Updates (August 20, 2025)

What happens when you are born in Canada as a Vietnamese person?

You actually feel connection with the land and the Indigenous peoples …

When I was younger I like listening to Indigenous music. I watched films based on it. I watched TV shows on it.

When I go into the woods and up north I feel it is special and nice.

Even the customs and culture of Indigenous peoples I found a connection to.

That is because I think I was born here.

That is why when I talk to other Vietnamese born in Canada I feel there is nothing different between us really.

I talk to Tammy Nguyen and every conversation is normal. She doesn’t expect anything. Anything new and surprising is just OK.

…

As a native born Canadian, what do I really think of immigrants and other nationalities that aren’t Canadian?

You realize the world economy has to go. We need strong willed people to work or hours and hours to keep thing running.

Native born people think different sometimes. They are maybe tied to their culture but really they try to think like the natives.

…

But what do you do after realizing this?

You want to work with native people to feel connected to the native land.

But naturally who connect with people who suffer the same problems as you in public like other Vietnamese born in Canada.

…

When you think so native like a Canadian because you are born in Canada, you even don’t like your own people … you feel a connect and disconnect.

That is the weirdest thing about being born in the West.

Then you meet people born in Canada like you then you feel the same. That is why I talk to Vietnamese born in Canada or Vietnamese from Vietnam who stayed in Canada for at least 8 years.

…

The weirdest thing about life in the West is when you get to a point where you are in your 40s and discuss life as an immigrant or 2nd generation.

Then you realize the 3rd generation don’t have a say or a voice in the West as they are melded into society and are like 99% Western.

All the commotion and work and economics are done by immigrants and 2nd generation.

The 3rd generation + are the silent bunch doing the native things.

…

I have so many interactions with immigrants and 2nd generation. We are the group bustling doing this and that.

When does that settle? When you are 88 years old probably.

…