Coming to America: English teacher’s journey from Vietnam to SHS

The boat rocks violently, at the mercy of the wind and the sea. The boat has been gaining water for several days in the South China Sea, and in a couple hours, it will go under.

The year is 1980.

On board are several families fleeing the communist rule of Vietnam. Just a few days prior, the boat had been raided by pirates, who had stolen much of the refugees’ belongings. Sea sickness is rampant.

It is midday.

A man on board scans the horizon with a pair of binoculars. He excitedly calls his eldest son over to have a look.

Through the clear, bright orbs of the binoculars, the boy sees a black spec on the horizon.

This spec is a U.S. oil rig that will rescue the “boat people,” and the young boy is English teacher Ken Nguyen.

Early life in Vietnam

Nguyen said he was born in what is now Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, called Saigon at the time. Nguyen said he lived there for the first four or five years of his life.

With unemployment at over 80 percent after the communists took over South Vietnam in 1975, Nguyen’s parents decided to flee the country.

Nguyen’s father had been a naval officer for South Vietnam during the war. When the North won, he was imprisoned in a “re-education camp.”

“He doesn’t really talk about it,” Nguyen said, “but based on some scant details relayed to me through my mom, it wasn’t exactly a great place to be.”

Nguyen’s family made two or three attempts before it finally succeeded in escaping Vietnam—down the Mei Kong River into the Indian Ocean.

When Nguyen’s family escaped, his parents drugged his little brother, so he would not attract the attention of communist patrols.

Shortly after being saved by the American oil rig, Nguyen recalls seeing their little boat sink.

“Like it just kind of fell in on itself and it went in under the water, under the waves,” Nguyen said.

The oil rig dropped off the refugees at a camp in Indonesia, where they stayed for more than a year.

Nguyen was now 6, and the year was 1981.

It was not until a Catholic Church in Louisville, Ky., agreed to sponsor them that Nguyen and his family were allowed to immigrate to the U.S.

“We only lived there a few months. My parents worked odd jobs,” Nguyen said.
From Louisville, Nguyen moved to New Orleans to be with a maternal aunt. Shortly afterward, his family settled in Seattle.

Early Influences in Seattle

Nguyen’s family moved from a one-bedroom apartment near Seattle to a two-bedroom apartment, and finally to a house in the suburbs once his family had saved enough. All the while, his parents worked odd jobs and took night classes.

Nguyen’s family relocated so often that he ended up attending five different elementary schools.

Growing up, Nguyen recalls his dad teaching him math over summers.

“And he was always working with me on my math homework, all the way through middle school,” Nguyen recalled.

“I didn’t need really much help in my English classes,” Nguyen said. “Even at an early age, I was sort of winning awards in writing competitions.”

Nguyen recalls that moving so often came with its share of problems.

“I didn’t have a stable set of friends,” Nguyen said.

Nguyen said he instead found solace in books. And in his teachers.

“Like Ms. Ford, in ninth grade: She saw that I was reading a Stephen King novel, and she said, ‘You should read this other book by him, it’s also really good!’” Nguyen said. “So she really encouraged me with the outside reading that I did. And I thought that to be really kind and thoughtful.”

Nguyen said although he liked all his classes in high school, he always loved reading and writing.

Teaching

Nguyen went on to attend the University of Seattle on a scholarship, and upon graduation, went backpacking through Europe for a month.

When he returned, Nguyen worked as tech support for an Internet service provider for three months, after which he worked as a clerk in a law firm.

Nguyen was finally picked up by Microsoft on a one-year contract. He worked as a system analyst.

Nguyen said the salary was good, and he could be converted to a permanent employee after a year.

“But I decided kind of half way through that year that I didn’t want to stay, at all,” Nguyen said. “I didn’t even want my contract renewed, and I didn’t want to be converted, because it was a boring job.”

Nguyen said that he had in fact been thinking about becoming a teacher since his senior year in college.

“And I kept thinking about my high school teachers and how great they were,” Nguyen said, “and sort of being instrumental in shaping me into the person that I had become.”

Nguyen said he wasn’t very confident when he was in high school, often stuttering and hyperventilating during presentations. He said that his teachers were always people he could count on for support.

“They, out of everybody that I knew, recognized and helped nourish my love of learning and reading and writing.”

Nguyen said he thought it a natural progression that he should go from loving and admiring his teachers to wanting to become one himself.

After his contract expired with Microsoft, Nguyen went back to Seattle University to get his teaching credential.

Nguyen then started teaching at Interlake High in Bellevue, Wash. in 2001. He stayed there for only a year, however.

Nguyen then joined Leland High School in San Jose, where he taught from 2002 to 2008.
He then applied to Saratoga High for many reasons, ranging from a better salary to a need for change.

This is Nguyen’s fourth year teaching at SHS.

Nguyen said he plans to continue teaching until he retires.

“I can say pretty clearly, without any reservation, that I see myself doing this for another 20 years; and it would still be as enjoyable 20 years from now as it is today, as it was on the very first day,” Ngyuen said.

Nguyen said his parents are happy for him in his chosen career, even though they were a little skeptical when he told them he was going to major in English.

“You know, I think they’re quite proud of what I’ve accomplished in my life.”