-^-for posterity-^-

This was translated on the fly. I didn’t have a chance to read back through it so please ignore mistakes.


Vietnam Through the Eyes of a Young American

Even though the Vietnam war has passed nearly 30 years ago, it still haunts many Americans. Not only with the generation of veterans who experienced and were involved in the war but that generation’s children are sometimes still mistaken in their understanding of a country where their fathers went and fought.

Jonathan David Moyer – an intelligent American who is very young, after nearly 3 years here has turned into a ‘resident’ of Viet Nam and has a very different perspective. He is prepared to publish his first book: Viet Nam – a perspective from the post-war generation.

Jonathan D. Moyer (his nickname is John) always tries to engage in situations that allow him to understand Vietnamese culture in a deeper, more profound way. From An Giang up to Saigon, following the footsteps of the famous southern writer Son Nam, John and his companion – Ho Minh Duc stopped by the offices of Thanh Nien newspaper. We were very interested in his ability to converse in Vietnamese, especially his pronunciation which is very southern. John took the initiative and invited us to sing karaoke where he sang “Phoi pha” (composed by Trinh Cong Son) and scored… 98 points!

Q: John, what year were you born? Why did you come to Viet Nam?

A: I’m the year of the monkey, let’s see (he counted on the knuckles of his fingers): Horse, Goat, Monkey… right, I was born in 1980. My father is a businessman and my mother is the principal of a high school in Pennsylvania. In terms of Americans, not too many of them understand very much or hear very much about Vietnam and with my generation, our understanding of Vietnam is a little hazy. After I graduated studying International Business and Spanish at Bluffton university in Ohio I was truly confused when I was trying to decide what direction to head in the future. At that time, a teacher of mine, Dr. Dan Wessner told me that, ‘We have a big opportunity in Viet Nam.’ I asked him, ‘Where?’

Dr. Wessner has a lot of experience with Viet Nam from 1990 to 1998 and he has a lot of experience with this country. He told me that they had some new work to be done in a town called Long Xuyen. There, they had a school that was just newly established and the rector of the school was Dr. Vo Tong Xuan, a friend of Dr. Wessner.

I was very excited and ran directly back to the dorms where I called my parents. ‘Mom, Dad, Dr. Wessner asked me to go and work in Vietnam.’ My parents didn’t really say anything but I could understand that they were going to support my decision. Finally my dad said, ‘Good! But what do you really know about Viet Nam?” That was a good question and I spent all my energy trying to learn about the culture and the language which, according to me, is abundant and special…

Q: Can you tell us about some of your initial feelings after you set foot in Viet Nam?

A: I teach English at An Giang University. One week after I set foot in Vietnam, some of my colleagues asked me to go to a wedding. We first went to the house of the bride and started to participate in the celebration. One of my Vietnamese friends explained to me why we were going to the house of the bride first and why we would then go to the house of the groom. He said that this was an ancient custom here, that the family of the groom has to go to the house of the bride and pick her up to take to her new home. At the house of the groom I saw both the bride and the groom venerating their ancestors. They presented themselves to their ancestors who had passed away and let them know that the bride and groom now wanted to live together. From that wedding, I started to really think about how important of a factor family was for Vietnam. It wasn’t only the mother and father, the brothers and sisters all around them, but everyone in the extended family was venerating those who had passed before. Family in America also plays a very important role but what I had experienced was very Vietnamese.

Q: John, what can you tell us about your book?

A: Well, this is my first book and it would not be possible without the help of Ho Minh Duc (editor) and the encouragement of Dr. Vo Tong Xuan. The book is going to be bilingual. The goal of the book is to allow the reader to feel and understand how an American born after the war experiences a country that has been misunderstood by a lot of Americans. I want people to appreciate their culture and, according to me, it is a very special culture. I hope that this will be a book that is quite different from any other book written by other American’s about Vietnam.

All the proceeds from the book will go to An Giang University.

Q: Thanks a lot John and we hope your book will be successful!