by Trần Trung Tín
Entering the Unknown
As one of the ‘Boat People’ escaping communism in Vietnam, I spent a year in a refugee camp on Galang Island, Indonesia, before departing for resettlement in November 1982. Back then, I intended to hit the ground running as soon as I got to the U.S. But when I boarded the plane, the pilot was speaking over the intercom about all sorts of things in English. I strained to listen, but the only phrase I could catch was: ‘Fasten your seat belts.’ Right then, I got a sinking feeling. I realized that if I couldn’t even understand a standard flight announcement before we had even taken off, my goal to start working had officially ‘gone off the rails!‘
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