I came across an article recently that stated that the Board of Supervisors in Orange County, California is considering starting a Vietnamese language center in their county. There are other centers like this; that teach language and culture, throughout southern California, but none that I know of in my area of the East Coast.

Spreading cultural awareness and allowing people to immerse themselves in their birth cultures is a wonderful thing, and I’m jealous of the people who get to take advantage of them. My first thought after reading the article was that I wished we had something like this for Ella to experience. My second thought was that I wondered how she would feel as a Vietnamese person with a white family next to Vietnamese from Vietnamese families. Would she feel like an outsider in the very place that we hoped she would find a piece of herself? Of course, there is no way to know, but it certainly makes me wonder.

Months ago I read a newspaper article about a local program that catered to Korean born adopted kids. It was basically a culture and language school, but it was specifically geared towards adopted children. One of the best parts of this program was that the families were also included in the program. The children learned right alongside their parents and siblings and all got to experience their culture together.

Both kinds of program have their merits and I would be thrilled if there was a local one that we could attend. Maybe we’ll see more of them pop up now that Viet Nam adoptions to the United States have resumed. Of course, I realize that schools like this exist where there is demand for and interest in them, and hopefully the demand and interest in my area (and in all the other states that you readers are in ;)) will increase in the near future.

Related Links:
Vietnamese Heritage/Culture Camps