The Vietnamese Community and me - the story

Intro: Leon Heale là một thiện nguyện viên từ giữa 2018. Ông hiện hướng dẫn lớp dạy tiếng Anh buổi tối cho người Việt tại cơ sở của SEMVAC HELPS. Sau đây là câu chuyện của ông và cộng đồng người Việt.

Leon Heale is a volunteer at SEMVAC HELPS since mid 2018. He runs SEMVAC Helps English tutoring evening class and here’s his story.

Remembering that TV News in my formative years contained much of events approximately

1966 -1975, followed by the harrowing scenes of the refugee experience, all leaving unforgettable images in your memory, it is a little surprising that my first real contact with the VN community didn’t occur until 2011 when by chance meeting a middle-aged VN male outside my house apparently relieving his house-bound boredom by taking a walk. 

Casual conversation led to showing him some South Gippsland scenery the next day as an alternative to being confined to home.   He was visiting his daughter and husband who both worked and up till this time, he hadn’t seen outside Melbourne.

So began a long association with another Nguyen family leading to a visit to VN in 2012 to re-connect. He taught English to professional staff at a HCM City hospital and to my surprise I was elevated to ‘Exhibit A ‘ English speaker.  The following tours ( typically catering to foreign tourists ) were ‘eye-opening ‘ and revealed a culture I developed an interest in.  As well as the scenic attractions for an amateur photographer.

On a 2nd tour in 2015 , I opted for VN speaking tours predicting that I would be well taken care of by the Viet Kieu elements in the party.  I was right, and impressed that I was assisted sometimes by complete strangers.

Prior to that, I had enrolled as a volunteer English tutor at AMES Springvale and Noble Park and gradually contrived to have exclusively VN students in my groups since we had now things in common and shared a similar sense of humour.

Through connections to VN Nursing under-graduates, I occasionally reviewed Grammar and sentence construction in written essays and submissions.  Unofficially, this is considered ok by academic authorities who recognize the acute differences in languages , and the burden imposed on VN under-graduates. Sometimes, this extends to advocating in rental accommodation disputes which are usually ‘interesting’.

2018 has been another stimulating experience coaching adults in a SEMVAC-sponsored English class.

Despite my methods being un-orthodox, I like to teach ‘survival’ English which puts students under some ‘pressure’. This method doesn’t suit everybody and for some the pressure is over-whelming.

When this occurs, I usually relieve the effort with some humour.

I feel strongly that the ‘Refugee experience’ needs to be acknowledged and preserved as part of the VN / Australian narrative.   Effort will have to be directed to preserving the stories from Grandparent to Grandchildren taking into account the inevitable language difficulties.

Coming from early English immigrant ancestry ( 1850s - !870s ) ( Ironically, ‘boat people ‘ of

a sort )  I find the VN Community enterprising, resilient and resourceful ( and great cooks ! )

I am honoured to be welcomed into their circles and events.