By Lilian Nguyen
If Fountain Valley High School (FVHS) is known for one thing, it would be its student diversity. FVHS, according to the 2020-2021 School Accountability Report Card (SARC), had a total of 3,390 students enrolled with more than 55% of the students being Asian, 14% being Hispanic and 24% white with a mix of many other ethnicities.
Although 50% of the student population is Asian with a very large percentage of it being Vietnamese, the language isn’t offered as a language class. The Vietnamese Seal of Biliteracy test was offered last year, allowing students to earn a service cord and seal, but this isn’t enough.
To get a bigger scope of how beneficial teaching Vietnamese would be, Orange County has the third highest Asian population in the US and has the biggest enclave of Vietnamese people outside of Vietnam. Much of the Vietnamese population is composed of immigrants who came here after the Vietnam War, many of which include our parents and relatives.
And in an even larger picture, the Vietnamese are the 6th largest foreign-born group in the US and receive 80% more Vietnamese immigrants than any other country. The US houses the largest Vietnamese population besides Vietnam itself. Even the bordering nations around Vietnam can’t compare with the US.
However many of our parents and grandparents after living in the West for so long had to adapt in order to survive. This meant at times sacrificing their culture in order to live in Western society. Because of this, their children lose the ability to communicate and some can’t even speak Vietnamese at all, and this cycle continues for generations and generations.
This case is quite familiar to many students at FVHS. Many students are unable to communicate in Vietnamese, and instead, only speak English at home with their parents. If Vietnamese was offered as a language class, these students would have the opportunity to immerse themselves in their culture and language and have the chance to speak with their relatives, many of whom only speak Vietnamese.
High schools in neighboring districts such as Garden Grove Unified School District (GGUSD) offer Vietnamese across all high school campuses and some middle school campuses, despite the small percentage of Vietnamese students (high schools in GGUSD are predominantly Hispanic with only two out of 8 schools having an Asian percentage of 60% and higher). On top of this, dual enrollment for students even begins as early as the elementary level. If schools such as GGUSD have such a small percentage of Asian students, then there is no reason for FVHS to omit Vietnamese as a language course.
As for Huntington Beach Union High School (HBUHSD), the only school that offers Vietnamese as a language course is Westminster High School (WHS) which in 2021 was composed of only 45% Asian and 47% Hispanic students according to the HBUHSD SARC reports.
Culturally, the language is being lost and isn’t being nurtured. Without being given an opportunity to learn Vietnamese, students will simply laze off and won’t bother with trying to retouch their roots. Even now, many fluent Viet speakers born in the US are losing their ability to speak simply because of not having the opportunity to speak the language.
Without the ability to speak with your own kind, the feeling of being alienated from your own race and ethnicity will seep in. With the way the FVHS language department is structured, a large percentage of students are enrolled in Spanish and French with very few students enrolled in Japanese with many students quitting halfway through. If Vietnamese were to be offered, many students would take the opportunity to learn and stay in the course.
In the end, teachers and students alike have to make it known that having Vietnamese offered as a language is more than just learning a language, it’s the ability to transcend barriers and brings forth unique opportunities and understanding that won’t be possible without a simple Chào.
