While most Vietnamese media are quick to observe Jiverly Linh Phat Voong (or Wong) as an ethnic Chinese, one blogger at least explored the theme of immigrants lack of language skills and its deleterious effects.

Below is a partial translation of a piece in Talawas.de, a popular blog by Vietnamese overseas… ,
written by Phan Nhien Hao.

My guess is he’s Vietnamese with the Chinese last name Vuong and changed it phonetically to Wong in English. This is typical of Chinese who migrated to Vietnam and tried to ingrate to Vietnamese life…

According to initial reports Wong felt “degraded and disrespected” due to his lack of English skills.

Research shows that English is crucial for immigrants to become successful. Generally speaking, the better your English the better your chance of finding a job and the higher your salary.

In places where many Vietnamese reside, like Little Saigon, speaking English is not as crucial a factor to becoming successful. But for those who live and work elsewhere, their livelihood depend on how well the speak English.

When I first came here, even though I took classes in Vietnam i didn’t even dare speak English at McDonald’s to order food. It’s because in Vietnam you don’t practice speaking English in those language courses.

America is a country full of foreigners but what distinguish “natives” from “immigrants” is your ability to speak English well. A child who speaks english without an accent is considered “native” even if he and his parents have only lived in the US for several years whereas someone who is in her 60’s and speaks english with an accent is considered a “foreigner” even if she has lived in the US for 30 years….

There are many different groups of Vietnamese immigrants to America. There’s a sizable population that are poorly educated. It is not their fault. War, poverty and worse, after 1975 (when the war ended) may were discriminated due to their background and were sent to the New Economic Zone to work. When they managed to get to America they are ill equipped to adjust and study English.

English for the Vietnamese overseas can be an issue of survival, and sometimes it’s an issue of life and death, as in the tragedy we just witnessed.

I am not trying to defend Wong’s crimes. You don’t just go out and kill innocent people just because something or another was said about you. But I think i understand how humiliating it is to not able to speak English in America.

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Article on Jiverly Wong