Page 22 - BB_Textbook

RECEPTIVE
Grade 10
“America, Say My Name: I tried Troy. I stuck with Viet.”
Main Points
1. On the Bending Bamboo website, listen to a reading of this adapted article from The New York Times. Write down three main points from this personal story.
a. ___________________________________________________ b. ___________________________________________________ c. ___________________________________________________
“The House on Dream Street”
Dana Sachs, retrieved at http://www.adoptvietnam.org/ vietnamese/names-vietnamese.html. Adapted from the original.
As you listen to this story, take notes, and prepare to explain the meaning of your Vietnamese
name.
Introducing themselves to foreigners,
English-speaking Vietnamese often
translate the meaning of their names,
“I’m Orchid (Lan),” one might say. Or
“Shining Jade” (Ngoc Minh). Or “Spring
Rice” (Lua Xuan). Some families name
their children poetically. I knew three
brothers, named “Mountain” (Son), “River” (Giang), and “Ocean” (Hai). I had a friend named “Moon Lute” (Nguyet Cam), recalling a traditional stringed instrument. Sometimes parents turn to history for choosing names. One Vietnamese- American family named their three boys, all born during the American War, “Linh” (for President Abraham Lincoln), “Red” (for the Communists), and “Binh” (for peace).
Different cultures have their own order of names. For instance, English-speaking names appear in the reverse order of names in Vietnam. Following Vietnamese tradition, the family name comes first, and the personal or given name at birth comes last. In English, however, the family name (“surname” or “last name”) appears at the end of a name, and one’s personal or given name appears first. One thing English- and Vietnamese-speaking people can agree on is this: middle names appear between the given and family names—in the middle.
Viet Thanh Nguyen, The New York Times (9 March 2019), Opinion Page. Adapted from the original.
As you listen to this story, take notes, and prepare to identify the author’s three main points.
What’s your name? Mine is Viet Thanh
Nguyen, although I was born in Vietnam
as Nguyen Thanh Viet. Whichever way
you arrange my name, it is not a typical
American name. Growing up in the
United States, I thought it was normal to
adopt an American first name, and change one’s surname to an American one. But what exactly is an American name?
When my Vietnamese parents became American citizens, they changed their names, and asked if I wanted to change mine. I had some reason to since I was tired of being teased by those unable to pronounce Nguyen.
I tried on various names. I wanted something a bit different, like me. How about — Troy? It didn’t work.
It seemed alien. I was still connected to Vietnam, the country where I was born. This reaction was ironic since my fellow Vietnamese refugees in California described me as totally American, a whitewash, a banana—yellow on the outside, white on the inside.
In the end, I chose the name Viet. Not to change. Not, in this instance, to adapt to America. Although born in Vietnam and remade in America, I refused to change my name.
I knew intuitively that I would one day make Americans say my name. I felt that changing my name was a betrayal. A betrayal of my parents, even if they allowed me to change my name.
A betrayal of being Vietnamese, even if many Vietnamese people were ambivalent about me. A betrayal of me.
VOCABULARY
alien ambivalent banana betrayal intuitively ironic normal pronounce surname teased whitewash
Vietnamese Names
feminine
English-speaking Names
feminine
masculine
masculine
Family
Pham Vo
Given name
Sarah John
Middle
Phuong
Thanh
Middle
Marie
Raymond
Given name
Lan Yen
Family
Jackson Smith
22 CHAPTER 1 | IDENTITY
BENDING BAMBOO
VOCABULARY
Dream Street foreigners poetically (traditional stringed instrument) reverse