MY OPINION OF AMERICAN MANNNERS

This was the title of one of the essays in the idiom book.  The book had been written for students already in the U.S., but these students only knew the American UNVs and other workers in the camps.  I loved their insights.

"We who were Vietnamese we also held our bowl in our hand to eat.  But there was a person who was so different, he was American who still put his bowl on the table.  In fact he didn't life his bowl from the beginning until the end party.  Why were we so faint about that?  'Because my people is used to holding on their bowl in their hand when they eat.  If someone don't do so, my people think they are impolite. . . .

 By LE THI NGOC HIEN, my 16-year-old girl who was watching us more closely than I realized."

"In the country which have so much liberty as America.  It is difficult to keep a faithful love in the family.  If people only consider materials to be all for their lives, of course love or things for spirits will have no more room in people lives. . . .

By NGUYEN HUU LAI, early 20s."

"Americans are good friends of me and my homeland because many years before 1975, they helped my native land to create the Government of the Republic of Vietnam.  They also took care of protecting my fatherland prevented taking over South Vietnam by the Vietnamese Communists. . . .Americans sacrified [sacrificed] their lives, their property to stand beside the Vietnamese soldiers killing the communists. . . .

Oftentimes when I think of the character of Americans, I want to become an American right away.

By NGUYEN NGON, about 24 years old, in camp with his father, who'd worked with our military during the war."

These young people had amazing vocabularies for the amount of time they had studied English.  They observed and thought and wrote these essays only to me.