Meeting and talking to her has made me think a bit about the life of foreigners and their children here. Most (if not all) send their kids to international schools where they are taught in English and rarely get exposed to Vietnamese. I don't blame them for this since there are some things that I don't agree with in the ways Vietnamese handle their education (e.g., strict memorization, lack of creativity). Most foreigners don't speak Vietnamese themselves, so at home, they get English as well. My friend is in a different situation since she speaks Vietnamese quite fluently and has got Vietnamese nannies to help keep the kids bilingual. However, it seems that in most cases, you get children who grew up in Vietnam but don't speak it much, and I have no idea what that must be like. I haven't met any adults with this background yet since I'm assuming that this is something of the current generation, but I wonder what kind of upbringing that's like. It seems so opposite in the U.S where immigrants and their children (especially) are often eager to learn the language and the ways.
So is this a question of superiority? Stubbornness? Familiarity?
I've got a couple of ideas but I think I'll stop here for the sake of not endlessly going on. Anywho, just some food for thought as to the dynamics of assimilation between foreign and native populations in a different setting...
