Reading about Nguyen’s treatment as a Vietnamese refuge stuck in Grand Rapids is not terribly surprising. With the U.S. just finishing the Vietnam war while she was beginning school, the adults in her life should understand why she was in America, but they didn’t help her at all, and let Nguyen stand out even more than she already did. I do want to know how she spoke english so well, did she pick it up from the television cartoons, and how did she speak so little Vietnamese. This was found out when Nguyen told about her not being about to understand the Vietnamese being spoken in the ES: class, but knowing the english well. These ESL classes are a need for students to be able to communicate effectively in the U.S., but they unnecessarily point out students that have recently immigrated that would normally blend in. All in all, I think it was kind of unfair the way they treated Nguyen, but I’m not sure if that was avoidable in a predominately white area in the 1970’s.
The purpose of this piece is to tell about the singling out of refuge students by Nguyen telling about her education experiences in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
graded 9/21
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