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K12 Education and Vietnamese-American Communities

Today, children of immigrants are the fastest growing segment of the U.S. K12 child population. In recent years, one out of every five children under the age of 18 — a total of 14 million — was either an immigrant child or a child with immigrant parents. Addressing the education translation service needs of immigrant K12 students and families in our schools is essential to the success of the Vietnamese-American community.

Vietnamese is the seventh-most spoken language in the United States — as many as 1 million people aged five and older speak Vietnamese at home. According to the 2000 census, more than 1.2 million people with Vietnamese origins live in the United States. They tend to live in metropolitan areas in the West, especially in California and Texas.

The vast majority of Vietnam-born people in the United States have arrived as refugees from 1975 to the present, principally in three different waves of immigration. The first group of refugees came to the U.S. in 1975 with the help of the U.S. government after Vietnam was reunified and the Communist system spread throughout the country. These refugees were mostly educated, urban professionals and their families. In contrast, the second wave arrived from the late 1970s through the 1980s, and included farmers and other rural Vietnamese who escaped Communist Vietnam. They endured great losses and hardship through the refugee process, often suffering years at internment camps prior to entering the U.S. Since they were generally less educated and less familiar with Western ways, they have subsequently had a harder time adapting to life in the U.S. The third wave of refugees continues to arrive, and has come under American programs to free political prisoners in Vietnam or through family reunification programs.

When teaching Vietnamese K12 children, it helps to know about education in traditional Vietnamese culture. Traditionally, Vietnamese K12 children will not speak up in class unless called upon to recite memorized material. In more participatory American K12 education environments where instructional methods like group discussion and student presentations are used, teachers can get frustrated with Vietnamese students because of what seems like a lack of engagement. However, K12 students in Vietnam are taught to sit, listen, and memorize, plus they have been taught to believe everything that the instructor says is absolutely true. Keep in mind that parents especially might retain this view of how a student “should” act in school.

Due to the importance of education in the Vietnamese culture, children are monitored in a strict home environment to ensure high academic achievements. They are strongly encouraged by parents to pursue “respectable” careers, such as medicine, law, and banking. Even though education is considered very important in the Vietnamese culture, parents are less likely to get directly involved with K12 school activities. Parents rely heavily on the schools to handle everything involved with their children’s K12 education. Whether this lack of involvement is due to a low English language skills or being unfamiliar with the American K12 educational system, parents won’t reach out and get engaged. Therefore, building translation services for inbound calls from parents needing information is critical so that someone is there to help them when they need it. If they think there will be a language barrier, they’ll be even less likely to try communicating with schools. K12 educators have found that being consistent and building trust with Vietnamese parents through good translation services and interpretation is essential. If they have one bad experience with an education translation effort, a school will have to start the process over again.

To encourage interaction between Vietnamese communities and the schools, K12 educators can draw on the social institutions and resources of the community to give recognition to the accomplishments of their K12 students. By using community members who are bilingual professionals as staff members or volunteers to work with children and help with education translation, it can help parents feel welcome in the institutions serving their children, both individually and through meetings with Vietnamese parent organizations. K12 schools can also encourage student-organized Vietnamese cultural activities to bring the rich Vietnamese heritage to their schools. This will lessen any sense of isolation in school, while at the same time strengthening relations with peers and elders.

When working with Vietnamese-American immigrants, K12 educators should consider the effects of family loss, exile, and resettlement on students and their families. This sensitivity and providing academic support to children and families through effective translation services will increase the success of K12 educators and students within school districts.

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