Thanh Huynh
Moving to a country where language and culture are unfamiliar to someone is hard for most. Indeed was the case for Thanh Huynh, although some may say he’s adapting just fine.
Huynh is a 22-year-old student attending the SUNY University at Albany. He is a native of the city of Saigon, also known as Ho-Chi-Minh City, in Vietnam. In 1997, as well as current day, Vietnam held a communist government. This is the same reason Huynh’s parents decided it was best for the family to migrate to the US. That year, he and his family moved to Walden, NY; he was only 10-years-old.
Ho Chi Minh City, Huynh's native city
Huynh is the youngest of six children. He has two brothers and three sisters. His two brothers had come to the US in the late 80s also to escape the communist lifestyle. They lived in upstate NY, which is why Huynh’s family decided to live near there, to have family close by. The ages of his siblings range from Thanh, 22, to his oldest brother, who is 34. All of the siblings, including Thanh, hold down jobs and have careers, ranging from accountants, to lab technicians at SUNY University at Albany.
When Huynh was 10, he was enrolled at Walden Elementary School, where he had to start his life over again. According to Huynh, meeting new friends wasn’t all too difficult. He also remembers “lots of girls talking to me…and they loved my accent.” When he first arrived, Huynh was placed in the ESL program at school to help progress his English. “In fifth grade I did practically nothing,” Huynh said, “but sixth grade is when I started to assimilate.” After a few months of going to the ESL classes, he decided to rebel. “I hated those classes because they were always during recess, so I started skipping them later on.” The primary way he learned English was his interaction with classmates and friends. After the first two years of awkward situations and language barriers, he learned enough English to receive the same class schedules as his peers, which he said made him feel “much less like an outcast.” In the seventh grade, he met someone who would become his best friend, and help him grasp the English language better.
Franz Rottenbucher
Franz Rottenbucher, 21, also hails from Walden, NY. Rottenbucher remembers being quite impressed with Huynh’s English, considering he’d only been in the country for two years. Rottenbucher’s main hobby and true love is a sport in which related to how he first met Huynh, saying “our exact meeting isn’t clear, but I remember meeting at recess playing soccer.” But Rottenbucher says the real “glue” that held them together was a video game. “Our lives really revolved around our main group of four guys, and playing the video game Socom,” he said. When Rottenbucher visited Huynh’s house, he said that only the parents spoke Vietnamese to each other but the children were all fluent in English as well, mixing both cultures in one household.
The two friends continue their friendship today, and both hold similar titles. Huynh wants to be a medical doctor and Rottenbucher wants to be a Clinical Psychologist. When in High School, the two did not discuss in depth their college plans or where they were going, but they both ended up going to the same University. After their final semester, the two will most likely be at different schools for the first time since elementary school. Huynh plans to attend the medical program at SUNY Albany, while Rottenbucher plans to go to Brooklyn to study psychology. Huynh said that he won’t feel like he lost his “safety net” because with the amount of work he will receive in graduate school, he wouldn’t have much time to interact with friends anyway. He later added, “I’m sure I’m going to visit him sometimes and he’ll visit me as well.”
Stephen Kassiotis
Rottenbucher was not the only person who helped Huynh feel accepted. Stephen Kassiotis, a 22-year-old college graduate, was the middle-man to Huynh and Rottenbucher. Kassiotis graduated in the winter of 2008 from Mount St. Mary’s College, and plans to attend graduate school. Like Huynh and Rottenbucher, Kassiotis wants to become a doctor, hoping to attend Brooklyn College for his masters in counseling mental health, which is the same graduate school that Rottenbucher hopes to attend.
Kassiotis met Huynh in the sixth grade, when they shared a class. A year later is when he introduced Rottenbucher to Huynh during recess. Kassiotis was more than willing to help Huynh with English and to fit in. “At first I was curious,” he said, “but then he just took the role of the younger brother we would teach things to.”
Huynh in his medical scrubs
As well as Huynh and Rottenbucher, Kassiotis also said that the similar graduate field they all share is just a coincidence. Although Kassiotis is still in the application process, he is confident he will be accepted into his graduate school of choice.
No one in Huynh’s family is a doctor, but he said he wanted to pursue the career because he “liked the challenge.” He works at Albany Medical Center as a patient care assistant, or a nurse’s aid. Although cleaning out bedpans isn’t his favorite activity, he acknowledges that it is necessary to get experience in his field.
As for Huynh’s future, although he would like to visit his home country again, that’s as far as he’d take it. “I would like to go visit my aunt and cousin,” he said, “but living there is something I would never do.” When asked what he’d do if he were in his parents’ place before they moved, he was quick to respond. “They probably sacrificed a lot, but if it were me I would’ve done the same thing for my kids, as long as the outcome was positive.”
UAlbany Experience 