On the eve of the new year, it was wonderful when we were able to interview a young character with two bloodlines, mericanVietnamese. She is living in the US and studying Economics at Northeastern University. She is completing her final year of college with a lot of future plans – the lovely and brilliant days of youth. Her name is Lequieu Nguyen Ho Christine.
MOTHER IS THE BUILDER OF A SOLID FOUNDATION
Hi Christine, nice to meet you. It is known that you have just returned to Vietnam to visit your family after several years of studying and due to the prolonged global Covid epidemic. How do you feel when you come back here?
Yes, thank you. I returned to Vietnam from the beginning of December 2021. At first, I also planned to visit my mother and grandmother with my family for a few days, then I returned to the US. But I see it's almost Tet and because I can also arrange online learning. It's also because I haven't spent time with my family in Vietnam for a long time, so I decided to stay in Saigon with my family to celebrate a Vietnamese New Year. I will return to America after Tet. I am very happy to return to Vietnam because I am a person who really enjoys life in Vietnam, especially Saigon in the days leading up to Tet like this, always so wonderful.
Does Christine often come back to Vietnam to celebrate Tet?
I have eaten and enjoy Vietnamese Tet a lot. I was born in Saigon – Vietnam by my mother. It was not until I entered high school that I went to the US to continue my studies. My mother raised me with a Vietnamese culture with many interesting things.
Her mother lives and works in Vietnam, her father lives and works in the US, so how did she raise Christine so that although she lives in Vietnam, she still harmonizes the two cultures?
My mother sent me to an international school and taught me to talk to me every day in English. So I grew up normally with two languages, I can speak Vietnamese with my grandparents and everyone in the family but still speak English with my father in America.
Christine speaks Vietnamese very fluently and uses very literary words?
Maybe it's because my mother loves standards and often corrects me for every word I say, so I speak slowly to suit her mother's wishes, gradually becoming my style.
(laughs modestly)
Can Christine tell us something about your mother?
My mother is a very good woman. Mom always has a positive outlook in life and she has shaped my view since I was very young. She is strict but very respectful of her personal views and will guide her when necessary.
Is Christine's father as strict as her mother?
My father is a man with a very kind heart. Due to the working conditions of my parents, I have to live in Vietnam, but even though my father has been far away from me since I was a child, his heart for me is still very close. My father is very supportive in my decisions about choosing a school and future career and always gives me advice, especially when I go to study abroad.
Christine's mother is a strict person plus her education in Vietnam is structured, so when she came to the US to study, were you overwhelmed with freedom and what do you think about her strict discipline l?
I think that discipline is also good for me, especially for a young woman like me. This kind of discipline gives me the habit of keeping order in life. Young people in America are actually a bit too free. When I first passed, I also had a disconnection but I see that it is also due to their long-standing culture, which is also good for them because they are free to explore to develop themselves. But for me personally, strict rule in life has helped me to be disciplined. For me, the discipline is a value, not a nuisance.
FOCUSING ON THE DREAMS OF YOUTH
What does Christine focus on and plan for the future when she graduates?
My mother is a person who attaches great importance to studying, she respects those who have ideals and ambitions. Since I was a child, my mother has trained me to study, so I also attach great importance toward self training for my future career. My mother encouraged me to follow the business path and I feel that I also have business tendencies, perhaps I inherited my mother's genes. (Laugh)
Since I entered university, I have nurtured a great passion for the field of economics that I am studying, this is the field I want to engage in for the years after I graduate.
What was Christine's school life like in America?
My life in America is very peaceful. I live in Boston, it's a small city, very quiet and rich in history. This is a good environment to focus on learning. Life in Boston is peaceful and poetic, helping people to live comfortably. Outside of school, I cook, read, and enjoy walking.
How does Christine manage life in America and adapt?
I came to America when I was an adult, so I'm not dominated by novelties. Every decision I make, I think about my family and take it as my priority. Thanks to that,I don't go in the wrong direction or follow inappropriate movements. Life's differences are an opportunity for me to compare and grow.
My father praised me for living an upright life,and he thanked my mother for teaching me to be a good human being and a rule abiding citizen. I am of American descent, but my mother raised me very strictly, which is an advantage and a gift from my mother to me. My mother taught me that decency is very important, especially for young girls with beauty, if they don't shape themselves to live upward and have ambitions, they will often rely on beauty and play with no direction. thereby losing the striving and aspiration of youth.
Since I was a child, I have lived in a large family with grandparents and mother's employees. Wherever I go, I have to ask permission. When I come home, I always bow to the adults in the house. My mother often taught me, I know my parents when I look at my children, I know my grandparents when I look at my parents. If from the time of ancestors until now, each individual can't cultivate himself, there can't be a cultural nation.
I am the next generation I have to improve myself. The previous generation looks at the next generation. Parents see that you have the ambition of youth. They are very happy because it is like seeing the future of the successors, seeing the career of parents and predecessors continue.
My grandfather is a scientist working for NASA. My father is an intellectual, a model official. My grandfather from my mother side is a professor. My grandmother is a kind, virtuous person. My mother is an intellectual and brave businessman. I am proud of my good roots. Thanks to good genes, her studies are relatively easy with high results. That is why I am very grateful and feel that I have a responsibility to serve the previous generation and serve life.
"I came to America when I was an adult, so I'm not dominated by novelties. Every decision I make, I think about my family and take it as my priority."
It is known that since childhood, Christine has had a maid at home to take care of everything, so she can do everything by herself when she comes to the US?
It is true that in Vietnam, I just go to school, everything in the house has a servant. But that's not why I stay, sometimes I also go to the kitchen to help the kitchen aunts and uncles, so it's not unusual for me to come to America to study, but I do housework, cook and do laundry by myself.
For me, living alone is also a good environment to practice. I see, the further away I go, the more I come into contact with civilization, the more I learn and improve myself.
Upon graduation, Christine will works in Vietnam or the US.
I study economics. My family has a background in business. My Mom founded and runs her own company. Mom and her younger brother have developed a successful family business. The family background gives me a good stepping stone for my upcoming career, but I don't rely on it. What is available is just luck butit won’t impact my steps in life.
I will return to Vietnam to work because I also like the Vietnamese environment and the customs here. Maybe I will work in 2 places but I will definitely spend more time in Vietnam.
Wish Christine always happy, always healthy and achieve her dreams.
