Oral History Of Oral History Paper

The book, The Latehomecomer, is a fascinating story about a Hmong family and their struggle to get out of Laos and come to America as refugees. The Hmong people are a very proud people and they do not want to forget their culture. One can clearly see that the Hmong people hold close their identity and do not want to conform to the Vietnamese way. They take pride in their culture, their society, and the way they view how government should run. Hmong people did not agree with the Vietnamese communist government and were willing to join forces and help the United States as much as possible so that they could fight for what they believed in. Even though most of the young men and boys that fought in the war died in battle or were

I have learned a lot about what life was like at the time of the Vietnam War by interviewing my grandfather. My grandfather, Franklin Torr, was living in Dover, NH at the time, in his late thirties, married, and had three young children. The Vietnam War impacted my grandfather’s life in a unique way. One aspect of his life that changed at the start of the war was that a lot of his tenants, in the mobile home he owned, were in the New Hampshire National Guard and were stationed in Vietnam, flying missions, and some were advisors. He said the following about them; “Of the tenants that fought in the war, they thought they were doing the right thing at the time” When asked if he could provide a story of one of his Vietnam War veterans, he said that not a lot of them liked to talk about their war experiences in depth, two of his tenants that served in Vietnam died in Vietnam. One of his former classmates was a Marine Colonel, one thing he remembers this man mentioning was; “the troops did a great job while they were there”. The most shocking thing that he remembers from this

The Hmong people do not call any one country home, but have relocated several times throughout history due to war and political oppression. An article published in the Journal of Multicultural counseling and Development finds that the Hmong primarily lived in Laos, Vietnam, and Thailand. They had a great impact in helping western forces during the Vietnam War, and wars in Laos in efforts to end Communism. The article continues and describes how many tried to escape from Laos; those that survived settled in refugee camps that had terrible living conditions. (Tatman, 2004). Although the Hmong are diffused around the world, their distinct cultural traditions and customs create a strong cultural identity. After discussing of the traditions and social customs of the Hmong culture learned through two different interviews, the cultural traditions and social customs will be compared and contrasted with European-American culture, and will be concluded with the impact that Hmong culture has on today’s society.

The person I interviewed was the daughter of a Vietnam War veteran. The interview was conducted where I gave her questions about the life her father had and how it felt when she was in the United States going to elementary, high school, and college. She was not a veteran but the effects of her father’s participation in the war affected her greatly throughout her school and personal life.

(After beginning the interview and gathering information I decided to switch up my questions, and narrow them down to be more specific to her personally from what I had in my oral proposal)

The Vietnam Conflict, spanning from November 1st, 1955 to April 30, 1975, changed the public’s perception on war, politics, and the world as a whole. Living in this time, the grandparents and senior citizens in our communities still keep the time of turmoil and fear alive in their stories. By interviewing men in the service, along with men and women at home, a comprehensive picture of the war and its effect on the United States can be painted. Two of these people graciously allowed themselves to be interviewed. Their roles, experiences, and stories of the war display the effects of the Vietnam war on United States citizens, for better or for worse.

To this day, many Vietnam veterans suffer and feel forgotten, unappreciated, and even discriminated against. Combat experiences or physical disabilities have ruined some of their lives. For more, returning to normal life had not been easy. "Imagine if you had just graduated out of high school and were sent to a guerrilla warfare far away from your home. During the war, you were exposed to a lot of stress, confusion, anxiety, pain, and hatred. Then you were sent back home with no readjustment to the lifestyle in the states, no deprogramming of what you learned from the military, and no "welcome home" parades. You are portrayed to the public as a crazed psychopathic killer with no morals or control over your aggression. You find that there 's nobody you can talk to or who can understand what you 've been through, not even your family. As you re-emerge into civilization, you struggle to establish a personal identity or a place in society because you lack the proper education and job skills. In addition, there are no supportive groups to help you find your way, which makes you feel even more isolated, unappreciated, and exploited for serving your country" (Thompson 279). This situation is like what many Vietnam veterans had felt upon returning home from war.

One evening, my sister named Bella was trying to get a cup from the cabinet. She had to sit on the counter to reach it. In the process of getting down she caught her pants on the microwave. When she attempted to get down from the microwave, her feet couldn’t touch the ground. Trying to get her pants loose from the microwave, the microwave door came open. The microwave dish fell out and shattered when it hit the floor. She did finally get free and she was fine.

The conference panel I attended was for Dr. Thuy Vo Dang, regarding Vietnamese American identity and the role of archives in shaping epistemology. The speaker mentioned several points regarding how the archive allowed for members of Vietnamese descent to offer their narrative, and essentially give perspective to a community that had inherently omitted and censored itself. It is interesting to have found out that at one point in time, the Vietnamese identity was primarily focused on the Vietnam War, and the Vietnamese were primarily associated with labels such as victims or enemies. From the presentation I learned that the Vietnamese American community identity changed as they adopted a new mentality that stems from them being refugee. The media back then and even today in regards to the Vietnam war had generalized and simplifying the act of being a refugee and being displaced into the US. Vietnamese refugees were characterized as being indebted to the US, and grateful. In addition, the action of becoming a refugee and escaping to the United States were commonly described by various sources to have done so in desperate, cramped, and out of their control. This description appears to have

Life in Vietnam between the years of 1955 and 1975 was absolutely unbearable. On a CBC Radio, there is an interview with Dr. Taun Tran one of the refugees that escaped Vietnam and came to Canada. He had two kids that were very young at the time and came with him on his long and painful journey to Canada, his wife had to be left behind in the war zone. Dr. Taun Tran is American educated and has a Ph.D. from the University of Florida and can also speak English. He was planning an escape plan for quite some time and when he got the call he was ready to leave Vietnam, but not his wife. Dr. Tuan and his children had to go through different transportations to hide from the secret police. The children were especially sad and upset to see their mother drive away.

This week's reading, Jonathan Lee's “Vietnamese in America” (pages 128 to 138) in History of Asian Americans: Exploring Diverse Roots, explores the resettlement process of Vietnamese refugees in the United States. What interested me most was the intergenerational conflict between 1-generation Vietnamese Americans and 1.5- and second-generation Vietnamese Americans. The “rescue psychology,” the guilt for losing the Vietnam War which fueled humanitarian efforts to help displaced refugees, mitigated the resettlement of first wave refugees. The US government allocated generous aid and instituted programs and policies in order to assist first wave refugees with their resettlement and integration into American society (Lee 128). Furthermore, most

After the United States’ withdrawal from Viet Nam War and the fall of the Saigon to Communist in April, 1975, millions of people fled the country, for their lives and freedom. Many of them immigrated to the U.S. in two different waves. The first wave started in 1975, comprising people who associated with the Americans. The second wave included people who wanted to escape the Communist government’s control. The factors that pushed these two waves of immigration out of Viet Nam, and their efforts to be assimilated into the U.S. society are now parts of American history.

It was the intention of this paper to situate The Oral Tradition Workshop for Educators and other intercultural programs in Esmeraldas into the greater context of intercultural educational programs globally. First, it aimed to illustrate that intercultural education is often a response to long-standing historical, political, and economic marginalization of one group by the dominate culture. For Afro-Ecuadorians, as in the cases of Europe and Latin America, the focus on intercultural education emerged as a response to historical marginalization after the amendment to the constitution in 1998 calling for expanded collective rights of indigenous groups and Afro-Ecuadorian. At the heart of intercultural education programs is the assumption that the school and its key actors (students, educators, administrators) play a critical role in eradicating inequality and negotiating spaces between cultures (Aikman, 1997). This belief is evident in all of the cases presented in the paper as well as the intercultural education programs in

I, Tien Nguyen, for as long as I could remembered was born in Vietnam in the small suburban called Phan Thiet. Being the oldest child at the time, I was often spoiled by my parents as much as possible and at the age of 2, we ventured off to the United State. Living in the Wichita, Kansas was not easy, the weather had a detrimental effect on my father as he was not yet accustomed to the cold ambiance. However, even throughout that struggle, my father managed to work and on August 16, 2004, I received a little brother by the name of Thang Ngoc Nguyen.

“But I don’t want to meet him, I don’t have time for a man!” I cried to my grandmother as she told me the news. Love was the last of my priorities for eighteen-year-old me and it wasn’t fair for me when my grandmother wanted to set me up with some stranger at such a young age. From where I come from, I was supposed to be married way before I even reached eighteen, so I knew that I could not avoid that fate any longer. I found myself in Bà Rịa, Vietnam on yet another sunny day as I met my future husband for the first time. Almost after immediately laying my eyes on him, my plan of being an independent woman was carelessly thrown out the window. Chang Cao was a tall, handsome fellow with jet black hair and a quiet personality. He