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Minh Lu

Professor Michele Tubbs

ENGL 1301

My Vietnamese friend

I want to share with you guys my interview with one of my friends that I’ve been talking

to for a while now, but we barely talk about personal stuff. His name is Huan Dao we called him

“but” mean nice guy in Vietnamese. This is the opportunity for me to know him a little bit better.

So I’ve been knowing this guy for at least 3 years now, the first time I met him was when we

were playing the same video games. But that wasn’t the reason I wanted to interview him, it was

because of his knowledge, the way he overcomes his obstacles, and his hard work through his

school; his University works. He originally came from Saigon, Vietnam, he ran into a couple of

obstacles as well as I do, so I’m actually really relating to this guy. But the way he overcomes his

obstacles really inspire me, and some of his inspirational words really get to me, so let’s talk

about it

First, he was only 17 years old when his whole family came to the United States, they

have been encountering some difficulties to adapt to urban life in New York City and the United

States. He was in 11th grade back in Vietnam before he moved over, but due to the language

barrier at the time, he wasn't able to keep up with classes. So he decided to start over in 10th

grade in American high school to catch up. It was also an opportunity for him to get more time to

learn a little bit more about the language as well as making friends. Huan said with a really

happy face” My time in high school built me a great foundation and made me college
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readiness”.He also said,” joining clubs on the campus and networking with people help me

improving interpersonal skills”.So from his decision moving down a grade really help him build

a good English foundation and got to learn a little bit about the culture. But moving from

Vietnam to the United States is a really big move, it’s like moving from rural to the urban

lifestyle. He had encountered a thing called “ Culture Shock”. Which is where the shifting from 1

culture to another is way way too different and it will be hard to get used to it right away. It was

also things around him will be so different from his hometown, but luckily people really nice

around him, really help him out a lot. But the next difficulties, he has run into was financing,

because of his whole family just moved over to the United States, they won’t be able to find a

job just yet to support themselves. Even though he got his uncle to help him out, but they still

need their own support, not being so dependent on his uncle. “ Things will get better, “ Huan

said as he smiled. His parents apparently got a job after 2-3 months because his uncle invited to

get a job with a Vietnamese factory. Huan said,” Time management is a key, that's how I learned

how to balance school, a part-time job, and social life by having a schedule for every single thing

in a day.” That’s how he got to help his parents out by getting a part-time job to pay for his own

tuition, and he also tries to apply for every scholarship so his parents won’t have to spend a dime

on his College tuition.

So right now, he’s currently a senior chemical engineering major at City College of New

York ( CCNY), this is his last year in college he will be graduated in the class of 2020. He said,

“If you want to be successful you have to set up your goal”, so his goal right now is to graduate

from his major with a really good score/ grades on it. He’s planning to work in the Chemical

engineering industries such as petroleum, pharmaceutical, and waste management after his
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graduation. His research interest is developing advanced material, therefore he also wants to

attend graduate school to further enhance his knowledge in this field. He’s currently not running

into any issues right now to reach his goal, he also said that he’s ready to be graduated and starts

working in these fields. Because of his hard work during the 5 years in schools building the

foundation, learning what’s new in this country. He’s now being able to walk on his own feet

with the knowledge he got.

Lastly, he has shared with me some really inspirational words, that’s really got into me.

He told me the certain thing that's really hit me right in the feels, and really inspire me to study

and be able to succeed like him right now. He shared that “ Students usually struggle on which

school to go to, and which major to study. There are so many possibilities out there for high

school seniors. I was not an exception in this issue. Besides taking AP science classes, I decided

to engage in many STEM extracurricular programs to see if I was truly passionate about the

science and technology field. It was a piece of advice from my Physics teacher. Without that

encouragement, I would not be able to figure out what I am capable of and might waste more

time studying what I don’t really like in college.” And this is how he has become who he is right

now, being able to work on his own, doing his own stuff and about to graduate from engineering

school. He gave me advice “ For the first 2 years where classes are still manageable, try to look

for and participate in clubs of interest. Additionally, do not consider internships as a matter for

junior or senior students. It is better to start seeking for internship opportunities early” That’s

what he has done, and experienced with sweat and tears.

He also laughed and smiled saying that his field (engineering) will help him cope with real-life

problems in many aspects, it helps his analytical and problem-solving skills.

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For me, a successful person is when he or she is about to reach his goal, still not backing

up or changing their own goal and still working toward it. Like my friend Huan, he’s been

running into so many obstacles such as language barrier, finance and culture shock when he first

came to the United States. But in the end, he would be able to overcome these obstacles and

finally join with the community, in a couple of months he will be able to walk on his own feet,

being a successful man. It was because of his hard work, not giving up, keep studying, time

management to be able to help his parents out without dropping or failing any classes at all.

Processes Reflection

My purpose in writing this essay is to show the struggle of bilingual students try to

overcome their language barrier and financing problems. I hope you guys would relate and know

more about immigrants’ struggles after coming to the United States. We are all trying to be

successful in this country as well, we never giving up on the language that we never know about.

The readers are probably my classmates and my professor. I only want the reader to see and

understand a little bit more about us.

The processes are brainstorming, free writing and revising. My friend just a really

inspirational guy that guided me and help me decided to write the way I did. I only outline ahead

base on the interview with him, and I sorted it out it the perfect order in each paragraph I didn’t

make much change for the essay.

The responses and feedback from my classmates didn’t help much because they barely do

it and we didn’t share much about the essay.