Salt Lake Community College

A New Beginning

Can Trung Vo
English 1010-402-Sp16
Jillian Bennion
February 14, 2016

Can Vo

A new beginning
During the Vietnam war, my father was a lieutenant serving in the
South Vietnam army. On April 30th, 1975 the Northern Vietnamese army took
over Saigon, the capitol, marking an end to the Vietnam War. Military officers
of the former South Vietnam government, my father included, were sent to
reeducation camp, a cordial title for prison camps by the Communist
government of Vietnam. After almost eight years of camp, my father was
released and reunited with my mother. Shortly after, they worked with my
three older siblings and started our family farm.
Growing up in Vietnam on a farm, I did not find reading and writing to
be important. I would attend school during the morning hours and after I
would help with taking care of our stable of animals or work the fields along
with my parents and siblings. All of my older siblings attended some
schooling during their younger years but never graduated with their high
school diplomas. At that young age, I did not feel that reading and writing
would help me in performing my daily duties at home therefore, I neglected
it and did not put much effort in it during school hours.
Our family was presented with the opportunity to emigrate Vietnam
and come to America through the orderly departure program. My parents
decided to take the chance and pursue the opportunity for a better life. I will
never forget the feeling I had that day, the day I first set foot on American
soil. Being in America felt surreal, everything was larger than life, from the

large amount of people to the towering skyscrapers and multi-level

highways. Reality soon set in and I realized that I would have to learn how to
read and write in English to be able to communicate with new friends, and
teachers.
With Vietnamese being my first language, English has always been a
difficult language for me to learn. After moving here from Vietnam, the
thought of going to school was nerve racking. I didnt know what to expect or
what I can do since I did not know how to write or speak any English. It was
extremely challenging to adjust to a new and completely different language
than what I was accustomed. English words were pronounced so differently
and sentence structures seemed backwards. It was in high school where I
met Mrs. Skelly, she helped and pushed me to work harder and be patient
when I felt frustrated and ready to give up.
The proper pronunciation of English words was very challenging when I
first started reading. Vietnamese is a tonal language that has symbols which
changes the way the word sounds or its meaning. A two letter word can have
multiple meanings and pronunciations based on different symbols on certain
letters; for example, ma is ghost, m is but, m is mom, m is grave, and m
is horse. In Vietnamese, the symbols over or under the letter helps the
reader know the word pronunciation and meaning. In English, I find it tough
to pronounce words with silent letters. Words that I am not familiar with, I
tend to sound them out by the way they are spelled but Im often wrong. In
the bilingual English class I attended in high school, Mrs. Skelly would have

students take turns and read a few pages on the materials we were working
on out loud. I was always anxious and stressed when it was my turn since I
was afraid that what I was reading aloud was going to be wrong. Mrs. Skelly
always assured me that the only way to get better was to keep trying,
mistakes will only make you better if you learn from them.
Writing was an even harder concept for me to grasp. In Vietnamese we
use for past, ang for present, and s for future tense. The verb in
Vietnamese never changes, the word tense is determined by which tense
you place in front of the verb. While in English, there are many different
types of verb tenses which get quite confusing. Proper sentence and
paragraph structure was also difficult; I have always had trouble with
knowing when to end the sentence and begin a new one. Whenever my
essay was corrected and returned from Mrs. Skelly, I always felt as though
everything I wrote was wrong, because there were always so many
corrections.
Now that I am looking back and giving it thought, I realize how much
Mrs. Skelly went out of her way to help me be a better reader and writer. I
remember numerous occasions where she would ask me to stay after class
to discuss assignments since I always had trouble coming up with topics to
write about when it was an open paper. Write about what really interests
you, but write it in a way that will also interest others, was one of her pieces
of advice that I vividly remember. Without her help and guidance during my

first few years in America, I may have not even met the requirements to
graduate from high school.
After graduating from high school, I was fully aware that English was
not my strong suit, therefore I decided to pick a career choice where I had to
do little writing and speaking. I went to trade school for automotive and have
been working in the field for the past ten years. During these ten years I
have not been required to do much writing except for the occasional
customer invoice. Over the years of non-use, my writing and reading work
has rusted, hence major polishing needs to happen so that they can one day
shine.
Enrolling in this English 1010 class is the biggest step I have made to
improve my reading and writing skills since working with Mrs. Skelly in high
school. I know that I need to face my fears of accidently improperly spelling a
word, or using the incorrect tense on a sheet of paper. Hopefully soon, I will
be interacting with patients and writing medical charts for doctors to read
without anxiety. Gone are the days of being a rowdy farm boy who didnt
care for reading or writing, I am determined to move forward and become a
better reader and writer.