Updates (Jan 17, 2026)
Life from now on is just keeping busy.
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If you don’t keep busy then you go awry.
That is all it is.
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At least ‘blog’ to keep busy. You need trajectory. You need a tangent. Regardless of whatever people say … you need to talk and vent and express.
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But what do you do as a Vietnamese man in the American system?
I am dark, a very negative void and almost invisible. About 0.2 – 0.3 on the radar.
People who are full South Vietnamese like me from An Giang just follow the American rules of life aware of multiculturism and adjusting.
But in the broad background fulfilling our duty to serve and live in Canada.
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The other day, I was visiting a health facility and an older guy inner spoke.
“What is a full South Vietnamese man in his 40s doing?”
After growing up, pass your teens, past young adulthood, started middle-aged, pass mid-life crisis, worked for 6 years … is doing in a city like Oshawa?
That is the secret to life.
When you get to your 40s or even 30s you realize the older people make you stop and pause and reflect so far into your core to ask? “Do you know what this is?”
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In Vietnam in 2016, a local in the neighbourhood asked me to try one more time in the Americas before calling it quits.
Pretty much that is what life is for 2nd generation immigrants if you travel back to Vietnam as a 30+ year old adult. Like you do it a few times or at least 6 times like me LOL!
The locals will ask you …
Would you like to work in East Asia running a pretty large 3 – chain restaurant?
Would you like to work in a 100,000 square foot factory in East Asia manufacturing cell phones and other electronic devices?
Manufacturing is quickly coming to Southeast Asia. What would you like to like to help manufacturer?
That is one scenario …
How does that sound?
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Also in 2015-2016, my father, older sister and I were travelling around the looking at new construction.
We stopped by a house that looked excellent. It looked special out of the ordinary.
Then I realized the truth about education in Vietnam.
The owners and family of the house were super duper educated to the max with actual MATHS! They held PhDs in mathematics and engineering. They taught at the local university. It looked liked they studied 18 – 20+ hours a day for 27 years straight. Survival mode ain’t it? They finally finished school and accumulated enough money to buy a house in Vietnam and were ready to have a family.
I was floored and shocked.
Regardless of this or that, here or there. Education is needed around the world just to buy a house in Vietnam.
Page turner?
But in another way … You know what to do to afford a house and family in your country of birth.
Travelling to other countries will open your eyes.
When you travel overseas you are expecting culture shock with old tradition.
But if you look deeply in the areas of new development near hospitals and schools you realize everyone is on the same page regardless wherever they are in the world.
But at the end of the day … sometimes people forget you do what you like … as long as you do what you like and find pleasure doing it … you eventually get what you want. Not what your parents want, not what society wants, not what your siblings want. Each and every person knows what they can do with minimal stress and lots of fulfilling attainment.
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I travelled back to Canada in 2016 after realizing all this.
I took time to understand what I had to do for the next 5 to 10 years.
I worked at my local stores.
I worked and learned at the end of 33 years old to just find something I love to do.
Immigrants and other coloured people told me otherwise most of the time.
The Canadians 3rd gen+ who are older told me to strive for a Canadian lifestyle.
Having immigrants and other coloured people criticize me was odd and also good.
Eventually, being in Canada everyone is trying to make it through and will help each other reach something more.
That is the thing about Canada.
Sometimes you fight and put down each other, but when you get so old eventually everyone is trying to aid for more breadth.
But this is mostly local???
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The thing about growth and life is location.
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The dynamics of Vietnam living in the city of Long Xuyen, An Giang.
This will be a good one.
TBC …
When I was working as an English teacher and shopping around the local market, I realized this as a 33 year old watching the vendors.
People made space for each other.
Overtime the climate and location determine how to act and behave.
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What happened in 2015-2016 back in Vietnam?
Back in Vietnam when I was 33 years old, I decided to live and breath the Vietnamese air.
How many life lessons were there in the 6 months stay to live and work there? Countless.
The important thing that I learned was that location determined life really.
My parents are from the Muong Trau Bridge in An Giang.
I lived and worked in Long Xuyen.
That difference made me overall well to keep up with the locals in Long Xuyen.
I envy people in Chau Doc.
That is life.
I Canada, I envy people more North and East then me from Oshawa.
But realistically all you can do is work with people 2 cities down so you can keep up.
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The difference or indifference between living in Southeast Asia and the West.
In terms of getting education and owning a family home if you go academically.
TBC …