Vietnamese Questions and Answers

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The current social studies topic for Junior High School is the Southeast Asian countries, most recently Vietnam. Students have been busy learning from textbooks and through Internet research but welcomed the opportunity to get some first hand information from an RMA parent, Mrs. Burgess, aka Rung Ruong Son, Vietnamese artist and writer.

Through her answers to the many questions posed by the JHS students, Mrs. Burgess truly brought to life aspects of Vietnamese culture and geography. Vietnam is even more diverse, region to region, than Thailand, with great variations in climate, dialects, and food. It was very interesting to hear how Mrs. Burgess, as a young child, had to shelter underground from bombing during the conflict between the communist and the South Vietnamese government.

As might be expected, the conversation turned to food. When asked for the secret ingredient that makes Vietnamese noodles so tasty, Mrs. Burgess would only say that that must remain secret! We were fascinated to learn that you would need to pay 20,000 Dong for a simple meal, and that you would need to be a Dong millionaire to buy a laptop. The inevitable questions about dog food, that is, the eating of dogs, did arise and yes, the answer was yes!

Many thanks to Rung Ruong Son.

P.S. Mrs. Burgess has kindly donated a copy of her latest publication to our library; a book of her Vietnamese poems, entitled "Tho Tinh Mong Tim" under her nom-de-plume, "Le Hoang Truc".