Vietnam in my heart

Many people wonder why a foreigner like me loves Vietnam so much. I was born and raised in Poland, but half of my blood is Vietnamese. From a young age, I loved watching VTV4 (a Vietnamese television channel broadcast abroad). I was fascinated by the scenery of Vietnam on TV; Vietnam had transformed so much in nearly two decades. Vietnam appeared with countless motorbikes on the streets, many tall buildings, and especially the city lights at night were incredibly vibrant. From then on, my love for Vietnam grew stronger, even helping me overcome difficulties to fulfill my dream of living and working in Vietnam. I began to want to learn more about this beautiful S-shaped country by researching materials related to Vietnam in my native language.

Back in fifth grade, I wrote two articles on Wikipedia about Vietnam's tallest buildings: the Keangnam Hanoi Landmark Tower and the Bitexco Financial Tower, when construction on both projects was just beginning. Even the materials about Vietnam written in Polish weren't enough, so I tried to find more information in English to learn more about Vietnam. Because my English skills were limited at the time, finding this information was even more difficult. I had to constantly study and improve my English.

While learning about Vietnam in English, my worldview also broadened. From the information about Vietnam on various websites, I began to find websites with information related to other countries around the world. This sparked my interest in learning more about Asian countries like South Korea, Japan, and China. Through exploring their cultures, I discovered many similarities with Vietnamese culture.

This further fueled my interest and curiosity about Vietnam. Once my knowledge of Vietnam was considered "decent," I confidently created a YouTube channel to share information about Vietnam, such as the Vietnamese military, cities, and architecture. Some of my videos even reached 200,000 views. That YouTube channel is called grzesiox15. Through my channel, I felt closer to the country and its people. YouTube helped me discover more songs about the Vietnamese revolution and songs praising the people and homeland. Through those songs, I truly wanted to learn Vietnamese. Although there was no shortage of English-language resources for me to learn about Vietnam, to gain a deeper understanding of Vietnamese culture and people, learning Vietnamese was absolutely essential.

After a year of studying Vietnamese, my father took me to Vietnam to meet his family there. The moment the plane landed, I felt an overwhelming sense of familiarity. Seeing the customs officer's hat at the airport made me feel like I was dreaming; I couldn't believe I was in Vietnam. Furthermore, I was overjoyed to walk along streets like Nguyen Chi Thanh, Le Van Luong, Nguyen Trai, Thanh Nien, and Hai Ba Trung, Ba Trieu, and Trang Tien. These streets were so familiar in my mind, yet so distant when I was still in Poland. I never imagined I could experience Vietnam so naturally! To this day, I still vividly remember those feelings.

After arriving in Vietnam, meeting everyone in the family made me feel incredibly warm and loved. Through this experience, I had the opportunity to verify whether my preconceived notions about Vietnamese family life and people were correct. And the reality exceeded my expectations in a very positive way. After returning to Poland, except for attending classes, I always stayed home texting my Vietnamese friends and watching Vietnamese-language videos. While others went out to have fun, I stayed home diligently pursuing my passion for learning about Vietnam and the Vietnamese language. Although my body was in Poland, my heart and mind were always with Vietnam. Thanks to this, my understanding of daily life in Vietnam and my Vietnamese language skills improved dramatically.

International students at the Department of Vietnamese Studies and Vietnamese Language

I felt unbearable going a day without contact with Vietnam; it was then that I realized I couldn't live in Poland while my mind was constantly yearning for Vietnam. That's why I decided to live, study, and work in Vietnam in the summer of 2017. Before achieving my goal, I went to Vietnam a second time with the aim of both learning Vietnamese and relieving the feeling of not being in contact with Vietnam for so long. I stayed in Vietnam for 40 days to learn as much as possible and prepare for living there the following year. Immediately after receiving my high school diploma in the summer of 2017, I flew straight to Vietnam to live and study. During my university studies in Vietnam, I met many foreigners who shared my goals and vision for Vietnam. The Department of Vietnamese Studies provided me with the right tools to continue pursuing my passion. Additionally, thanks to working in Vietnam, I became involved in the fields that appeared in my old videos.