Kien Duy Nguyen
I lived in Vietnam for 25 years, since I was born until going to USA 5 years ago for graduate school. And these are a few things in the list of what I love about Vietnam.
People. My family. My friends. My teachers. Ice-cream vendors :). Below are pictures with my English teacher. I met him at USC and asked him to visit Vietnam in the following summer. He finally was able to make a 5-day trip with us. Before he came, his parents were like “will they put you in jail?”. And see what we put him in.
Food. You cannot talk about Vietnam without food. We cook everything :) Yes, yes. It can be “dangerous” sometimes :) But that is why the food is very diverse and of course there are many wonderful dishes.
Up north and you can find many exotic foods from minorities. Be adventurous :) Below is a picture of my English teacher with a the food we made from local people: rock crabs, extremely free-range, super organic pork and chicken, and wine :))
From north to south, each province would probably has a very unique dish :) Below is one from my province: Chao se + Banh hon[1]
[2]
. Google Vietnam food and you will see.
Nature. Landscape. Mountains. Beaches. You name it. But I miss the crop field and the country road the most[3]
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Music. Oh damn, so many people complained about Vietnamese music. But there are more than that love the music. Probably for anyone, it is difficult to listen to a foreign-language music, especially when many traditional Vietnamese genres are tied to the culture, to many old customs. But again, this is a Vietnamese talking :) I love Trinh Cong Son music[4]
, old folk songs, “red” songs, “yellow” songs, kids songs, “youth” songs, … (of course, I like other foreign-language songs as well)

History. Topic of debate here. So please take this part as a very personal part. Vietnam history has too many wars. I do not feel proud of that. But I am proud of the people who still stood up against all powerful enemies to give us this day. I love reading Vietnamese history, not just the bright but also dark parts. I love to “see” history through remnants. I love listening to my grandparents talking about their lives, their battles, their losses, their loves. And I hope I will be able to remember those to tell my kids.
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And of course, memories. This is probably obvious :)
Those are a few things I can remember and type in a short amount of time. Of course I can tell you all day long if you want to hear. I do think it is better to show you one day.