Hi everybody, welcome back to my channel! If you're new here thanks for joining
and if you've already subscribed thank you so so much!
So today we are here to have a little story time for you. Huy wants to
share his experience with you. You guys have asked a lot of questions about how
he came to America and like, what he does now, so today is your chance to find out
all those details that you've been asking about for so long. May not be that
interesting. Yes, so he's got his coffee, I've got my water and we're ready to
tell you a story. So I personally love the story, you say it's not interesting
but I like it. So I guess we will just start right at the beginning back
in Vietnam. So you had a little joke going on with your friend, right? Yeah it
was when I was
in tenth grade, in high school my friend I, Cường, shout to you if you're watching, he told me
about this sort of... cuz we've been taking English classes together for at that point
maybe four years so we said you know what there is this exam that they test English
for free, so then just go take it and see how it goes. I wasn't fully aware
what this exam was about or you know I didn't know what happened after the
exam right. So I was okay you know yeah okay, let's go test my English so we went to
this this office in district 1 in Ho Chi Minh City and so we went up there you
know we sat for the exam because two parts one is written the other one is sort of
oral exam where the teachers and then actually do the interviews we did the
written part first everything was easy you know what
I did it out, I did the exam and then afterward I started to realize that this is for my
be so sort like a test for you to apply into the students exchange program so it's
like ah but then like both my friend and I-- I don't know about him --
but I think if I remember correctly at the time he wasn't sure
about doing study abroad either so we were just like you know they're still
a second round, do we go through with it or do we not? Because we never really you
know put much thought into this so we said well you know what let's just go
for the for the interview round anyway because who knows maybe we're not gonna
pass. So then we came in for the for the interview round -- separately of course--
and I went through the process and then maybe a few days later the office
contacted my family and said "well you know what, you passed both tests so now
are you gonna follow through with uh with the whole you know application
process and actually going through the exchange program" so then I talked to I
talked to my parents but I brought up the idea to my parents and they asked me
if I was I was serious about studying abroad because you know as you know right,
Vietnamese people we don't go we don't go for just the experience itself but we
go for the long haul and you go and you go back to college and then hopefully an
advanced degree so on and so forth so it's not just one year to go back and
then, and then you know, go back to high school in Vietnam because it's it doesn't work
like that so then.. and I think prior to that my
parents already brought up the idea of studying abroad but for some reason
I turned it down because I was younger at the time maybe
eighth grade ninth grade or something like that and I had some friends that I was hanging
out with or just the idea of, you know, going to a different country
and leaving everything behind was a bit daunting at the time well the first time. But then
this time when I actually thought about it and I was the one to bring it up they
said you know what if you're serious about studying abroad and you want to
pursue a degree then then they were all for it so I said you know
what let's do this. So we my family and I went through the the process of applying
for the paperwork, filling out everything. It took a little bit of time
so the program that I went to -- there's a tons of different exchange programs
right, that they bring students all over the world to America, or vise versa, anywhere in the world really
right, but the program that I was involved with it specifically was called ISE,
international students exchange, very generic name. yeah very generic name so so for
those you don't know they as a part of doing the application they actually
asked me whether I -- or both my friend and I -- if we wanted to sign up for a
specific either region or state right, with additional fee, there is not for
free. So basically we were like, "oh, maybe we just want to be close hanging out still
I know because it's gonna be a you know strange country, don't know anyone.
so we're like yeah let's let's pick the same state and then let's also pick the
same regions. Oh, but I have question: did you know right away that it was gonna be
America or no? Yes it's America, it's America we knew we knew right off the bat
that it would have been it would be America. so it was no one's
country is the same. yeah. But... well we asked more about the the state and the
region selection there was no guarantee and they already told flat-out that
since it's an international exchange program no two students from the same
country will be living the same house. So we would not live in the same house
at all. I was like okay it's fine but the same state of region maybe we can meet up maybe a couple months in. But they said
like there's no guarantee that you will be put in the same state either. Or
in the same region if I remember correctly so then I think if you if we wanted to
pick a specific state would have been a thousand dollars more.
Jeez! What the heck? That's not even pocket change!
It's not. If it was a region then it would have been 300 bucks, something like that.
I don't exactly the number, I'm a bit fuzzy here yeah but there was no guarantee of anything so we
said you know what let's not even, let's just drop that thing, we're not even
gonna go for it so it so basically we said you know what, we're already traveling
halfway around the world where where else can they put us? BOOM, they put me in Maine.
My friend went to Washington state Opposite ends of the map, that's a
big country. the two different ends of the country. 2500 miles away. Yup and, I actually had
to wait for a while before I knew who because you don't just get to go right
you have to wait for a host family to sort of adopt you
so you have a place to live, right? so then after I put all my application through it was just a
waiting process and my my noticed came through very late, I remember it was later
because there was a lot of people that I knew in that program they got their, they
got their notice right away like very very early on for me just waiting waiting
waiting I think I got it maybe mid-July or something like that, which is very late. So then my
notice said you're going to Maine, I said what does that even mean?I had no idea what Maine was or where it was,
I remember googling it, the first time and the first thing sort of came up on
Google was how cold was. It's very cold. It's like negative 25 today. yeah so so I think I had
the choice to reject that to say no as well, but given the timeline and if it
was already late and number two is that it didn't matter at the end of the day
where we go. It could have sent you to Wyoming after that so .. no shots to Wyoming. Random states
as well not everything New York or Massachusetts or Florida, something like that. So then um, so yeah
sort of how it started it was more like a joke between me and my friend I was like I
just go for the English test, see how it goes and then 9 years deep now. Yeah, nine years
that's crazy. so um you came, you met your host dad yeah. How was the first like
beginning time when you transitioned here? It was it was it was rough to be honest
He made, Gary was my host dad, and he made it as easy and as seamless as possible for
my transition but the rough part was just coming in
for myself because you know I came here when I was 17 which is not too
young but not too old either. He was very accommodating but
at the end of the day, still a strange country, still a strange language, my English you know I
started learning English since I was in fourth grade and consistently obviously
right through until I came here but studying is one thing, guys
actually being in the native country of the language, and especially being
in a state where or the part of the state where there was not much diversity
at all so then, English was my only option, which it helped but it was hard
because you know when I was socializing with people you know getting to know them for
the first time especially a lot of people that I knew first was a little
bit older of age so then it's just that much harder people the voices of the
harder and some some some people had deep accent as well
so then I remember when we was talking most of my reaction was just I was just
like you know, nodding, laughing and I'm I'm like 80% sure that people I was
communicating with knew that I had no idea what so it was going on. So it was hard.
The food was fine because I'm cool with eating butter, milk, all the quote-unquote "Western" foods, burgers,
pizza anything like that I'm fine with so food is fine.
I came in early early August, August 10th I think, 2009 2009 yeah
so the temperature was fine it was still hot so it's very similar to home so
there was no shock there. Very rural, the Maine state is rural, Maine is vast right? and the
population it's not dense especially the area that I was living basically for
five years. No, it's the middle of nowhere so then we don't have much neighbor so it was a
bit of a difference, jet lag was a big one yeah I mean I was struggling for like
the whole week just like sleeping. You came right before school - right? No who was
that? That was the guy that my host dad Gary adopted the year before me. he
came - Yeah but that's a different story. After. Yeah, after. so yeah the first transition
was a bit bit hard but as time went by it it got easier and easier especially when
I start to develop my English a little bit. I think
the package is coming. We're going skiing by the way, yeah you may see some of
that yeah so yeah I think maybe three months in three months in is when my English
got a little bit better, not the best, so I was able to communicate better with
what everyone so life was a bit easier. I'll just ask another question, I know this video's
getting a little long so maybe some other topics we can do in a different
video but I do know someone, Senaivi, she is coming to America soon I think maybe
in two weeks to study abroad in Florida so do you have any advice for her? Put
yourself out there. I think that's the the easiest way to to not only improve
your language your English but also truly you know get the experience okay
okay I got the package, I'm back! so yeah you hear that advice?
Well yeah number one is put yourself out there. Oh, you have more? I guess. Wow okay I mean
try to.. Florida, I don't know how the Vietnamese
community there how big it is but I think it might be bigger than Maine,
obviously. yeah anywhere it's bigger than Maine but I know you know you
would be tempted to just roll with crowd, the Viet crowd and you know to some
degree there is nothing wrong with that, it's normal to feel that way but resist the temptation you know
because at the end of day you go here to experience a different culture a
different environment so if you just roll with the same crowd and you're not
learning anything you're not experiencing anything so you know, reach out and try to put
yourself out there because I don't know what level of studying that person is
coming in as but -- high school -- high school is, I don't know to be honest I
didn't like my high school experience in America, Yeah but you were loner. I went
to senior year only senior year and for some reason I found was pretty hard to
just sort of wiggle my way in any any friends. I did some sports as an
advice to be integrated into the school so I
did cross-country in the fall. People was very a nice and no doubt about it
but I don't know, I found it was hard to actually make good connections because
you know when you see people that you know on the hallway to class and they "oh yeah
yeah yeah we should hang" uhh, when? I don't know the phone number.. what? The American way
That's like a greeting here. So if somebody says like yeah like let's
hang out or something you have to like really push to make a plan because
usually that's just some one of the things we say just like when we say like
what's up or how's it going that's more like hello than anything so
if you're like standing there like trying to answer the question it's a
little awkward just because that's not really how we use it in conversation
so let's hang out is almost like that it's just like a nice thing to say like
at the end of the conversation but it seems like they have no intention yeah
yeah that's what I'm saying it's just like it's almost like a goodbye greeting
to somebody so then you know if you want to do something, go and do it
yeah you want to hang out with somebody then you may have to you have to make an
extra effort then just like go invite them and do something give them a date and say hey let's go.
And academically, pick harder classes than you think you
you handle because they assigned me some joke of a class because they
thought you know I wasn't gonna be able to handle the English portion
understanding but then, you know, it was way easier than it should have
been. yeah so yeah I think American high school is pretty easy in general. I mean
yeah it's up to you to push yourself. yeah you gotta take the harder classes but
yeah hopefully it's a good experience and -- oh, you'll like it -- yeah that that's good
advice so I guess that's gonna be it for this video because I don't want to make
it too long, but if you have any additional questions or topics that you
want us to like just sit and chat about that you might be interested in just let
us know in the comments below and yeah that's that's it so thank you guys so
much for watching and thanks honey bunny for sharing your experience with
everybody. I know they're really gonna enjoy that and it's gonna be helpful for
a lot of people so if you haven't already subscribed click the subscribe
button down below and I will see you guys in the next video, byeeeee!
For more infomation >> Roberth - "For Us" (2018) (27th) Halldance music - Duration: 3:08. 
For more infomation >> Long Lines At Miami International Airport Due To U.S. Customs Computer Issue - Duration: 3:02. 
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét