was not with you?

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Well, when-when the-the the South and the North Vietnam was fighting and the south collapsed. My dad... what they call it prisoner. He in-in-in

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prison for a long time when I growing up. That's after the war ended. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for sharing. How would you describe the household that you grew up in-grew up in?

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The household is... I don't remember exactly, but back then, I kind of a little-little? [LN: Yeah.] The house kind of just normal. Just normal. Okay. How would you describe the neighborhood you grew up in?

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The name? The neighborhood- the neighborhood- [VN: The neighborhood?] Like, was it quiet? Was it...? No, no, it's not quiet.

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It's is-is-is big different from here. It's like all houses open door. You know, people walk around the neighborhood all day. Not like over here they closing the door how separately and

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private. But over there it's–is like the--it's like a village, you know. You can come in any houses. They just open you walk in and talking and-and do a lot of things in their house too.

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So you would say, like, a lack of privacy and crowded and loud. That's how you would describe your neighborhood? Kind of. Okay. Okay, thank you.

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And what were some values that your parents emphasized in your upbringing? So when you were a kid, what kind of values did your parents teach you? I think is the value that

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for my parents is that you had to respect the elder. And try to keep your culture, no matter where you go. And make sure where your root is.

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And make sure you know who you are, where are you from. Okay. Thank you. So, what is your favorite childhood memory? Our thing is the favorite part in the house is the front yard. That's where I spent most of my time at-at night time.

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What would you do in the front yard? Go in the front door, sit down, and watch the people walk by. Play my guitar. You know, that sort of thing. Okay. Thank you. So I'm just going to take us back to your early

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educational experiences. So in elementary and middle school. So, do you remember what schools you attended and were there any teachers or experiences during this early schooling that inspired you academically

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or non-academically? I would say that back to my time, the school system not really has a lot of memory for you to remember. Actually, in the situation where the country after the war ended is

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not really, you know, what I'm saying–is not really, a lot of good thing going on. So that don't give you a lot of good memory. It just is a part of life.

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You have to go to school and go back home. So you would say that you feel like there weren't any, like, experiences or teachers that really stood out during those? I don't remember any part of any teacher.

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None of that middle school. [LN: Okay.] Yeah. Yeah. Okay, so– One thing I can tell you that in school is

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in our culture is that very disciplined in school. Students have to listen to teacher 100%. No talk back. Because you know that your teacher there to teach you.

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So, you kind of know that they know more than you. Yeah. So it ties back to what your parents taught you early on about sort of just respecting your elders, right? Yeah.

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Right. Yeah. So, just going back to your parents. So were your parents supportive of your interests early in life? And did they ever push you to pursue, like, certain interests or fields of study, in regards to, like, career?

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To be honest with you, at my time growing up, where the country at that time is, all you worry about is the food that you eat. So, the parents that really don't have

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time to focus on their children's. It's hard. I'm not-I'm not saying 100% every house is the same, but the situation that the country in at that time, I think most parents don't have time for their children.

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Though all they do is go out, find work and make money and get food to eat. That's a-that's a main thing. Funny, but it's a main thing. So you're on your own.

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So can you tell me about the kind of jobs your parents worked? No job. They no job. This is a hard thing. I think it's—you got to go out to do whatever to do—I

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think—I don't think it is here is applied to back then in Vietnam, there were no job. You not go to work in the company? No. You don't have any company to go work for.

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You—I think my—what mom did was that she was bouncing around, you know what I'm saying? Let's say you buy the-a bicycle and resell it to make a profit out of it,

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to make a living. That a example. Or she buys something and then resell it to-to make a profit out of it to buy food, that's all. And no salary and no money guaranteed every month.

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So this was around the same time that your dad was in jail, right? Yep. I would say the reason not to use the term jail. Okay.

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He was in prison. Okay. Prisoner of war. Okay. So just moving onto education.

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So what high school did you attend? Marie Curie. Yeah. So I just kind of wondered what did you learn in high school? Did you learn English?

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Did you learn any languages? No. The language is back in my time is the Russian. Russian is the language that a second language back at my time. I think that's applied for every-every school.

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Every student had to learn Russian as a second language. I learned English is in private school was which I had to pay money to go to because at that time where

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every--the country start opened the door for the world come in so the English will be the international language. So, there's a lot of center open starting teaching English so I-I go there.

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Yeah. I see. So did any of your other siblings go to those centers, or was it just you? I think there were my two older brothers.

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They went to school, but the different school. Not the same with mine. Yeah. So, I know you left Vietnam at, like, when you were in your late 20s? Kind of mid 20.

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Mid 20, so prior to that, did you work any jobs in Vietnam or any gigs? I worked; I tried a couple of jobs for won't last—it wouldn't last long.

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Yeah, it's like a couple of days that were job here and there. But actually that-that time I was too young, so there were no job. It's-it's hard to find a job. And I work for one of the companies.

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I think it's about three months. That'd be it. Could you tell me kind of the things that you would do? Construction. I was just a helper.

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I don't have any experience, so I came in as a helper. They tell me have this and have that and do this and do that so that I did. Yeah. I remember one time you told me a story about your construction job

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down-down south. Can you tell me about that? Yeah. I got a friend. All of a sudden, he--we met and he said, hey you want to go to work?

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I said, yeah, well, what you want? What kind of job? They say we want to do the construction. You'd be a helper. I said, yeah, sure. And it's-it's not the same town.

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It's a different town. So we-we-we went. I think it worked out about three months. And the way that they pay you is not like in—back then they pay in cash.

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They're not, like, check, credit cards, and something like that. So, the-the big boss didn't make any money out of that deal, so he didn't pay us the money that we work for.

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So w-we-we--when we--the way back home, we had to walk. We walk about I think is-is it's far. We walk. I think it's about 200 miles from that place. It take. It took us about two, almost three days to walk home.

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Wow. You must have been really tired by the end of that? Yes, ma'am. Yeah. So, I'm just going to talk about your immigration now. So can you tell me when you moved to the U.S.

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And what prompted you to do so? Kind of what the process was like? We moved to the U.S. In 1994. And the first place we

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came is Houston. And we stay up to now. Yeah. So, how-how did you guys end up in-in the US? Your grandpa. Grandpa. Okay. My dad is-is the serve for the

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South, right? So after he, in-in-in-in prison for a long time, and then the government of the U.S. Had the program called the SO. Right. So, they help us to

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move here. To leave Vietnam to come here to--. Yeah. So yeah. Yeah. So did your whole family move with you, or was it just some members of your family?

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Only the single one has come with-with-with together. And the one that got married is cannot go because when you married the person outside of the family, is it not in-in the

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process of, like, doing the paperwork. So, I have-I have half of the family to stay back. I have three sisters. Married. Had to stay.

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Two brothers had to stay back there. So five. Five go with parents. Five stay. Okay. Thank you. So, can you tell me about, if there are,

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any challenges that you faced when adjusting to the United States--to living in the United States? I think that the bigger challenge that I face is when I first came is the

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moving places to places. That is the most challenging that I faced very early day. Because when we first came, we know how to ride a car, right? So but at the same time, you need money,

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so you have to go to work and make money, right? So I took a job on the second day here when I got here, but I had to make half of them.

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One of relative-relative from-from-from my dad to drop me off and pick me up every day for a long, long time, for over a year. So I saved up money and buy a car.

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So I on my own. That's a bigger challenge that I face. Yeah. So finding transportation? Yeah. Mhm. Did you face any discrimination when you were in

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the U.S.? Actually it's a yes or a no. One of our, you know, things like that happened—I would say that-that because people

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still don't understand you much. So, they look at you in the weird way. But if you stay long, know that person long enough, they understand that;

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they change the way they-they look at you. Can you give me an example of that, maybe? Like, of people not understanding you? I think I remember that-that I went to school,

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right? So, for-for early day that they called us the English as a second language. We go to the to learn this. And then there were-there was a lot of different diversity,

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right? It's different races in the school, and it's only quite a few Vietnamese, and you kind of feel like nobody want to that talk to you, you know what I'm saying?

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Just like-like you don't have--let's say you have 100 people around you, but I had, like, two Vietnamese people and this kind of feel like—and then I remember I was studying in school for quite a long time,

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for a year or two. And then I had make a lot of friends and they understand. And that made you feel better. Thank you so much for explaining. So you said that you stayed in school for only a year or two.

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What prevented you from finishing school? I assume you went to college straight after you came here? I-I didn't—I didn't go to college straight. I study at HCC school,

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Houston Community College for--I worked because at the same time, I need money, right? So, I am work full time and I go at nighttime to go to school to study English, right?

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So, there's a certain amount of time when I reached a certain level. So I start quit my job at daytime. So, I go to school full time at daytime, still at the HCC. And I found another job, work at night time.

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So, I work, like, 2 from 4 p.m. to 2 or 3 a.m. in the morning, right? I still had to maintain my-my-- the money that come in I needed for bills and stuff and-and go to school at daytime.

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So, for—I think it's because in the second language, which take me longer. It took me longer than the others. So, when I met your mom, that process kind of stop,

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you know. We kind of try to put it on hold and go come back. But then I have you and Vincent. So, that that's kind of up to now, you know. But it-but it's but it's moving well, but it's moving well,

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you know what I'm saying? Yeah. Thank you for sharing. So, did you keep in touch with any of your family back in Vietnam? Because I know you said half of them stayed, and half of them went with you.

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So, for the half that stayed behind. How did you keep in touch with them? Yeah. Back then, we don't have FaceTime, right? We don't have phones. So, we had to buy-buy the the phone card that we

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call I call-I call them very often. I call them very often, you know when I was single, right? So it's easy to manage connection here and back there. But when I-when I got married, I got family is most of my time focused

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on you guys. So, the calling back to Vietnam is less than I was single. So, now I call, like, sometime. So, when I have really have time.

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Yeah. Thank you. So, were you able to find a solid Vietnamese community when you arrived in Houston? I mean, Houston is the second largest city of Vietnamese people So. I actually, at that time,

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I actually don't think that's-that is important for me, you know, because I have to do to build up for me first. And to be able to do that, then you just have to,

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learn English and go to work that the two thing that you focus, you don't --I never really don't really looking for the Vietnamese community back then. And then now I established what I wanted.

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Now I can do that. Okay. Thank you. So was the U.S. everything you expected, and how was it different to maybe things that you saw in the movies, TVs, and news?

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For me, it-it doesn't surprise me much because I kind of-- when I, when I, back to when I was still in Vietnam, I got a friend.

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He's American. He from New York. I did a job as tourist guide. So, the school picked me to take him to go places.

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So, we talk a lot, and he tell me a lot of stuff here. And when I came, it's not really surprised me a lot. It did not. Yeah.

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What kind of stuff did he tell you about America? He say that what-what you see in the movie is, it not true. It's in the movie, right?

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In reality, is in America you have to go to work. You have to make a living. You have to have a lot of responsibility. Don't look at the movie and keep that in your mind

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that's going to be the life of Americans. He said no. But I kind of had that mindset different when I came. It not really surprised me.

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I see-I see that. I understand that. I understand that. Yeah. Yeah. So you lived here for longer than you lived in Vietnam. So, I'm just curious, did you ever miss Vietnam?

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I-I do. I do miss Vietnam when--because life is so busy, right? You don't--when I was single, I got a lot of chances to go back. But I never took that chance.

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I didn't-I didn't miss that much. But there was certain time that come to your mind that you all of a sudden you're thinking about back then. Because-because I don't want to lose my mind think

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in the past, you know what I'm saying? Because it's not really a lot of good memory for me. So I just forced it up, not thinking about it. But-but I do, I do miss sometime

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when-when somebody talking about it and just bring up in your mind and you start thinking. But other than that, when you really busy and you had no time to think and I. Yeah.

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Yeah. So you said that you think about it, you miss it. So what what do you think about when you miss Vietnam? Like, what do you miss? I think about the some of the time that when I in school,

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when in high school. The-the you know when-when-when-when some of the things that when you grown up and and they stay in your head. Right? The school, your friend, your teacher.

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The way your school look, you know, the way you walk home every day. You know what I'm saying? I remember just on middle school when we had to walk to school every day, right?

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So, the distance from-from home to school is quite a long, long distance. And when it rain, that's-that when you're young, right, rain you really get exciting,

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right? Happy. But when you have your books and all that stuff and get wet, you know what I'm saying? The first time you get exciting and then you go home, you realize, uh oh, you need money to buy the new one and you don't have that

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money. So when the second time you see rain, you're scared. You don't think it's funny anymore. You know what I'm saying? Because we actually didn't have money to buy the raincoats for everybody. I think it's-I think it's mom has 1

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or 2 at home, but not for everybody. So if I know, maybe tomorrow will be raining for you. And then I'll take it. Because your backpack is really small.

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You-you don't—you don't want to take with you every day. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. [LN: so you miss—] just have for everybody. But you don't want to keep its for yourself because leave it at home for somebody else who's going to need it.

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So-so you miss those days? LN: [LN: laughs] Kind of, Kind of. Those are really nice memory. When-when you grew up, the way that your neighbor looked, the trees and the street that you're walking every day.

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That's nice. Very nice. Yeah, that-that, honestly, that's actually really funny. Especially your story about the rain. So I know that it's been, like-like, since you first came to America

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in 1994. [VN: Yeah.] Up until 2025, you hadn't been back to Vietnam. So this past summer was the first time you've been back to Vietnam? [VN: Yeah.] Yeah. So can you tell me how that felt for you? Like your, like, first impressions?

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This is--I'm not going to lie. It is the big surprise, but not super surprised. If I had gone back to Saigon, that would be the very best where I grew up, you know what I'm saying?

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But when we went to Viet--central Vietnam, Hue. That kind of bring back some kind of memory, but it's not exactly what memory you had in your head, you know what I'm saying? But it's-but it's-but it's good.

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But it's good. Yeah, it's pretty good. I felt really good when I stepped back to that airport. Step out, you know. What was-what was good about it?

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You just-you just feel like you're at homeland, you know. You're at home. You can-you can feel that moment. You know what I'm saying? You can feel that moment when you left home,

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you just say you left home for 30 years and you came back home. Home is always sweet home. You know, to compare country as a home for 30 years, to come back for the first time but

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not right where you grew up. But still good, though. Still good. Yeah, but I-but I really want, you know,

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to go back where I grew up. That would be-that would I think that will be super, super best. Hopefully one day. [LN: laughs]

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Yeah, actually, I, well, you know, when-when you growing up, I would say from middle school to high school, that is the time that-that-that you really

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everything happened to stick in your head. You know, I would love to see that again. Even if it's, like, completely different? Because I'm pretty sure Saigon has changed a lot in 30 years.

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It does change a lot, but you just feel like that it is right there, you know, like you found it. That's really great. Thank you for sharing. So, during your time in the U.S,, you said that you started working on,

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like, the second day you landed. So can you walk me through your career history in the U.S.? Like, all the jobs that you can remember that you worked. First job I had like a busboy.

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I worked at a restaurant, right? So, and then, customer come in and talking and everything. And one day, there's-there's one gentleman came in and we talked a couple times.

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So he was, like, "my company opened, had job open. You you want a job instead of work here? You're still young. Work here at restaurant." I said, "yeah, I would love to." So, he helped me found that job.

00:32:42.700 - 00:32:59.670

Worked at a company called Fraser. What we did was build the ambulances and fire truck, right? So I-I worked there about five years. I remember, yeah.

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And then I realized that I can't work like that, you know. I'm still young, so I need to go back to school. So I talked to my boss and say, "I'm going to-I'm going to leave your company. I'm going to go back to school," you know what I'm

00:33:19.670 - 00:33:38.230

saying? And, they really didn't want me to leave because I was really good at what I'm been doing, you know? So, long story short that I left the company, right? So, I went back to

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school to study English. And I worked at night time at the another company called Flextronics, right? So, I work at the

00:33:55.720 - 00:34:07.760

night time, night shift. So they closed and shut down the night shift. They moved everybody to the day shift. So I had to--I had to choose between go to school and go to

00:34:07.800 - 00:34:26.320

work, right? So I had to stop, go to school at daytime, and I go keep on working because I need money. And I went back to go to school

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at night time. But like the, not the full time, just a part time, just one semester, you know, one class, two classes, one semester. And the company I work for,

00:34:46.880 - 00:35:06.600

they moved to China. They're shutting down. So, I worked there about 15 years. So when they announced it's shutting down, it broke my heart. Because you worked there long, you put too much effort into it.

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You build your future there 15 years, and they shut them down. It broke my heart. A lot of my co-workers crying, you know. So-so I'll stay there to the last day.

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I remember I stayed there to the last day in 19-19, 2014. That was the last day on April. The company's completely out of that building. And I'm the last person to walk out, you know.

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And with the desire want to work—I don't want to stay home to get the-the unemployment benefit, you know what I'm saying? So, I called one of my friend, I said, "hey, your company need anybody?" He said,

00:36:03.330 - 00:36:21.490

"yeah, come, come in and put your resume in and see what happen." So, I came the next day. I talked to Brandon. Right. So he likes me right away. He said, "okay, you can start tomorrow." So I got

00:36:21.530 - 00:36:34.330

lucky on that one, right? So, well we do different things and not the same thing that I been doing for 15 years. So we-we do different thing, and,

00:36:34.410 - 00:36:52.460

everything went well pretty good for about three years. And that company announced to shut down—they moved to Mexico, right? So I learned everything I need to do my job really good.

00:36:52.500 - 00:37:09.820

So the company trusted me, so they picked me as the trainee when the process of training the people in Mexico. So I had to go to Mexico a couple of times to train the people to do what I've been doing, you know? They pay me good.

00:37:11.180 - 00:37:25.540

And then Brandon went to find another job, right? So, he gave me his phone number. So, I'm the last one staying Benton.

00:37:25.580 - 00:37:42.660

The company called Benton, by the way. I'll stay there for the-the last person to stay the last day. When I left? 2017 in November, right. It's kind of, close

00:37:42.660 - 00:37:54.910

to Thanksgiving and all that. You know, the holiday season, right? So really sad, right? You lost your job and all that stuff. So, I went to Mexico. I do training

00:37:55.910 - 00:38:12.630

for a couple of times, and then, we're really sad because that's the holiday season, right? I remember this is Harvey at that time, same year. Harvey, right. So I called

00:38:13.350 - 00:38:26.310

Brandon. Right. But before I called Brandon, I got the--I sent my resume everywhere. So that's one company called me. They--I talked to them, and they like me.

00:38:26.310 - 00:38:43.520

So, they say they want to meet me in person next Monday. But at that time, it-it is Wednesday. So I called Brandon on the same day, Wednesday. I say, I talked to him, and I say, "is there

00:38:43.520 - 00:39:03.160

any job opening over there?" And he said, "come on in via we'll see." And then I came the next day, talked to him and he said, "right now it's not the full time job, but like the temp job, the temporary job, we are not the boss of

00:39:03.160 - 00:39:14.760

the company. They're going to try you in, use me, right. In three months to see how you do the work. If they like it, they're going to hire you. If not, and then. I'm sorry." All that stuff.

00:39:15.240 - 00:39:29.480

I said, "okay, I'll-I'll try. I'll do it because it's close to home." At that time I had another job on in-in-in line already, but it's far away. It's about over an hour drive, so I

00:39:30.000 - 00:39:47.530

took a chance. I'll stay here, close by the house. So I said, "okay, I'll take it." So I came in the next Monday to start a new job and I worked there about almost three months. So I told—I came and talked to Brandon and said,

00:39:47.530 - 00:40:03.970

"hey, my time is almost up. I guess I had to leave, right?" So he said, "no, no, they like you, but, you had to stay but give them another three months. They want to see you in another three months to see how you work out here." I

00:40:04.010 - 00:40:21.810

say "okay." I told him, okay. And then I went home and I called another place for the interview, and they-they said, okay. They,

00:40:21.810 - 00:40:40.180

hire me, right? So, I got the paperwork and everything ready, so I took that paperwork to show Brandon and said, "if you don't hire me and I'm leaving, I got another job already," right?

00:40:40.180 - 00:40:56.020

So, I put a little pressure on him. So, he took my paper, he gave it to his boss, right? He said "Viet's going to leave if you don't hire him." So, they said, "no, no, no, we'll hire you.

00:40:56.300 - 00:41:10.620

We're going to hire you. Just stay." And they tried to do is another three months. I said, "no, I'm not going to take that chance.

00:41:10.660 - 00:41:24.140

What if, you know, three months you don't hire me. And now I already had a job, and they're going, I'm going to lose both the job." So, I will talk back and forth. And they hired me the next day.

00:41:24.300 - 00:41:37.590

So up to now, I stayed there. They called Puffer-Sweiven, the company I work for now. Yeah. So, can you explain kind of what are your roles and

00:41:37.590 - 00:41:50.990

responsibilities, like, in Puffer-Sweiven and Pentair were? Oh, I do as the wire technician, right? What I—what I been doing is that,

00:41:53.510 - 00:42:12.110

to help the newcomer, the new hire, to understand the process, what we've been doing, how we do our job, right? And I also do the job by myself and training at the same time, right?

00:42:13.670 - 00:42:31.350

And happy now to fix the problem for designer what they have mistaken, I'll find it. I'll fix it, that sort of thing. Thank you so much. So, out of all the jobs that you've worked,

00:42:31.390 - 00:42:53.200

do you have a favorite job? I would say, no. I like everything I do. Okay, so-so I-I saw that you put

00:42:53.200 - 00:43:06.800

that you volunteered for second mile mission. So, when and why did you start volunteering there? Oh, I-I remember I took my daughter there.

00:43:08.320 - 00:43:21.960

Me? Right. Yeah. And I-I didn't feel good to leave you there. But I go and sit in the car is too hot,

00:43:21.960 - 00:43:34.370

right? Or too long either. Either way, I don't want to go home. It's too far from home. So, I decided that stay with you to do the volunteer work, and I kind of find out that interesting me too,

00:43:34.410 - 00:43:48.570

to have, you know, to do this thing like that. It is helping out the community. It's-it's-it's good. I like that too. Since then I like it, and I do that with you and with

00:43:48.570 - 00:44:06.210

Vincent every single time we go there. Can you quickly explain what second mile mission is and what you do there? What they do is that they receive the food from the people that donate-donate to, right?

00:44:06.250 - 00:44:21.890

So they—we sort them out. We sort them out in, like, the portion that we give for each people, like, ten apple, ten orange or a big tomato and

00:44:22.130 - 00:44:35.290

stuff like that and put them all together and for one person and then wait. When they come, we bring it to them, you know, to help out. That's pretty good. That feel good.

00:44:36.450 - 00:44:54.090

Did you ever consider moving to another city for better opportunities? And what made you stay in Houston? Well, I love Houston. I think-I think for me is Houston is a

00:44:54.090 - 00:45:10.530

place that I came first, right? So I feel like that whatever first, very important to me, you know. That the city that I-I will say that-that I had a lot of

00:45:14.050 - 00:45:31.140

up and down moment with, you know. And the city that have given me the second chance. So, that's why I don't want to go any other city. I want to stay in Houston as long as I can.

00:45:34.300 - 00:45:50.500

Thank you. So, you talk about your family a lot. So, we're going to talk about your family now. How did you meet your wife? Oh through one of the wedding of my friend brother, right? So, my friend

00:45:53.540 - 00:46:09.500

is one of the relatives of my wife. But we didn't know that before, right? So-so my friend brother, he getting married.

00:46:09.500 - 00:46:27.310

So he say, "hey, you have time to come and help me set up the wedding," you know, the-- yeah. And then I said yes. So, when I came, I-I-I met your mom over there.

00:46:28.070 - 00:46:47.590

So, we talk a little bit, right? But the thing is that it's a long distance. She lived back then in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, right? So we call every day, right?

00:46:47.630 - 00:46:59.870

We call every day talking. And I went there a couple of times. She came down here a couple times.

00:47:01.110 - 00:47:16.070

It took us for, I think it's three, I think a three years to understand each other, get to know each other. And then we married. [VN: Laughter]

00:47:19.030 - 00:47:30.480

Yeah. So, how close are you with your parents and your family today? Very close. Yeah. Very close. Yeah. I'm very close to my mom.

00:47:32.760 - 00:47:43.560

Yeah. What about the rest of your family? What about me and mom and-and then and Vincent? That's different. That's for us, it's close, yeah. That's-that's-that's our family, yeah.

00:47:43.600 - 00:47:59.000

I'm very close to my daughter and my son and my wife. Yeah. That sounds great. So, what sort of values and principles did you instill in your children during their upbringing?

00:48:01.440 - 00:48:18.040

Ah, I think that the same values that mom and–my mom and my dad, you know, handed down to me. And I want the same values for you and Vincent, you know.

00:48:20.080 - 00:48:36.010

So, just bouncing off of that, how important was it for your children to kind of understand their own ethnic heritage when raising them? So, like, their own culture, like, Vietnamese culture? Oh, very complicated, very hard, right?

00:48:36.290 - 00:48:52.890

Because I understand that-that to be able to understand the culture deeply, right, you had to speak the language, right? But you and Vincent were born here.

00:48:52.890 - 00:49:08.970

So, I mean, I'm not saying your Vietnamese is great, right? Compared to people that are born here, your-your language, Vietnamese language is great. It's-it's beyond what I expected,

00:49:09.890 - 00:49:28.220

right? For real. A lot of kids, they don't speak their own language or native language. But you do. And at beyond my-my expectation. But I think with that amount of knowledge about your language that you

00:49:28.220 - 00:49:45.900

own and Vincent, I think that's enough for you to understand for our cultures. I think that's enough, right? Because you have that there. If you need to go deeper, all you gotta do is study.

00:49:46.540 - 00:49:59.980

You have the foundation. You have the basic. Right? Yeah. So what are your hobbies and interests just outside of your career?

00:50:02.220 - 00:50:16.180

You're talking about sport? Are you talking about the thing that I do? Just anything like playing soccer. Anything that you do outside of your career that you are--you consider a hobby or

00:50:16.180 - 00:50:32.430

something that you're interested in. I think that I'm interested in is, as right now, I want to spend time with my family, with-with my daughter and my son and my wife. I-I want us to go here and there or play

00:50:32.430 - 00:50:52.670

soccer together. It's great, you know. To be honest with you, it's something that-that I'm interested to do for myself right now, I don't think of anything.

00:50:54.070 - 00:51:11.110

My company has a lot of things for the whole company to do, like, they go out to the game, the baseball game, you know. But I never go. I don't want to go. Yeah, but if we go

00:51:11.110 - 00:51:27.880

together and I do. I do. You don't want to go by yourself? Actually, I don't-I don't. I just--at my age, right now, at my life right

00:51:27.880 - 00:51:43.840

now, I want to spend my time with my family. You know. That's really good to hear. [VN: Yep.] So, what mistakes have you made that you hope your children would not repeat?

00:51:47.080 - 00:52:06.080

The mistake I-I-I don't-I don't want to say that's a mistake that I made, you know. But one of the things that I want from you two is that never

00:52:06.080 - 00:52:27.730

quit school. I support you two, whatever you decided to do, you know. Finish your school, you know. [LN: Yes.] That's one of the things that

00:52:29.330 - 00:52:46.650

never made you ever regret. I quit school not because I'm not regretting it. I'm not calling I quit because life taken turn, right? Sometime you cannot expect the

00:52:47.370 - 00:53:07.810

thing can happen uncertain and, right? Life take you to different, the way you want it to go. So, my plan was to

00:53:07.850 - 00:53:26.570

keep going to school, right? But, I stopped, but I happy though, right? But I happy. But it no excuses, right, for you two

00:53:26.810 - 00:53:43.570

is do whatever you love to do. Stay in school. Yeah. So, don't worry.

00:53:43.570 - 00:54:00.330

I will stay in school. [VN: Yeah.] We're finally reaching the last section of this interview. How would you identify yourself ethnically? I identify myself as a Vietnamese.

00:54:01.210 - 00:54:32.460

Okay. And what do you feel most proud of? Just being who you are, right? And hold up the-the values that-that made who you are. That's made me proud.

00:54:34.500 - 00:54:49.140

I'm saying what-what you feel most proud of. Like, what have you done that you feel proud of? Me? Ah, I'm proud that I have

00:54:54.500 - 00:55:07.300

my children. For real. I'm really proud of you and Vincent. Thank you. Yeah.

00:55:07.390 - 00:55:24.830

So when and where do you feel most at home? I mean, home, home or Vietnam? Just a sense of where you feel most comfortable. So, like, you go to this place and you're, like,

00:55:25.350 - 00:55:50.230

this is relaxing. It's hard because I feel like every time I come home, it's relaxing. That's good then. So you just feel home at home?

00:55:50.630 - 00:56:01.950

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, if your children or grandchildren watch this interview in the future, what is the message you want to give to them?

00:56:21.040 - 00:56:58.760

The message I want to send to them is... Ah. Can you move on on that one? Okay, so that was the second to last question.

00:56:58.760 - 00:57:13.210

The last question is, if there's anything you would like to add that we have not covered yet. No, everything is good. Okay, so this leaves us with the final question,

00:57:13.210 - 00:57:30.570

which is the message you would like to give if any-any of your children or future grandchildren were to watch this. If children or grandchildren watch this interview, the message I want to send them is that,

00:57:36.730 - 00:57:53.210

need to remember where you from and who you are. Okay. Thank you so much. I'm going to interview our-our interview--I'm going to end our interview here.

00:57:53.370 - 00:58:02.410

Thank you so much for participating and I hope you have a nice day. Welcome so much. Thank you for interviewing me. Of course. Have a nice day.