Vietnamese: The language of my destiny

Someone once described to me that Vietnam is a very beautiful and charming country through the flowing ao dai, the rustic conical hat… a colorful Vietnam, but after hearing those descriptions of Vietnam, the only words that came to my mind were “if only”… if only I could admire and enjoy those beauties, how wonderful that would be.

My name is Apichit Mingwongtham, nicknamed Aun (Ến) or Vietnamese people call me Aun “A – un”, a person born blind in both eyes from Thailand. I am currently a 2nd year student of the Faculty of Vietnamese Studies, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Ho Chi Minh City.

I graduated from University of Law in Thailand more than 10 years ago, but just because of my love for Vietnamese, I was willing to give up my "stable" life as a blind man in my homeland and "found my way" to Vietnam to learn Vietnamese. That is why I became a student of the Faculty of Vietnamese Studies at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City at the age of 35. At the same time, I am also an Online teacher specializing in teaching Thai to Vietnamese people and vice versa.

Although I am the only blind foreign student in the school, I always feel very lucky to have the opportunity to be exposed to the language, people and culture of Vietnam. These things give me a deep impression of this S-shaped country of Vietnam.

Relationship with Vietnamese

Many people ask me why I choose to learn Vietnamese and love Vietnamese so much when there are many popular languages ​​in the world. Many people even guess: Do I want to be a Vietnamese son-in-law? Do I have Vietnamese blood in me? But unfortunately, those two questions have nothing to do with my love for Vietnamese. As for the answer, let me go back in time nearly 30 years ago when I was a 6-year-old child.

One day I visited my grandmother's house. After talking to her for a while, I suddenly asked: "Grandma, where did the neighbor go?"

"I'm working in Japan" - she replied.

I asked curiously: "Which way is Nhat going, ma'am?"

At that time, my grandmother probably didn't know how to answer, so she said: "Go to Vietnam, my child."

“Where is Vietnam, ma'am?” I continued to ask, but she did not answer.

As soon as I got home, I asked my mother where Vietnam was, she said: "Vietnam is near Laos", right after my mother's answer, the name Vietnam was suddenly engraved in the mind of that 6 year old child in an inexplicable way.

Because my house is in the Northeast of Thailand (bordering Laos), sometimes my house can catch some Vietnamese radio channels. I asked my mother: What language is this, Mom?

My mother replied: "This is Vietnamese, my child."

After that, I started to get interested, wholeheartedly listening and imitating the voices of Vietnamese announcers at that time even though I didn’t understand anything and now thinking back, I still can’t understand why I liked it back then. This is probably also the reason why many Vietnamese people commented that my Vietnamese accent was no different from theirs. At that time, the Vietnamese radio channel became one of my favorite channels. My parents were also very surprised why their son liked Vietnam so much when I was just a Thai kid, with no connection to Vietnam at all.

Until I was 12 years old, due to circumstances, my parents sent me to a school for the blind in Bangkok - the capital of Thailand and since then, I no longer listened to Vietnamese radio. Coming to a new city, new school and new friends, I also had to learn many other things like any other normal child. Even though I no longer listened to the radio, the two words Vietnam always lingered in my mind.

Until I was a second-year Law student at Thammasat University (Thailand), because I loved Vietnam so much and wanted to explore Vietnam, but circumstances did not allow it because the biggest obstacle in my life was: I could not see anything at all. After thinking for a long time, I tried to convince my younger brother, younger sister, and "entice" a few friends to pack up and go to Vietnam together to satisfy my long-standing wish. Or to be more exact, to find someone to take me there. The three of us were able to go to Vietnam thanks to our "sponsor" who was our parents because at that time none of us had any money. Although at that time my Vietnamese level was only at the level of "hello", after that trip to Vietnam, I always promised myself that one fine day in the near future, I would set foot in Vietnam again at all costs.

At the end of 2011, before coming to Vietnam to study Vietnamese, I met some Vietnamese friends through the Internet and that was also an important turning point in my life. I asked them to teach me Vietnamese, but because I could not read or write, the only way left for me was to "learn by heart". Thanks to the guidance of those Vietnamese friends, in my head, the pronunciation and tones of Vietnamese began to form.

When I first started learning, although Vietnamese was a new language, I felt very familiar and Vietnamese had such an attraction to me that once I started learning it, I couldn't resist it anymore - a language that the more I learned, the more interesting it became, the ups and downs of the tones were like a piece of music that made me not want my Vietnamese ability to stop at the level of "learning by heart". I started thinking: Can I just keep learning by heart without a system like this forever? If I don't learn, then that's fine, but if I do learn, I have to learn it thoroughly! With that thought, in 2013 I gathered all my courage, quit my job, gathered all my money, packed my things, and went to Vietnam alone with the sole purpose of learning Vietnamese.

So, Vietnamese and I have been really attached for a long time. To the question of why I chose Vietnamese, honestly, the old me didn't know how to answer, but today I would say it was because of the word "fate".

Vietnamese in the eyes of the blind - that's me

Being completely blind in both eyes, living in my hometown near my family has been difficult at times, but life is even more difficult when I have to live alone in a foreign country, with a different language and culture. Fortunately, thanks to the kindness of the Vietnamese people, I have overcome the difficulties in studying and daily life to be where I am today.

“When drinking water, remember its source.” It can be said that my Vietnamese is what it is today and I can sit here typing these lines largely thanks to the efforts of my teachers and the wholehearted support and help of my Vietnamese friends.

My journey to seriously learn Vietnamese was marked by my coming to Vietnam and enrolling in a Vietnamese course from April 2013 to August 2014. In my mind, Vietnamese people are hospitable, affectionate and approachable. When I first arrived here, I was still very unfamiliar with the country and had no relatives here, but the Vietnamese friends I met online did not spare their time to help me, such as picking me up from the airport, taking me to all the alleys to find a place to stay, shopping for necessary furniture for the room. After that, they also helped me with eating, finding restaurants and foods that were suitable for me, even taking me on tours around Vietnam, creating conditions for me to live in a Vietnamese environment.

Not only that, Vietnamese teachers and friends helped me a lot in the process of learning Vietnamese. At first, there were many difficulties because I had to buy Vietnamese books. Because I couldn't see, the whole book was like a blank sheet of paper. At that time, I needed a soft copy to print into a Braille book. Because there were quite a few books, I had no other choice but to bother my Vietnamese friends. I took the book to photocopy different parts and asked my Vietnamese friends to type it into a soft copy. No matter how busy they were, they were always willing to help. Some of them even stayed up all night typing for me, each person helping a little bit so that I could have the book before the course started. After everyone finished typing, I asked a friend to collect them and send them to Mai Am Thien An School in Tan Phu District - Ho Chi Minh City to print them into Braille. When I finished typing and printing, difficulties piled up on difficulties because I didn't know how to read Vietnamese Braille. I had to go to Mai Am Thien An again to ask Mr. Phong and Mr. Truong - two Vietnamese people in the same situation (blind) who were working there to guide me on how to read Vietnamese from zero. Luckily, Vietnamese uses the Latin alphabet like English, so I was able to read Vietnamese after a short time. Because I cannot see, when I go to school, I always bring a tape recorder to record what the teachers teach in class and then bring it home to review. In addition, the teachers and friends also fostered my love for Vietnam as well as Vietnamese culture every day through interesting stories about the culture and people here so that I would know how to "when in Rome, do as the Romans do" when living in another country.

A Vietnamese language class for foreigners

After returning to Vietnam for 3 years, in 2017, I decided to go to Vietnam to take the Vietnamese Proficiency Test. Two weeks before the test, I went to Vietnam again to prepare for this important test, but ironically, for many years I had never practiced typing Vietnamese with accents. As the test date approached, I once again had to ask Vietnamese people to guide me on how to type Vietnamese with accents. I listened and followed each step, and when I finished typing, they also helped me read to check for spelling mistakes. It was thanks to the help of Vietnamese people that I achieved level 6/6 (level C2) in the Vietnamese Proficiency Test and today I can sit here to type these lines. In addition, Vietnamese people not only help me in my studies and daily life but also in my work. Speaking of which, I would like to mention a friend of mine, Ms. Cao Thi Minh Tam, an English teacher with a lot of teaching experience both domestically and internationally. It was she who helped me build a professional online foreign language teaching career like today. She helped me make my dream of teaching foreign languages ​​online come true. That year, when I first started my career, I was still unfamiliar with many things and did not know how to start. Although she was very busy, Tam did not hesitate to guide me in everything related to teaching, such as helping me recruit students, how to manage classes, and suggesting that I open a Practical Thai page and open my own YouTube channel - things that have great significance in my teaching career. She even helped me create a set of Thai documents for Vietnamese people. Like many other Vietnamese people that I cannot mention here, she always helps me without calculating or claiming any credit. Thanks to her dedicated help, I have become a skilled online foreign language teacher and am loved by many students. It can be said that Vietnam is like my second home and the Vietnamese people are like my brothers and sisters. The gratitude of the Vietnamese people to me is like a debt that I must engrave in my heart because it is difficult for me to repay in this lifetime.

Even though I can't see them, I always feel the warmth and compassion of the Vietnamese people. I also always silently thank them for their hospitality and especially that the Vietnamese people do not discriminate against a disabled person like me.

Foreign students study Vietnamese at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, VNU

Vietnamese cultural impressions

After learning Vietnamese and integrating into the Vietnamese community, through my experiences, I have expanded my understanding of Vietnamese culture.

Culture of behavior: I see that the behavior of Vietnamese and Thai people has many similarities, this is reflected in the proverbs from ancient times: "Respect elders, yield to juniors", "A greeting is more valuable than a feast", "Respect the elderly and you will live long"...

Vietnamese people always respect adults, towards parents and children put filial piety first:

"Father's love is like Thai Son mountain

Mother's love is like water flowing from the source

One heart to worship mother and respect father

"To fulfill filial piety is the duty of a child"

For teachers, the Vietnamese way of behaving is reflected in the following folk songs:

"Respect the teacher to become a teacher"

"Without a teacher, you can't do it"

"If you want to go across, you must build a bridge."

"If you want your children to be good at reading and writing, then love and respect your teachers."

Culinary culture:Although I cannot enjoy the beautiful scenery or the Vietnamese clothing culture, as a person with a culinary soul, I can completely enjoy Vietnamese cuisine no less than any Vietnamese gourmet. In my opinion, Vietnamese people know how to eat and prepare food to create a harmonious flavor and have many healthy foods. For example, in a Vietnamese meal, there are often many diverse and rich dishes, each dish has many different things combined to create a harmonious flavor that all family members can gather together to enjoy. This is also the thing that impresses me the most when it comes to Vietnamese culture. What I like most is the feeling of family members sitting down together to enjoy food and chat after a hard day's work.

When it comes to Vietnamese cuisine, it would be a big mistake if I didn't mention my favorite dishes. With Northern cuisine, I like Hanoi's Bun Cha the most, because this is a dish that combines many ingredients such as many herbs, cucumbers, pork, vermicelli, dipping sauce..., especially the way the meat is marinated and grilled is delicious and rich, when eating a piece of meat, the smell of smoke still lingers, making me very happy. I can eat two big bowls of Bun Cha in a row without getting bored.

Coming to the Central region, my favorite dish is grilled spring rolls. The ingredients to make grilled spring rolls are very simple: rice paper, herbs, vermicelli, pork, fried breadsticks, garlic, chili and an indispensable thing is the spring roll dipping sauce. Although the ingredients look simple, eating them is not simple at all, especially for a blind person like me, but because I love them, I tried to learn how to roll spring rolls from my Vietnamese friends. Because I often eat grilled spring rolls, my "level" of rolling spring rolls can be said to have improved somewhat.

When mentioning the South, it is impossible not to mention banh xeo, which includes rice paper, vegetables, meat, mushrooms, onions, bean sprouts, shrimp... This is a fairly easy dish to eat and of course for me, this dish is also easier to roll than nem nuong.

It can be seen that most Vietnamese dishes have vegetables, so Vietnamese people say: "Rice without vegetables is like pain without medicine".

Customs: In Vietnam, there are many different festivals and customs, however, what impressed me when I heard Vietnamese people often say: "Happy as Tet". That means the importance of Tet is given top priority by Vietnamese people. Although I am not Vietnamese, I once had a friend invite me to visit his house during Tet, I found that Tet is the right occasion for family members to reunite, gather together to say goodbye to the old year and welcome the new year. In particular, on this occasion, children and grandchildren burn incense for their ancestors to invite the deceased to celebrate Tet with their family.

What I like most is the extremely happy and warm atmosphere of welcoming spring with my loved ones in the family, but every time Vietnamese Tet comes, everyone returns to their hometown to reunite with their family, I book a ticket back home because Vietnamese Tet makes me feel homesick, missing the warm atmosphere of reunion.

In short, I and Vietnam are connected by a love of the Vietnamese language. Vietnamese is a beautiful language with its melodious and up-and-down tones, and its proverbs and idioms are still true and widely used in daily life. This is also one of the reasons why I am crazy about Vietnamese. Not only the language, but also the Vietnamese people are one of the factors that make me love this country of Vietnam. In my opinion, Vietnamese people are compassionate, friendly, approachable, open and willing to help others even if they sometimes do not know each other. Vietnamese people also know how to harmoniously combine traditional and modern features in daily life. With the rapid development of the world, Vietnamese people integrate and do not "dissolve", they still retain their strong national identity. This is what makes me extremely impressed and always feels very lucky to live in a country with so many beautiful cultural features.

I will continue to develop my Vietnamese language skills, hoping that one day I can contribute my small part to become an “ambassador” connecting the Vietnam-Thailand friendship. I would like to send my sincere thanks and gratitude from the bottom of my heart to the Vietnamese people as well as the country of Vietnam for always welcoming and helping me - a blind person who is learning Vietnamese, eating Vietnamese food and living in Vietnam. If possible, I am always willing to do something to contribute to my second home called Vietnam.

Because they don't know Vietnamese, my parents will never read these emotional lines, but I still want to say thank you and my deep gratitude to my parents who not only did not stop me but also always supported me in learning this third language. I would also like to thank the Cultural Ambassadors Club, Faculty of Vietnamese Studies and Language, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, VNU, with the sponsorship of Dao Minh Quang Fund for giving me the opportunity to share my story.

Now, in my eyes, Vietnam is not about the external beauty as people often say, but in my mind, Vietnam is always about smiles stretching along the S-shape.