It is very important to me that I be able to pass on as much Vietnamese culture and understanding to Parker as possible, assuming he shows an interest. I know it’s not going to be an easy task, and obviously the most I could hope for is for him to grow up with a sense of his cultural and ethnic roots from an American standpoint. By that I mean that I know his understanding of being Vietnamese and all that that entails starts in a similar place to where it would start for any Vietnamese person born in the USA. Similar in the sense that even for a Vietnamese child born in the US to his/her biological parents, he/she will never know or understand what it is like to be Vietnamese in Viet Nam. I’m Jewish, a pretty small minority in the US. I have always viewed being Jewish from the perspective of being the non-dominant group. I will never understand what it is like to Jewish in Israel where almost everyone around you is also Jewish. It’s similar to that, but obviously not the same.

Part of my commitment to Parker and his understanding/integration with his culture of birth is to help him learn Vietnamese. Language is a HUGE part of any culture. Vietnamese has a very interesting history. It is one of the few Asian languages that is represented by a modified Latin alphabet. Vietnamese is not a character-based language like Chinese, Japanese, or Korean. However, it used to be character based. The current written system dates back to the 17th century, but did not become the official system of writing until the early 1900s. Before the written system, a symbol based system was used. It is called Chá-na´m. It is still in limited use today, especially in literally research. Several of the characters in Chá-na´m are borrowed from Chinese, as China occupied Viet Nam for a little over 1000 years starting way back in about 110 BCE.

Here is sample of the characters:

So, anyway, the real point of this post is that I’m taking Vietnamese lessons. My first one was last Saturday. They’ll be weekly for 2-3 hours. I can already tell from my first session that there really is almost no way to learn Vietnamese by yourself, without the help of someone who already speaks fluently. The tones make all the difference, and they are not apparent to the average American. My tutor could hear differences in my tones and pronunciation that I couldn’t pick up at all. I can hear them in her pronunciation if I listen closely, but learning to reproduce them and consistently is not simple. I’ve already said one cuss word that made her blush when I screwed up the word for “chicken”. I can tell that the more I hear the language spoken, the more I can differentiate the tones used. Which is encouraging, at least I am not trying something that is impossible. I’m sure once I get the basic sounds down perfectly that the rest will come much easier. As Parker grows he can interact with her, and as I learn the language I can help him learn as well.

As chance would have it, my tutor is from a city in Viet Nam just about 20 miles from where Parker is from. The pastor at the church she attends is from the city right next to where his orphanage was! Beyond being neat, it means I will be learning the same dialect that Parker would have learned. My tutor is in college here, she graduates in the next year. She came here with her family when she was 10. She let me know that there is a Vietnamese church in Akron, and while I’m not Christian I do plan on taking Parker when they have activities for the kids. My tutor is really nice, and I think she will be a good teacher.

As things progress, I will update the blog with my success or failure.