“My dream is to… give Vietnamese young people the possibility to have a future,” says H

oang Mai Nguyen-Ton Nu (64). A former refugee and now a French citizen, Hoang Mai teaches French and Vietnamese. She emigrated in 1975 to study, aiming to return home, but the fall of South Vietnam complicated things. “When you’re a refugee… we are in a terrible dilemma,” she explains. “Choosing another nationality, even though we know that… it is very generous of [the host country], we still feel like we have disavowed our home country.” She has dedicated herself to helping young people from Vietnam, founding L’Ecole Sauvage: an NGO providing schooling for under-resourced children. She also taught Vietnamese to refugees in Paris, sharing with them not only the language but a “love for the country of their ancestors.” She still “can’t talk about Vietnam without crying”, but she derives strength from the idea that “perhaps, we will be more useful being far from the country than in the country itself”. Full Story

“My dream is to… give Vietnamese young people the possibility to have a future,” says H

oang Mai Nguyen-Ton Nu (64). A former refugee and now a French citizen, Hoang Mai teaches French and Vietnamese. She emigrated in 1975 to study, aiming to return home, but the fall of South Vietnam complicated things. “When you’re a refugee… we are in a terrible dilemma,” she explains. “Choosing another nationality, even though we know that… it is very generous of [the host country], we still feel like we have disavowed our home country.” She has dedicated herself to helping young people from Vietnam, founding L’Ecole Sauvage: an NGO providing schooling for under-resourced children. She also taught Vietnamese to refugees in Paris, sharing with them not only the language but a “love for the country of their ancestors.” She still “can’t talk about Vietnam without crying”, but she derives strength from the idea that “perhaps, we will be more useful being far from the country than in the country itself”. Full Story

“My dream is to… give Vietnamese young people the possibility to have a future,” says H

oang Mai Nguyen-Ton Nu (64). A former refugee and now a French citizen, Hoang Mai teaches French and Vietnamese. She emigrated in 1975 to study, aiming to return home, but the fall of South Vietnam complicated things. “When you’re a refugee… we are in a terrible dilemma,” she explains. “Choosing another nationality, even though we know that… it is very generous of [the host country], we still feel like we have disavowed our home country.” She has dedicated herself to helping young people from Vietnam, founding L’Ecole Sauvage: an NGO providing schooling for under-resourced children. She also taught Vietnamese to refugees in Paris, sharing with them not only the language but a “love for the country of their ancestors.” She still “can’t talk about Vietnam without crying”, but she derives strength from the idea that “perhaps, we will be more useful being far from the country than in the country itself”. Full Story

“My dream is to… give Vietnamese young people the possibility to have a future,” says H

oang Mai Nguyen-Ton Nu (64). A former refugee and now a French citizen, Hoang Mai teaches French and Vietnamese. She emigrated in 1975 to study, aiming to return home, but the fall of South Vietnam complicated things. “When you’re a refugee… we are in a terrible dilemma,” she explains. “Choosing another nationality, even though we know that… it is very generous of [the host country], we still feel like we have disavowed our home country.” She has dedicated herself to helping young people from Vietnam, founding L’Ecole Sauvage: an NGO providing schooling for under-resourced children. She also taught Vietnamese to refugees in Paris, sharing with them not only the language but a “love for the country of their ancestors.” She still “can’t talk about Vietnam without crying”, but she derives strength from the idea that “perhaps, we will be more useful being far from the country than in the country itself”. Full Story