Vietnamese Americans talk about code-switching and feeling American 'enough'
When Dzung Pham arrived in the U.S. from Vietnam, one of the first things the 14-year-old did was go swimming in the hotel pool with his brother.
When Dzung Pham arrived in the U.S. from Vietnam, one of the first things the 14-year-old did was go swimming in the hotel pool with his brother. Pham saw something he still remembers nearly 50 years later: When the teenage lifeguard flashed a smile, he had braces. Pham had never seen braces before.
Soon after, he was taking part in other American rites of passage like helping his classmates build floats for their high school homecoming.
Now, five decades later, he and other families shared stories of adapting and code-switching while still retaining their roots with NBC News to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon.
Dzung Pham was 14 when he fled Vietnam.NBC NewsThey recalled the events of April 30, 1975, effectively ending the Vietnam War. North Vietnamese forces had captured the city now known as Ho Chi Minh City — named for the first president of North Vietnam. North Vietnamese forces reunited the country as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, with April 30 observed as Reunification Day.The capturing of Saigon spurred a refugee crisis, with more than 100,000 people fleeing the South Vietnamese capital to head to the U.S. through Guam. As refugees fled by boat, facing starvation, pirates and drownings, they came to be known as “boat people.” Today, there are more than 2.3 million Vietnamese Americans, and the U.S. holds the largest Vietnamese diaspora in the world.
Pham said he, for one, quickly acclimated.
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