Latest / The Vietnamese with Kenneth Nguyen / 467 - How Is Black Culture & Vietnamese Culture Similar? - Whitney Dagail

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467 - How Is Black Culture & Vietnamese Culture Similar? - Whitney Dagail · The Vietnamese with Kenneth Nguyen

0:00
[SPEAKER_02]: Welcome to the Vietnamese podcast today have a special guest with need to go with me is living in Vietnam right now a little bit time in Hanoi now and say gone and I caught wind of you through Instagram and your work with Christian travels and Christian travels a good friend when I haven't reached out to him to ask anything about you but you and I had a pre-interview and you know we talked a lot
0:28
[SPEAKER_02]: your position in Vietnamese society today are very interesting because you live in Vietnam.
0:33
[SPEAKER_02]: You've been living there for a few months and I really want to get your perspective.
0:38
[SPEAKER_02]: And like we spoke about, I want to know more about how you feel about being a black woman living in Vietnam and how little you knew about the Vietnamese American story before you got to Vietnam.
0:52
[SPEAKER_02]: So welcome to the Vietnamese podcast.
0:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you, Kenneth, thank you for having me and I'm excited to have this conversation today.
1:00
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you, thank you.
1:02
[SPEAKER_02]: So as Vietnamese folks, we are very concerned and we love people with degrees, you know, you got MBA out of University of Michigan.
1:11
[SPEAKER_02]: Let's get that out of the way.
1:12
[SPEAKER_02]: That's what you got you're not your degree.
1:14
[SPEAKER_02]: And undergrad, you went to traditionally black universities and that that I have to say that because you come with a certain understanding of American history
1:30
[SPEAKER_02]: And it carries this certain weight when you come to a country like Vietnam, who I would dare say, we don't know much about Black American history in Vietnam.
1:42
[SPEAKER_02]: So before we get into all of that, I want to know how you got to Vietnam.
1:47
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that's the question.
1:49
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm X all the time.
1:51
[SPEAKER_00]: Why in Vietnam, I always tell people that I didn't choose Vietnam to chose me and I answered the call.
2:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Just for a little backstory, you mentioned I got my MBA from the University of Michigan.
2:07
[SPEAKER_00]: I started my full-time MBA program during the pandemic and so like most people during the pandemic with the time where we reflected on you know what are we doing with our lives and we only get one of these and how are we making sure that we make the most impact and so while I was in the program
2:28
[SPEAKER_00]: Slowly border started to open up, so I started to do a lot of slow travel.
2:32
[SPEAKER_00]: So when I transitioned back into the workforce in Indianapolis, I took the digital nomad life a little serious, and so I spent three months in Medaging Columbia, and enough to where I decided I wanted to make that a lifestyle.
2:52
[SPEAKER_00]: So I put all my things of storage.
2:54
[SPEAKER_00]: I moved home with this anticipation that I would spend time abroad and sometime back home in Louisiana.
3:03
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, life had different plans.
3:05
[SPEAKER_00]: I was laid off in December of 2023.
3:11
[SPEAKER_00]: But I took it as a moment of saying, hey, we have this opportunity, we've done enough on the ground research to understand how living abroad works.
3:23
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I gifted myself with a year of travel.
3:26
[SPEAKER_00]: So I spent six months in Columbia.
3:28
[SPEAKER_00]: And then I made my way to Asia.
3:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Honestly, the only reason Vietnam was on my radar is because I started salsa dancing in Colombia.
3:38
[SPEAKER_00]: And there was a Latin dance festival in Vietnam.
3:43
[SPEAKER_00]: And my friends were encouraging me to go.
3:46
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I started off in Thailand and I went to Singapore in Malaysia.
3:52
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, I decided not to go to the salsa festival just because I was like, uh, $500 for like five days of being a non-sales crazy.
4:03
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, so, um, I decided not, but,
4:07
[SPEAKER_00]: through that research.
4:08
[SPEAKER_00]: I was like, I'm going to make a stop to Vietnam before I leave this part of the world.
4:16
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think the the main pool was I knew that black American soldiers had fought in the Vietnam War.
4:24
[SPEAKER_00]: and like thinking through my own like childhood stories, there wasn't a lot of countries mentioned around the world's in my circle in family growing up but Vietnam was one of them and I was like I have to go and see this place and I had a friend that had spent maybe three months here and so
4:55
[SPEAKER_00]: So Vietnam was the war.
4:59
[SPEAKER_00]: So my mom was born in the 50s.
5:02
[SPEAKER_00]: So her generation were the soldiers that were like my uncles and friends of family were the ones that was the word.
5:16
[SPEAKER_02]: Trafted into the, yes, that's the word.
5:19
[SPEAKER_00]: Trafted into the war.
5:22
[SPEAKER_00]: The stories often came with a connotation around, you know, such a social entename came back a little crazy or, you know, I fought in the Vietnam War or your uncle fought there.
5:35
[SPEAKER_00]: And so that was kind of always the story was around the war.
5:40
[SPEAKER_00]: But it was still the country that was often mentioned because it left such a major impact in the Black American community.
5:48
[SPEAKER_02]: Right.
5:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
5:51
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, there's a big tie there.
5:53
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, that movie The Five Bloods?
5:56
[SPEAKER_02]: No, especially the Five Bloods.
5:59
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, these guys go back to Vietnam.
6:01
[SPEAKER_02]: These black men go back to Vietnam after all these decades of war, and then there's adventure that ensues.
6:09
[SPEAKER_02]: But yeah, so.
6:11
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so then I made the decision to come.
6:16
[SPEAKER_00]: This would have been November of last year.
6:21
[SPEAKER_00]: a little over year a year um and almost immediately I I landed in in Hanoi and I was going saw the dancing because that's on brand for me at this point in life and there was just like a piece and a calmness that came that I hadn't felt before um and so I knew that something was
6:50
[SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, that's how I ended up in Vietnam.
6:55
[SPEAKER_02]: When you're first impressions that were reflected back to you from people that you met.
7:03
[SPEAKER_00]: So I would say a few things.
7:06
[SPEAKER_00]: One, my hair is always a topic of conversation.
7:13
[SPEAKER_00]: Me showing up as a black person, right,
7:19
[SPEAKER_00]: community and I'm also dark skin, so like I stand out immediately so that brings a lot of attention and that attention can sometimes be overwhelming joy and sometimes overwhelming like what are you.
7:48
[SPEAKER_00]: And then, for the first time, my Americanist was questioned.
7:55
[SPEAKER_00]: I've never experienced
7:58
[SPEAKER_00]: like another question after being saying like me telling someone I'm from America right then now it's followed up with like but now we're you're fit where's your mom from where's your mom from what you know what I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna jump in because that kind of makes sense on brand for Vietnamese people because when you got millions of them millions of their own people
8:24
[SPEAKER_02]: landing in Belgium, landing in America, landing in Australia.
8:28
[SPEAKER_02]: So they're going to question our roots, right?
8:31
[SPEAKER_02]: Like white people are Americans, but like if you're not white,
8:37
[SPEAKER_02]: Right, then you, then where's your family really from?
8:40
[SPEAKER_02]: Are they from Ghana, they from Nigeria, right?
8:43
[SPEAKER_02]: So, but has an American, you've never been questioned that.
8:48
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's true.
8:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Because like, I am also like an American descendants of slaves.
8:53
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I'm not an American through immigration in the US, right?
8:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, like the U.S. is all my lineage has known for 400 years, and I think it just reinforced the power of media, the power of this dominating narrative of what America is and how is rooted in whiteness.
9:18
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, and as someone who also grew up in Louisiana in a very black city like that was never my America right like America was black and white to me.
9:32
[SPEAKER_00]: really that was in but I grew up in such a black rich environment like Baton Rouge when I was growing up it was probably like 56% black so like and we had black politicians a black mayor like I had black doctor so like I did a root blackness and this one experience either um
9:53
[SPEAKER_00]: And like I would tell people I was black before I was American like traveling is what made me own than like the identity of being American, but I never thought I wasn't American.
10:08
[SPEAKER_00]: I just knew I was black and I had a black experience in America, but it helps me to understand that.
10:16
[SPEAKER_00]: Globally there's just narratives pushed right like the Vietnam narrative is there's a war There's like rice fields and like poverty right and it's like
10:27
[SPEAKER_00]: also know that that isn't true, but I also know that there was a point where I was ignorant.
10:33
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I give a lot of him when they understand for educating people because I was once ignorant and I have a privilege to travel to learn to unlearn and then I feel like I have a duty to now help educate.
10:49
[SPEAKER_02]: Did you meet Vietnamese Americans when you were living in Louisiana growing up in Louisiana?
10:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so funny because so in middle school, I went to a mixed middle school and the largest Asian population was Vietnamese.
11:08
[SPEAKER_00]: Probably the only because there's like a small Vietnamese community in Baton Rouge.
11:16
[SPEAKER_00]: And so
11:17
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, but they weren't my friends, but I do have one like best friend from high school Paul win who I now like Talk about all the time because he couldn't tell us how to say his name right, but That's his legacy.
11:34
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes But we went all we went to an all black high school, right, so like to us
11:42
[SPEAKER_00]: Paul was black, like we didn't, we didn't even ask him about being Vietnamese, like he went to this all black high school, it's an all black middle school, he was very, he was the class president for his year.
11:57
[SPEAKER_00]: He was in the National Society of Black Engineers still is.
12:02
[SPEAKER_00]: And so like it's like we knew Paul was Vietnamese, right?
12:06
[SPEAKER_00]: But like the only time we asked him about his
12:12
[SPEAKER_00]: who we don't family on the bottom shop because we want to get our car painted or he nails.
12:17
[SPEAKER_00]: Like that was really like, but we're 14, right?
12:20
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I think coming to Vietnam was the first time I also was like, wow, you've had a friend and you've never even asked him about his lived experience as a Vietnamese American, but I was 14, right?
12:33
[SPEAKER_00]: And I lived in a,
12:34
[SPEAKER_00]: And I just very black and white society.
12:36
[SPEAKER_00]: So I give myself grace, but now we've talked about it more.
12:40
[SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, I had that one close for instance.
12:44
[SPEAKER_02]: Wow.
12:45
[SPEAKER_02]: So how has now, when you look back in the early days of landing of it now, what things have changed emotionally for you?
12:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Wow.
12:59
[SPEAKER_00]: So I would say the early days when I first got here
13:04
[SPEAKER_00]: a little.
13:05
[SPEAKER_00]: Like it was a balance of I knew my body, like my body told me that this is where I was supposed to be and I felt a sense of peace.
13:15
[SPEAKER_00]: But then there was just a lot of things that I knew I was going to have to reckon with and like truly face or things that came up emotionally that I didn't even know were unsolved.
13:28
[SPEAKER_00]: And so one of those was my
13:33
[SPEAKER_00]: like being dark skin black right like that that comes with a lot of history in the black American community globally right like especially in Asia where whiteness and and like I've learned that whiteness has nothing to do with necessarily a pilling to be European but more so and indicator of class and wealth.
14:00
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, but there is still just like a how can you be beautiful like your dark skin, right?
14:06
[SPEAKER_00]: Like a little bit of a student tell me this right like just like your beautiful like she was so confused And I even own that I was beautiful and I'm like yeah
14:17
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm beautiful.
14:19
[SPEAKER_00]: You are too, right?
14:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, and there was just this one incident that I really remember was I went to a full shop and I was already nervous because I tried my best.
14:36
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll be honest when I first got to Vietnam, I tried to hide.
14:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Now,
14:40
[SPEAKER_00]: How was that possible for me to hide?
14:41
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know, but it was mine.
14:43
[SPEAKER_00]: I tried to.
14:44
[SPEAKER_00]: And so that meant going to like the piece of hut to McDonald's, the very touristy places, where at least there will be other people that wasn't just a bit of business.
14:56
[SPEAKER_00]: But I'm like,
14:57
[SPEAKER_00]: We knew we can't be in Vietnam for two weeks and haven't had food, right?
15:03
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I went to a full shop and I literally gave myself a talk in the mirror.
15:08
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, people are going to stare.
15:10
[SPEAKER_00]: They're going to point.
15:11
[SPEAKER_00]: It's going to be okay.
15:14
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I go there, people were fine.
15:17
[SPEAKER_00]: They were looking, but I'm like, we're gonna sit in this corner.
15:20
[SPEAKER_00]: We're gonna eat this bowl of foe.
15:21
[SPEAKER_00]: And then when I was leaving, they asked to take a picture.
15:25
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm like, okay, here we go.
15:27
[SPEAKER_00]: And I was ready because I gave myself this speech.
15:32
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I knew what was possible.
15:35
[SPEAKER_00]: So I said shore.
15:36
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I took the picture and then there was this moment where it was like, they couldn't see me in the picture.
15:44
[SPEAKER_00]: It felt like I was too dark to be seen.
15:46
[SPEAKER_00]: So then someone ran and got a lamp.
15:49
[SPEAKER_00]: And like shined it over my head.
15:51
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm like, it's daytime.
15:53
[SPEAKER_00]: Was that even nighttime?
15:56
[SPEAKER_00]: And like, I went to a coffee shop and I cried.
15:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I, because I don't think I even realized that I was holding maybe trauma from my experience being a dark, skin, black girl, my entire life.
16:14
[SPEAKER_00]: And so,
16:15
[SPEAKER_00]: In the moment that is what triggered the motion, but I'm self-aware enough and like I always I'm an engineer by background so we're always asking ourselves, why always doing to solve to root cause and I just realized that Vietnam didn't give me this trauma and I can't like blame their people for it like this trauma came from
16:43
[SPEAKER_00]: European standards in from America and colorism and I now need to like understand what do I do with this and how do I continue to show up and heal something that I didn't even think was unhealed because it immediately brought me back to like
17:04
[SPEAKER_00]: Elementary school where people will turn off the lights and be like, where do we get up, right?
17:08
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, it was one of those moments and I'm like, that's not a Vietnam thing.
17:13
[SPEAKER_00]: Really?
17:13
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a, I brought this trauma with me, but Vietnam is helping me heal it because it's forcing me to be seen and dealing with things that I just maybe thought was resolved.
17:29
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah.
17:30
[SPEAKER_02]: Sometimes I think about it being the year 2026 coming up and we are still dealing with these very rudimentary colorist, you know, understandings of the world and it's this mind blowing and shocking to hear like a living person like you are describing this mechanism that's happening, you know, but it's very alive and well, even more so in America today than it was 20 years and
18:00
[SPEAKER_00]: because it really is.
18:03
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, it really is.
18:04
[SPEAKER_02]: And I don't know when I look around today, I mean, just the modern music world today, just like modern.
18:12
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't see what you used to anymore.
18:13
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't see the big, powerful black voices of women and it felt like when Quincy Jones was kind of like ruling the airways with Michael Jackson, you know?
18:25
[SPEAKER_02]: There was a sense of like,
18:27
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, we're all here together.
18:28
[SPEAKER_02]: We all can recognize the beauty that's coming out of that community, right?
18:32
[SPEAKER_02]: The Black community.
18:33
[SPEAKER_02]: But today is a little bit more, you know, with the current administration.
18:37
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's just trippy to think about all the time, you know, and I'm kind of was like, Paul, I grew up, you know, in a predominantly Black neighborhood.
18:46
[SPEAKER_02]: I went to Black at elementary school.
18:49
[SPEAKER_02]: And, but,
18:51
[SPEAKER_00]: the black community is very different and entirely there are so many variations all over the United States it's not yes we are not a monolith and we don't even know that about each other right yeah I think that no like honestly um I learn things about the black community
19:13
[SPEAKER_00]: When I went to business school and at that time, I was already 32 years old, right?
19:18
[SPEAKER_00]: Just around, because I, again, I grew up in a very black safe secure, like I was proud to be black.
19:26
[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't know what it meant to like want to be white or be the only black person in my class and embarrass because I have pig tails versus
19:36
[SPEAKER_00]: Like a high ponytail like maybe my white class and they like maybe everybody in this class has 15 pony tails in their hair got bowls for days like And they're like I didn't understand that experience or like even this idea of wanting to be white adjacent like
19:59
[SPEAKER_00]: My family may find a white people, all this, like we were like, why would I ever want to look like that?
20:05
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, if you can't even change your hair, all you can do is dye it.
20:08
[SPEAKER_00]: Like we didn't do it, it was bold in our blackness and then going to business school, like that's the whole other world.
20:17
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, universities in general, you think this no matter what color you are, but definitely if you're black, um, and a lot of people came from
20:28
[SPEAKER_00]: more, if not necessarily privileged backgrounds, like they put themselves in privileged environments at an undergrad or private high schools and like I went to the All Black High School, I went to HBCUs, right?
20:42
[SPEAKER_00]: Like my entire world from birth until 23 was black.
20:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
20:49
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I didn't understand this narrative around wanting to be white, white.
20:56
[SPEAKER_00]: We want to wipe money, right, because we're like white people down money, but we didn't want to be white, doesn't it?
21:02
[SPEAKER_02]: I completely understand that.
21:04
[SPEAKER_02]: And then, you know, when I think about arriving in Vietnam with any, without any manuals, without anybody explaining like what you're about to, that takes a lot of, that takes a lot of patience and courage and just blind faith that this is going to be fine.
21:23
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I think being that I traveled a lot.
21:29
[SPEAKER_00]: I've moved a lot as well, like even within the state.
21:35
[SPEAKER_00]: So navigating change, navigating uncomfortable situations.
21:40
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just like a part of my DNA.
21:42
[SPEAKER_00]: Like I remember at one point, like that gives me my slogan, like I need to get comfortable being uncomfortable.
21:48
[SPEAKER_00]: Like that is just,
21:49
[SPEAKER_00]: that life, no matter if it's true travel or the work or through expansion, like you have to get comfortable being uncomfortable and then when you're uncomfortable, like really stop and ask the questions, why is this making me uncomfortable?
22:07
[SPEAKER_00]: What can I learn from it?
22:09
[SPEAKER_00]: What is it triggering?
22:11
[SPEAKER_00]: And rarely it's the thing that caused the immediate reaction
22:19
[SPEAKER_00]: the more you get to like truly solving whatever the issue is, then even if it still gives you like a triggering feeling, I know what a place is, right?
22:29
[SPEAKER_00]: Like now when people stay on point, it's annoying, but I know what a place is like, I am in there's a variety of things like being here for a year.
22:40
[SPEAKER_00]: One, I've learned,
22:44
[SPEAKER_00]: So when I first got here the thing, it also triggered with the staring and the looking, it reminded me when I went to corporate America and like I would go into business meetings and I would always count how many black people were in the room or I would always like highly pay attention to do they call on me, do they ignore me, do they treat me, eatle.
23:09
[SPEAKER_00]: And eventually I had to say,
23:15
[SPEAKER_00]: like have an opinion or something to give if you focus on contributing to the meeting versus focusing on who's staring at you and
23:26
[SPEAKER_00]: If they may be rude and like constantly preparing yourself to like be defensive, like then you're going to see everything because you're looking for it, right?
23:36
[SPEAKER_00]: And so that was the same thing here, but because I did the work there, I was able to instantly put that in play and I said, well,
23:51
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I just started like looking on my phone on TikTok or like whatever while I'm on the graph.
23:57
[SPEAKER_00]: And then you realize only those that are very bold are going to say something.
24:02
[SPEAKER_00]: And typically, it's not always rude, it's like an excitement.
24:08
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, there's like an appreciation of you came to my country, thank you.
24:12
[SPEAKER_00]: Some of it is nasty, right?
24:14
[SPEAKER_00]: Like I'm not negating that there are nasty moments.
24:18
[SPEAKER_00]: But I learned that if I stopped paying attention to it, if I only let those that are bold enough rise to the top, then I only have a little bit left to even deal with and more of what I'm dealing with, it's probably more good than it is bad.
24:34
[SPEAKER_00]: And now that doesn't take up energy from my day anymore.
24:41
[SPEAKER_02]: That's beautiful.
24:44
[SPEAKER_02]: No, it's just really beautiful to be able to reframe because I think we can all learn from that.
24:49
[SPEAKER_02]: There's universal truths in what you're saying, no matter who you are, you know, you could be whatever superstar you think you are and then you go into an environment like Vietnamese people and it's just, it'll flip you upside down too, you know?
25:03
[SPEAKER_01]: And, yeah.
25:05
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, you could take that attitude, that positive attitude into a lot of places
25:13
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
25:14
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
25:15
[SPEAKER_02]: So, this Instagram journey that you have begun, right?
25:22
[SPEAKER_02]: Walk us through what, I mean, I'll tell you, I'll tell everybody how I actually found you.
25:28
[SPEAKER_02]: It was like, I was just scrolling through my feed on the Vietnamese podcast and I see you delivering this Vietnamese lesson, but using the word, H-E-Y.
25:40
[SPEAKER_02]: And you are putting the different accent marks on the word hay, and it was a riot to me because, you know, you're so creative.
25:51
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a really quick approach that you, and you know understand it because
25:56
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, I mean, I've dated a lot of black women and, you know, I, I hear, you know, the girl and I hear, you know, all of the, the things that you put spins on and it's just like, it's a riot for me, you know, I, I really enjoyed it.
26:13
[SPEAKER_02]: And then I stuck scrolling and I just saw, oh, you're now you're working with like Chris Tran on volunteering and, you know, I just see the different.
26:22
[SPEAKER_02]: Things that activities that you're doing, I'm like, okay, I got to get you on the podcast, talk about like all the stuff that you've done.
26:28
[SPEAKER_02]: So here we are.
26:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I think that is why I tell people all the time like Vietnam chose me because I think there's no place that would have given me the platform held me
26:51
[SPEAKER_00]: So I, when I decided to do this year travel, I started doing a little more content, but nothing was really taken off.
27:02
[SPEAKER_00]: When I was in Columbia, I was like, I'm gonna post, I think for like 60 days straight, I was just gonna post any quote.
27:08
[SPEAKER_00]: And I've never been strategic about content because the truth of the matter is, I don't like making content in the way that the algorithms, like I don't do a static content.
27:21
[SPEAKER_00]: to story tale and I like to say stuff or whatever but I don't want to.
27:26
[SPEAKER_00]: put a storyboard to, I don't want to do all of that.
27:29
[SPEAKER_02]: And so you don't want to engineer anything.
27:31
[SPEAKER_00]: No, I don't want to engineer content at all.
27:34
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, that's not why I'm here.
27:37
[SPEAKER_00]: And so it's starting to do a little bit.
27:40
[SPEAKER_00]: And I just had a goal to hit 3,000 followers.
27:43
[SPEAKER_00]: So I can do get your guy partnership.
27:47
[SPEAKER_00]: So I can get free excursions on my trip to Asia.
27:50
[SPEAKER_00]: That was the goal.
27:51
[SPEAKER_00]: Nothing more, nothing less.
27:55
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I hit the goal, but then in order to keep the partnership, you still have to like be engaged.
28:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Like I started posting random things from my travels when I got to be a gnome.
28:07
[SPEAKER_00]: I think Vietnam, one just reminded me so of so much of black American culture in these very nuanced ways.
28:15
[SPEAKER_00]: And then it also reminded me of Louisiana.
28:17
[SPEAKER_00]: So I remember the first video, like one of the first videos I did was talk about how Vietnam in Louisiana, like we're colonized because then it's because we're both colonized about the French.
28:34
[SPEAKER_00]: And the only reason I had even looked it up was because I've been into a bind me and I'm like, why does this taste like a all-brand Pope boy?
28:44
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, what is this?
28:46
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, yeah, because we had the Popeway bread and the bind me bread is very, very similar.
28:51
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like pre-cubac crust,
29:02
[SPEAKER_00]: just do content around things that I was observing.
29:05
[SPEAKER_00]: That was either funny to me or like deeper reflections.
29:11
[SPEAKER_00]: And then the more I started to research, the more I was like, oh, there's a lot of overlapping history here.
29:18
[SPEAKER_00]: And I just started to share more recently I've gotten into like the Vietnam War and even the music that was produced during that time.
29:29
[SPEAKER_00]: um like with the temptations and just like Motown in general because a lot of these songs I've I've known but I knew they had no connection to the Vietnam War um like Muhammad Ali even like Hennessy.
29:47
[SPEAKER_00]: Hennessy is a drink that is like drawing in both communities, like a little bit, and I did a deep dive on that, and I learned so much even about the brand Hennessy, the reason why.
30:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Like Hennessy was one of the first sponsors of the NAACP.
30:05
[SPEAKER_00]: There was also a French overlay of why both communities like Hennessy, one was World War II, the other one was because of.
30:15
[SPEAKER_00]: the French influence and Vietnam and it signaled like elite status by being able to drink in a scene.
30:22
[SPEAKER_00]: And honestly, the reason I even deep dive into that is because I thought somebody was being a troll in the comments when they're like, oh, are you drinking in a sea?
30:31
[SPEAKER_00]: It was like, oh,
30:32
[SPEAKER_00]: what you're trying to say, all black people drink this tendency, right?
30:35
[SPEAKER_00]: And a few people started like saying that and I'm like, let's look this up and then nothing I realized.
30:41
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, no, you're saying that if it's not a tendency, it doesn't count because you all like, Tennessee, too.
30:47
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm like, okay, got it.
30:49
[SPEAKER_02]: It was crazy little similarities, you know, and when you talk about Motown, I mean, in the 60s and 70s when you know, a psychon rock was like rampant, you know, there's so much soul music getting into the rock scene in psychon, and you know, the thing that pisses me off so much sometimes is like, when I see the older folks at group in that generation, I knew they were partying in psychon,
31:14
[SPEAKER_02]: but they are racist and this stuff that just tries me absolutely batch it crazy when I hear it.
31:22
[SPEAKER_02]: But I know that there, you know, they're not, you know, it's also nuance too.
31:27
[SPEAKER_02]: Like they, they're very compartmentalized on how they, you know, how they are being racist and, you know, it's just very tough for me, sometimes to to watch my community in that.
31:37
[SPEAKER_00]: But I think it is not just your community,
31:42
[SPEAKER_00]: It's really all communities, especially communities that are very homogenous or like in thinking because in the black community if ignorant exist at a very high level when it comes to other groups.
31:59
[SPEAKER_00]: of people and neither do we take a step back and see who controls the narrative of why we think, you know, the first question we ask is, oh, do you eat cat and dog or, you know, the appearance, let you watch TV, are you good at math?
32:13
[SPEAKER_00]: If because these are the stereotypes and the things that media has told us about other communities, the same thing with black Americans and
32:26
[SPEAKER_00]: Like one Africa, the continent, right?
32:29
[SPEAKER_00]: Like everybody is not chasing out the lion's tigers and bears and like climbing trees.
32:35
[SPEAKER_00]: But, and that's the lineage we come from.
32:38
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think because I have empathy for it because ignorance is in my household, right?
32:44
[SPEAKER_00]: Like my mom will tell you today.
32:46
[SPEAKER_00]: She didn't come from North Africa.
32:48
[SPEAKER_00]: She got it from like, Louisiana or like, like, and it's like nowhere in her mind is like, she traces back.
32:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Wow.
32:56
[SPEAKER_00]: So Africa, and I'm like, but then it will wear a dashing key door black history month.
33:01
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm just like, I don't understand.
33:06
[SPEAKER_00]: You can't be both like you can't put on a dashing key and be like potwards to the people doing black history month.
33:12
[SPEAKER_00]: And then at the same time,
33:15
[SPEAKER_00]: you represent nothing from Africa.
33:17
[SPEAKER_00]: She was like, oh, our lineage is from Haiti.
33:20
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm like, first of all, it is not because her main name is Tucson, and there's some French overlap.
33:27
[SPEAKER_00]: But like, I'm like, first of all, it is not.
33:29
[SPEAKER_00]: And where do you think the people?
33:30
[SPEAKER_02]: They came from.
33:31
[SPEAKER_00]: I came from there with Haiti.
33:36
[SPEAKER_00]: but that wasn't taught.
33:37
[SPEAKER_00]: And the only reason why I know is because I started to travel and like learn and then that's when I say, oh, this is all being controlled.
33:47
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a reason why they keep certain communities ignorant on certain topics.
33:53
[SPEAKER_00]: It helps those that are the powers that
34:01
[SPEAKER_00]: And it never helps those that are less than it only helps those that are in power and if they can continue to do that, then they continue to win in which is why I now make sure I use my platform to promote.
34:21
[SPEAKER_00]: unity and this alliance of like, let's look at how we are more similar than we are different.
34:29
[SPEAKER_02]: Absolutely.
34:30
[SPEAKER_00]: And let's focus on that.
34:34
[SPEAKER_00]: And then like we can heal and we can have deeper conversations, but like let's first meet at a middle ground.
34:41
[SPEAKER_02]: Speaking of middle ground and meeting, you've got on these missions with Chris, I think twice now.
34:47
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
34:49
[SPEAKER_02]: So tell me about, I mean, I'm not really, I don't think we're interested in the mechanics of how it happened.
34:57
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm more interested in what takes place in your mind when you're actually there.
35:03
[SPEAKER_02]: And you're just like, if I'm imagining myself in that space,
35:10
[SPEAKER_02]: and the kids, the people, the brand new, and they're looking at me.
35:14
[SPEAKER_02]: They've never seen anybody like me.
35:16
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, what are you thinking about?
35:18
[SPEAKER_02]: How are you feeling?
35:20
[SPEAKER_00]: So the first trip was very overwhelming for me.
35:28
[SPEAKER_00]: And one, I knew to expect some reaction.
35:32
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think I expected.
35:34
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't even think I could be magic in the level of reaction that I was just taking pictures all day like kids were yelling like I was a celebrity and I was like, well, She's a positive experience.
35:47
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's a very positive, very positive experience, but just very overwhelming because the no longer came, like, was about the jackets and the snacks.
35:57
[SPEAKER_00]: It was about, look at this girl of them.
36:01
[SPEAKER_00]: And so there was like one kid, she just ran up to me and she was like, every day.
36:06
[SPEAKER_00]: And that was like, is that like the one English word you've learned?
36:09
[SPEAKER_00]: Like what?
36:10
[SPEAKER_00]: And then she said,
36:15
[SPEAKER_00]: And it was like so touching and just as like excitement to practice their English, I would like give Chris credit because during one of the moments, I don't even think he knew how overwhelmed I was but he helped refrain it in the moment of these are kids who have never practiced their English with the foreign number four and like you get to be the person that they practice their English with.
36:41
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think so often in those moments, I'm only centering my black news.
36:47
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm not centering this other aspect that it could be both hands, but they're still in hand.
36:54
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm only focused on the period of it's because I'm black.
36:58
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think that helps shift.
37:01
[SPEAKER_00]: So for the next trip, that one was overwhelming for me but in a different way, like of emotion.
37:09
[SPEAKER_00]: I was prepared for like, all right, let me take the pictures with the aunties and people giving me day babies, like I would take a picture that's fine.
37:17
[SPEAKER_00]: I think when we went to the last school and like the kids were excited,
37:23
[SPEAKER_00]: but they were like doing the little heart signs and the little peace and all of these things.
37:29
[SPEAKER_00]: And I just remember like looking at them, looking at me, and it was more so of a UC me.
37:37
[SPEAKER_00]: not just like you're a black person and I'm looking at you and I think that moment took me back to when I was a kid and just thinking how special it could be to be singled out in a crowd and the one person that everybody's excrement and excited over is like looking at me and taking time to like mimic back the same hand side.
38:00
[SPEAKER_00]: And so then it became how do I make sure each of these
38:04
[SPEAKER_00]: feel seen, and how do I make sure that they know that whatever the narrative, that media is telling them about their country, that is wrong, like there are foreigners who come here and love their country, love their food, have a love for their people, and that they have the same, they can have the same big dreams as anybody else, because these are like very
38:33
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't know, like, for me, like, you don't know how much you're giving them, just to believe by showing up.
38:40
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's not about just you being black.
38:44
[SPEAKER_00]: It's about, what does this mean for my country and how does this position?
38:48
[SPEAKER_00]: How I think about myself, it's such a young age.
38:51
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's what I felt on the last trip.
38:58
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, these are things that
39:03
[SPEAKER_02]: I feel like I've always wanted to ask people that come to Vietnam, and thank you for opening up.
39:09
[SPEAKER_02]: Now I wanna hear what you think about Saigon, like the beast of like the modern machine, what's happening with the buildings, and just what you see in general with the food, and the experience, show side of living in Vietnam, and Saigon.
39:29
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so Saigon is definitely way different than Hanoi.
39:35
[SPEAKER_00]: In Hanoi, you get the very traditional Vietnamese culture.
39:41
[SPEAKER_00]: You can't run away from it.
39:44
[SPEAKER_00]: Saigon feels like just like Vietnam, but a major international city.
39:50
[SPEAKER_00]: The people are way more warm
39:58
[SPEAKER_00]: points, right?
39:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, there's a, hi, I'm like, hello.
40:02
[SPEAKER_00]: There's way more English spoken here.
40:07
[SPEAKER_00]: I feel like a little to me, it misses the soul of Vietnam when I compare it to
40:28
[SPEAKER_00]: What I see is the future of Vietnam and the excitement around how does a country who just saw more 50 years ago is now auditioning for the big stage of the global economy and that makes me very excited, very like
40:51
[SPEAKER_00]: wanting to be here in the moment of, and I really wanna see Vietnam win, right?
40:58
[SPEAKER_00]: Like Vietnam, I don't know if there's any other countries that have beat their oppressors, but it's like, I look at Vietnam as like, you're doing this for all more generalized people, right?
41:09
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, when I got here, it's like, this isn't just about Vietnam.
41:13
[SPEAKER_00]: This is about a hope that I would have had for my people right before,
41:17
[SPEAKER_00]: the Tulsa Oklahoma burnings and when black wealth was trying to escalate and somebody just put a stop to it.
41:25
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, y'all should shit down and say, we're going to keep going and now watch us again, right?
41:33
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think it's very exciting to just be here and to see it and they're so open
41:45
[SPEAKER_00]: encouraging and it's exciting to see.
41:51
[SPEAKER_02]: I hate hearing that because I'm stuck in America.
41:56
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm kidding.
41:57
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, jokes is that I get burned on the cross without all the time.
42:00
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm like, I can't really find pertinent and you know, it's tongue and cheek for me sometimes.
42:05
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, it's, you know, I do want to live in Vietnam so bad.
42:09
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, my brother lives there.
42:10
[SPEAKER_02]: I have a lot of great friends that live there.
42:11
[SPEAKER_02]: I just feel sometimes that when we're watching the news in America,
42:18
[SPEAKER_02]: is grim, you know, and sometimes when I talk to friends in Vietnam, Vietnamese American friends are like, it's a one-party system here, but everybody's happy, you know, everybody's happy.
42:34
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't get to talk about politics, but you know, do we need to, I don't know, I mean, like,
42:46
[SPEAKER_00]: But I think as an end of that day, I think about like, what are government structures for?
42:51
[SPEAKER_00]: They're to keep people in line, right?
42:54
[SPEAKER_00]: To keep people all people safe, right?
42:58
[SPEAKER_00]: They are the strategy behind how do we make sure all people are safe?
43:02
[SPEAKER_00]: They're fed.
43:03
[SPEAKER_00]: They have their basic needs, man.
43:07
[SPEAKER_02]: People getting shot and Vietnam are people getting, no, it's that's the craziest thing, right?
43:14
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to talk about politics, but I can't even go to school and not be worried that the one car even though the door that's a stranger isn't here to shoot me right like crazy.
43:32
[SPEAKER_00]: It really is.
43:34
[SPEAKER_00]: And I try to tell people all the time.
43:39
[SPEAKER_00]: You need to get outside of this bubble of thinking America is right.
43:43
[SPEAKER_00]: And you know, the response that I always hear is, well, while all those people come in here, if it's so good.
43:48
[SPEAKER_00]: I know I hear that all the time.
43:49
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like,
43:51
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you not understand risk versus reward analysis like they are coming over here to take a risk with their lives in there, but to Joe financial increases trying to make money.
44:14
[SPEAKER_00]: I am like in this camp where I can understand all sides.
44:20
[SPEAKER_00]: I can hold the fact that I have American privilege, and I am so grateful.
44:24
[SPEAKER_00]: And with that gratefulness comes, I have to admit that I'm grateful that a slave trade have been that people will rate and be in from me to be here to then be sitting in Vietnam, having this podcast conversation with you, because I couldn't be here if all of those things didn't happen.
44:41
[SPEAKER_00]: But because all of those things happen,
44:43
[SPEAKER_00]: I can look and evaluate America for all that she is, right?
44:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, she's not all rainbows and roses, and she's not all just crap, either, right?
44:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, it's a mix, and I get to hold what I want to hold and leave what I don't want to.
45:05
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's why I'm in Vietnam right now, I'm unsubscribe.
45:13
[SPEAKER_02]: you know, I love that, you know, the ability to be able to say all of these things and, you know, I think that's the privilege of being an American, right?
45:22
[SPEAKER_02]: We can't run your mouth like in Vietnam, you can't say all, you can't say whatever you want.
45:27
[SPEAKER_02]: But also in the Vietnamese family, you don't get to say what you want either.
45:32
[SPEAKER_02]: It's the same.
45:33
[SPEAKER_02]: It's cultural values, you know, they
45:37
[SPEAKER_02]: within the culture, within the family, all the way up to chain in the government.
45:42
[SPEAKER_02]: So it's the same, you know, I think in American society, we're free to say whatever one in the family, and it goes all the way up to government.
45:48
[SPEAKER_00]: You could say, and you can fight and all of these things are happening, but at the time I can't because I just tell my mom anything I want, I will be flat, okay?
45:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe I'm back in John's house, but not in Irma's house.
46:08
[SPEAKER_00]: up with a room on the center core or shoe flying at your hand like mama still be like you serious.
46:14
[SPEAKER_00]: You talk to me.
46:15
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm your mama.
46:16
[SPEAKER_00]: I birthed it.
46:17
[SPEAKER_02]: I'll get the you see yourself staying in Vietnam for a long time.
46:24
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm in Vietnam until I'm very clear on what's next in my life.
46:31
[SPEAKER_00]: Um and so
46:35
[SPEAKER_00]: Vietnam, from the time I got here, I started doing content.
46:39
[SPEAKER_00]: That's starting to take off.
46:41
[SPEAKER_00]: And now I've launched a business for a month ago.
46:45
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
46:46
[SPEAKER_00]: So I am developing a platform to help people find community.
46:53
[SPEAKER_00]: It's called Home Me and so I've done maybe eight events.
46:57
[SPEAKER_00]: I've done two and a side gone.
46:59
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think that's one of the things like Vietnam continues
47:05
[SPEAKER_00]: It surprises me and it holds me in the way that says you're already equipped for this.
47:13
[SPEAKER_00]: But this country is going to help you.
47:16
[SPEAKER_00]: like put yourself on whatever platform that I need to have my voice like out there to help bridge communities because at the end of the day that's what I want to do and I've done that through community and I want to help other communities do the same.
47:37
[SPEAKER_00]: So even just on Christmas
47:43
[SPEAKER_00]: through Black and Saigon and a Run Club here, the like two communities that aren't really overlap, like I brought them together and to a space where the business they like community their staff is trained to know how to like navigate their genuinely happy people.
48:05
[SPEAKER_00]: And the one thing that I remember is a guy from
48:10
[SPEAKER_00]: who came.
48:11
[SPEAKER_00]: He was like one of the first people to get there and one of the last people to leave.
48:17
[SPEAKER_00]: And he was not in he was not a black person and he was not a runner.
48:21
[SPEAKER_00]: right, but it's like we create these environments where no matter who you are, you can show up.
48:27
[SPEAKER_00]: And there's like this moment where this black girl is thinking a rock song.
48:32
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm sure it just in that moment people are unlearning what they think about black people and what music they thought would be played while a Russian girl is dancing with a tambourine to Rihanna, right?
48:47
[SPEAKER_00]: this is what I want to do globally.
48:51
[SPEAKER_00]: Because that's how I unlearn the things that I unlearned was through sitting at lunch tables, or dinner tables, or dancing salsa, and then having conversations, or quietly observing, and watching my own narratives of what I thought, shift.
49:12
[SPEAKER_00]: And I don't think
49:13
[SPEAKER_00]: like DEI is great and ERG's and all of that, but that is not what brings people together and like companies shouldn't hold the responsibility of driving that forward because I'm also a business person.
49:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Like the companies, the values is the shareholders.
49:33
[SPEAKER_00]: Like they want them to make money and
49:37
[SPEAKER_00]: If you can make money and not expect, I mean, look at the administration.
49:41
[SPEAKER_00]: As soon as he said his out is out.
49:43
[SPEAKER_00]: And it does nothing to change.
49:45
[SPEAKER_00]: The world, it does nothing to change how people see one another.
49:49
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I know that that's my calling.
49:53
[SPEAKER_00]: I know that that's what I want to do.
49:56
[SPEAKER_00]: I think Vietnam just showed me that.
50:00
[SPEAKER_00]: I thought my scope was America and like black versus white versus maybe other marginalized groups and Vietnam showed me that who I show up as is seen no matter if I speak a language, energy is shared and I can make an impact globally and Vietnam is allowing me to
50:29
[SPEAKER_00]: a global stage.
50:31
[SPEAKER_02]: So, homie, H-O-M-I-I, yes.
50:36
[SPEAKER_02]: So, where did you get that name from and what is the, you know, ultimate goal of homie?
50:45
[SPEAKER_00]: So the name came from honestly like I actually had GPT like this is what I want to do originally it was I wanted to do something at the intersection of travel and community.
50:57
[SPEAKER_00]: But I was like I have to narrow down my scope and so I'm only focused on the community piece, but what it means is how do you feel like you belong, how do you feel seen and how do you trust.
51:12
[SPEAKER_00]: No matter where you go in the world and like how do you find your people like how do you find your home so it's a play on home and home is like friends.
51:23
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, the other layer is I know people socialize and engage based on identity and interest, right?
51:32
[SPEAKER_00]: I meet people because I dance also, um, not necessarily because I may be American or like or maybe I do want to be around American English because I didn't know that that was a thing until I got here like I'm trying to tell people I want to, you know, I want to
51:53
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know what the Lou or the toilet is.
51:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Where's the bathroom?
52:02
[SPEAKER_00]: But that's naturally how people engage.
52:07
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we advertise community events that are happening in the city.
52:20
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, but very spaces so like we go and we vet the spaces and say this is the space that we feel Because I what I don't want to have happen is like we stand black and side on to the space
52:32
[SPEAKER_00]: And then all the staff is like, can I touch your hair or like, is your booty real?
52:36
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I like we can't have, right?
52:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Or like sending queer people to a space.
52:42
[SPEAKER_00]: And right, like, like, it's like, no.
52:44
[SPEAKER_00]: So we make sure that we bet the spaces and then we intern communicate.
52:50
[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, if you want to do a group dinner here, you can, if you want to host a game night here, you can, if you want to do small meetups between like,
52:59
[SPEAKER_00]: six, um, the at Q people y'all want to do a coffee workshop together and just vent about what the Vietnamese experience is as a Vietnamese, like a overseas Vietnamese and Vietnam over some shared activity, right?
53:15
[SPEAKER_00]: And then yeah, like even the Christmas event was just like such a beautiful example because people came.
53:23
[SPEAKER_00]: They left one guy, then organized a Christmas dinner for the group, and then we went salsa dancing and one girl was like, I'm now going to take salsa classes, right?
53:35
[SPEAKER_00]: But it all started at this one event, and then it's like, oh, I found my people.
53:40
[SPEAKER_00]: And some of these people, especially if you're a travel or you're an expat or you're new,
53:51
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I just want to make it easier because I know what I don't want is this to happen.
53:57
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't want people to come to a place like Vietnam and don't have their basic needs met as anyone and then leave here not learning and experiencing what Vietnam is or any other place.
54:14
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
54:15
[SPEAKER_00]: I met this one guy.
54:18
[SPEAKER_00]: And he was at a restaurant we do a Sunday, fun day and annoying.
54:22
[SPEAKER_00]: And he came and he was like, do you know how long I've been dying for like this chicken wing and these flavors?
54:29
[SPEAKER_00]: And he left saying, this is giving, and he was not loving being not.
54:33
[SPEAKER_00]: And he was like, this is giving me a different energy to take into some margaro.
54:38
[SPEAKER_00]: And he ended up like we told him like oh, based on what you'd like, you should go to the wrong or you should go here.
54:44
[SPEAKER_00]: Like a noise isn't your place, but it was like he found us, he trusted us, he enjoyed some food, and that changed his whole perspective of the trip.
54:56
[SPEAKER_00]: Just from a chicken wing, right?
54:58
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, if I can tell you what to get that chicken wing, oh, where to like show up to find whatever it is that you need.
55:05
[SPEAKER_00]: Because the thing is being on strips you have a lot, especially as a black traveler or an like it.
55:10
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, and you don't know what people are carrying.
55:13
[SPEAKER_00]: And being on isn't purposeful in what it strips you up, but it does, right?
55:18
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, even just little moments are walking in the mall.
55:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I'm not going to go find my makeup shade.
55:23
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm probably not going to find my size, right?
55:26
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, just these random little things of like, toss your reminders of, you know, you're not from here, you don't belong there.
55:33
[SPEAKER_00]: You're not from here.
55:34
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's like, if I can create this little world for you to belong just for two hours, that can carry you so much further.
55:45
[SPEAKER_00]: Then if you never gotten it
55:51
[SPEAKER_00]: on your own accord.
55:55
[SPEAKER_02]: These are things that we don't normally think about when we are in American or if you're Vietnamese American and you've been in Vietnam quite a bit, you don't think about these inconsistencies within the living space that you're, you know, that you're doing.
56:11
[SPEAKER_02]: And so I think that it's a beautiful, it's a beautiful thing.
56:14
[SPEAKER_02]: And I can't wait to show up to one of these events.
56:17
[SPEAKER_02]: It sounds like a lot of fun.
56:19
[SPEAKER_00]: They are.
56:21
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, it sounds like a lot of fun and I hope that it keeps you in Vietnam for a while because we need your energy.
56:27
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, thank you.
56:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, we I'm here for at least another year if not longer, but I'm here until I'm not like I'm not running away from
56:44
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, you're not in a rush.
56:46
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
56:47
[SPEAKER_02]: And with friends like Chris Tran travel is like, you know, he covers a lot and he can make so many good introductions to people.
56:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Good people.
56:56
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
56:57
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
56:57
[SPEAKER_02]: He's got quite a community.
56:59
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, we need thank you so much for coming on the Vietnamese podcast today.
57:04
[SPEAKER_02]: There's so much insight that I've learned and you know, it's always fun.
57:10
[SPEAKER_02]: It's always delightful to hear entirely different point of view that's both familiar, similar, but also very different from what I expected.
57:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, it's I think, but that's the world.
57:30
[SPEAKER_00]: different on the surface.
57:32
[SPEAKER_00]: But when you start to like, I'm deal deal.
57:35
[SPEAKER_00]: And yeah, it's like, oh, okay.
57:39
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I know this loudness, like, even sometimes, like, when the parent is full, I'm like, I don't know what you're saying, but I know everything you're saying.
57:47
[SPEAKER_02]: You're right, you're right.
57:50
[SPEAKER_00]: I know the drunk uncle's story.
57:52
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I know all of this is for me.
57:55
[SPEAKER_02]: Come on, yeah, yeah, it's familiar.
57:57
[SPEAKER_02]: still familiar, Whitney, thank you so much and I hope to see you soon.
58:01
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm going to have been Vietnam in a few days and hopefully, you know, we'll be in second at the same time and I'll hit you and Chris up.
58:09
[SPEAKER_00]: Perfect, thank you.
58:09
[SPEAKER_00]: Travels, thank you, ladies.
58:12
[SPEAKER_02]: Have a wonderful time in Saigon.
58:15
[SPEAKER_02]: I think you, yeah, you're in Saigon right now, right?
58:19
[SPEAKER_02]: Or not, yeah, I'm in Saigon.
58:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I'm here.
58:23
[SPEAKER_00]: And then I go back to Hanoi briefly.
58:25
[SPEAKER_00]: The people don't know yet that I'm leaving.
58:28
[SPEAKER_00]: So I have to go home.
58:30
[SPEAKER_02]: Got it.
58:31
[SPEAKER_02]: We'll get luck with the move.
58:33
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you.
58:34
[SPEAKER_02]: All right.
58:35
[SPEAKER_02]: We'll talk to you soon.
58:38
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for listening to the Vietnamese with Kenneth Wynne.
58:41
[SPEAKER_01]: Special thanks to Brittany Tran, to Jane Wynne, Catherine Wynne, Tina Fam, Sydney Jamie, and Crystal Tran.
58:49
[SPEAKER_01]: Please find us on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok at the Vietnamese podcast.