My Vietnamese Students in California

When I was working in Silicon Valley in the Nineties, I decided I would teach English as a Second Language. I took Adult Education courses, that taught me how to do this.

I worked for Catholic Charities, a fine organization, that was try to help some recent Vietnamese immigrants adapt to life in America. l agreed to teach English to a Vietnamese family.

I found their address, and they were waiting eagerly for for me. But the person from Catholic Charities never showed up. Fortunately the family had an instruction book I could teach from, and we started on that. The family consisted a mother, two boys, and a girl - all adolescents.

I never saw the father - who was off somewhere with his Vietnamese friends, living off the income the Federal Government had provided them. They had been the Vietnamese during the war, who had assisted the Americans, who were fighting the Vietnamese. They were criminals, and were thrown in jail, as soon as the Americans had departed.

For some reason, the Americans decided to take them out of jail, and accept them, and their families as legal immigrants. This was the family I was teaching. Not ideal students.

I was soon teaching this family, in their apartment, and also teaching a class at another location, In a classroom, with many students.

I was assisted by a Vietnamese man, who was a professor at San Jose State, located in the middle of the town of San Jose. He had immigrated long before, and was fluent in English, and well as Vietnamese. At one point, we were trying to teach our students, how to answer multiple-choice questions. We could not. Those kids would just sit there, with blank looks on their faces.

They had never been to school in Vietnam, where you learn how to take tests. They were only interested in one thing - making money, as fast and easily as possible.

They were not interested in learning anything.