Vietnamese American Interview Transcription

JN: I see. Before we get to the US, can you tell me a little bit more about your life in Nha Trang?

TN: I was raised there until the age of about 20, which is when the family fled the country to escape the violence from the war. Life was simple in the Nha Trang. Grandpa would go to work and come home, and all we had to worry about was going to school and preparing dinner. Your uncles would always go out to play soccer while us aunts would stay home with grandma and help her with preparing for dinner. Occasionally, we would go out as a family to eat somewhere. I remember it was your uncle Hieu's (youngest sibling) birthday one evening, and we all went out to eat as a family. We went to this seafood restaurant on the beach of Nha Trang called Ngouc Suong. Not only was the food delicious, but it had an unforgettable view. Unfortunately when we returned to Vietnam, the restaurant had been torn down, and the land was being used for a new hotel that was being built.

JN: How was life like growing up with all your siblings?

TN: Lets just say there was never a dull moment throughout my childhood. Growing up among eight other siblings under one household was interesting. All of us would spend our days doing things like playing soccer, hide and seek, going to the beach, and going to school. Before your grandma had her first child, she came across a boy begging for food in front of our house. Being the loving grandma that she is, she took him in and adopted him as her own. You now know him as your uncle Hai. So not only did I have 8 other siblings but also Uncle Hai was my eldest adopted brother. At school, we all had to wear uniforms like in the private schools you see today. In the morning we would line up in our respective classes and be taken into the classroom by our professors. We all would look out for each other at school, and if any of your aunts or uncle go into a fight, uncle Hai would always come to mediate the situation. School quarrels are one thing, but the fights that we had at home between us siblings were far more chaotic. Once grandpa got an extra scooter for the rest of the family to use, for months it was war. Weekend nights we would find ourselves fighting each other off for who would get to use it for the night. Aside from class and the occasional hanging out with friends, we spent a lot of our time helping grandma out.

JN: What kinds of things would you help out with?

TN: In our backyard we had an abundance of different kinds of fruits and a little rice patty. Throughout the day we would pick certain things that we needed, for example lemons and spice peppers for seasoning, or we would spend hours picking grains of rice from the patty for that night's dinner. To prepare a simple meal enough to feed grandpa and grandma and ten children took a lot of planning and help. Living