"Honoring Our Past As We Enter Our Future"
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"Honoring Our Past As We Enter Our Future"
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Opening General Session
Welcome to NAFEA 2000 Conference!!! We are glad that you are here to join us in this commemoration/celebration. We hope that together, we can enable our next generation to bring the best of both worlds, that of which from the ancestral land and of this new homeland into the next millennium. Once again, we thank you for being here with us and wish you all a wonderful time networking with new friends, reconnecting with old friends, and learning with and from one another.
Thank you for the warm and kind introduction. Since we have come together for many years now, you know that I cannot get started without my exchanging greetings with you in the Hawaiian tradition. So…Aloha Kakahiaka, ALOOOHA! Thank you again. It is indeed an honor and privilege to be a participant at the NAFEA 2000 conference which marks 2 decades of leadership in: 1) increasing public awareness of Asian Pacific Americans (APAs) education needs and concerns; and 2) advocating and promoting programs, policies and initiatives to ensure that APAs are an integral part of our nation’s education reform efforts. I am pleased to bring you Secretary Riley’s greetings and support of this conference, and to convey to all of you his deepest thanks for supporting our Department’s APA forums since 1994. As you are aware, it was through the leadership of former Director of OBEMLA, Gene Garcia, and my dear friend, former Deputy Director of OBMELA, Dang Pham – a member of your organization – that the APA forums were conceived and launched to assess the APA educational needs and concerns throughout the nation. And, in hindsight, we know that this was an initiative that was not only critical for gathering educational data on APAs, but also essential to serve as a forum -- a "voice" for APAs -- that is now being augmented as we go forth with the full support of the White House in implementing many of the recommendations that we have articulated in the past. I am also grateful for the opportunity you have provided me to elaborate on this bold and exciting initiative issued by President Clinton in his Executive Order 13125 at the session tomorrow on "Political Involvement and Empowerment." I look forward to a challenging and exciting session that creates together with all the participants, a meaningful experience that encourages increased involvement in the political process that is vital to the democracy of our great nation. May I also take this opportunity to recognize your outgoing President, KimOanh Nguyen-Lam for the outstanding leadership she has shown in pushing NAFEA to even greater heights and to congratulate your new President and my colleague, Bouy Te, as he takes NAFEA into the new millennium. And to all of you -- members and participants alike of this conference -- let me say that it is your commitment to your profession, the APA community and to our "One America" that makes the dreams of today become the reality of tomorrow! My warmest Aloha and best wishes for an exciting, challenging and meaningful conference.
Bouy shared the recent success of increasing federal monies for education. He shared recent statistics on teachers and funding. There is gap between teachers trained to work with language minority students and the number of these students who need trained teachers. Bouy asked, "If your child was in this gap, how would you feel?" He said this is an issue we need to address. Bouy made reference to Secretary Riley's speech in North Carolina, where he proposed teaching as a year round profession. This doesn’t mean year round schools, but instead teachers work year round, receiving professional development during the summer or off-track months. Bouy hopes that the States will except this proposal. Bouy said this is last year of his term as deputy director of OBEMLA as President Clinton only has one more year. Some presidents take it easy during their final year. But President Clinton says he wishes he didn't have to leave. He wants to finish up all the initiatives. President Clinton instructed his staff to work harder than ever on the initiatives, "sprint to the finish line." Do all of this for, not for the politicians, but for the American people. Bouy shared two quotes he has learned from the past 15 years of community service: "Don't treat everyone the same, but you must treat them equal" (not the same thing) "We must never forget the languages and cultures that have connected us to life" Very important to keep in mind. Bouy thanked the NAFEA Board for their efforts to put this conference together.
CLMER new but has been successful in attracting equity minded people. KimOanh has been key in helping our center to understand needs of SE Asian communities. I am pleased to be apart of this. We are always looking for a variety of ways to support students, especially in areas of technology and integration. We see the issue of technology integrated with other equity issues. We are not going to know the best and most creative ways to use technology to improve communities unless we work closely with the communities. PSR*TEC working hard with APA communities. Last week we met with national language organizations (TESOL, others. We had an interesting discussion on term "Foreign Language" We are trying to collect web based language materials and resources. We agreed that " Foreign Language" is not an appropriate term. There is too much Historical baggage associated with this term. How can we refer to our students' languages as "foreign" We need to make a little bit of change. We'd like to suggest "World Languages" within our communities. This term validates the rich linguistic and cultural resources we have in our communities. We need to change the way people think about Language and Culture. We need to engage in specific actions and projects. Turn into principles and strategies for education reform into empowerment of communities. Welcome on behalf of CLMER. I look forward to continuing to work in partnership for all of our children
Nguyen Ngoc Bich is currently Director of the Vietnamese Service at Radio Free Asia (RFA). Born in Hanoi, Vietnam, and educated in Saigon, the United States, Japan, and Europe, Mr. Bich is fluent in seven languages. He came to the United States on a Fullbright scholarship as an undergraduate student and received his B.A. from Princeton University (Political Science, 1958). He did graduate work in Asian studies at Columbia University (1959-65), Japanese literature at Kyoto University (1962-63), bilingual education and theoretical linguistics at Georgetown University (1980-85). As an educator, Nguyen Ngoc Bich has taught at university level both in Vietnam and in the United States. Since coming to the U.S. in 1975, he has taught adult education, elementary school and high school in Arlington, Virginia, then at the university level at Trinity College, George Mason University (where he taught Vietnamese Literature and Vietnamese Culture and Civilization), and Georgetown University (where he was a teacher trainer in Bilingual and Multicultural Education). Together with his wife, Dr. Dao Thi Hoi, a linguist and ESL specialist, he was one of a group of educators who set out in 1979, at a dim sum place in San Francisco's Chinatown, to found NAVAE (National Association for Vietnamese American Education), the ancestor of NAFEA. Mr. Bich was the third president of NAVAE, which he headed from 1984 to 1986. Widely recognized for his work in education, he was appointed by President Bush to the post of Deputy Director, Office of Bilingual Education and Minority Language Affairs (aka OBEMLA), at the U.S. Department of Education, where he served under Secretary Lamar Alexander from 1991 to 1993. Mr. Bich was the founder of National News Service, which provides news of interest to readers of Vietnamese language newspapers worldwide. He is also the author of a number of publications on Vietnam, including An Annotated Atlas of the Republic of Vietnam (1972), North Vietnam: Backtracking on Socialism (1971) and Literature Under Communism in Viettnam (under press). But he is best known as a translator and writer on the arts. The author of The Poetry of Vietnam (Asia Society of New York, 1969), A Thousand Years of Vietnamese Poetry (Knopf, 1975), he also edited War and Exile: A Vietnamese Anthology (Vietnamese PEN, 1989) and translated two collections of poetry coming from the pen of Nguyen Chi Thien, Hoa Dia Nguc / The Flowers of Hell and Hat Mau Tho / Blood Seeds Become Poetry (both published in 1996). In the field of art and music, he co-authored (with his wife, Dr. Dao Thi Hoi) a bilingual collection of Christmas carols (1975) and translated a book on Vietnamese Architecture (1972). More recently, he has translated Truong Anh Thuy's Truong Ca Loi Me Ru / A Mother's Lullaby (1989); had a hand in doing a photography book by Tran Cao Linh, Vietnam, My Country Forever (Aide à l'Enfance du Vietnam, 1988), the catalogue of a traveling exhibition of Vietnamese and Vietnamese American paintings, An Ocean Apart (Smithsonian, 1996), the book Thai Tuan: Selected Paintings and Essays (VAALA, 1996); and has completed a comprehensive history on Seven Thousand Years of Vietnamese Ceramics (under press). His edition of the complete works of the poetess Ho Xuan Huong (ca. 1770-1835) was published at the beginning of the year to wide acclaim. Prior to joining RFA (in January 1997), Mr. Bich has worked for 13 years as a Vietnamese-language Program Director for WHFS 103.4 FM and WPFW 89.3 FM in Washington, DC. Because of his varied background and mastery of many aspects of Vietnamese culture, he is a much sought-after lecturer nationwide, on college campuses, at national and international conferences.
The theme of this conference is "Honoring our past as we enter the future." I'd like to go back far. 17,000,000 years ago. the Mesozoic era. If a dinosaur came back, would he recognize all he sees around him? He would see tall buildings that dwarf even him. Would he be able to understand anything? Do we understand each other? I was the President of the Parent Organization of this group. In the U.S., over the past 21 years, things have moved very fast. You don't have to be away long to feel you are in a strange land. If someone gone for a long time and comes back, they find a strange new place. There are many American myths about this, such as Sleepy Hollow. (Shares a similar Vietnamese legend). When we look at these stories, we have the story of the generation gap. Parents living in past, children moving ahead. The story of education is the story of a miracle. It can bridge gaps, it can help us know the past. For example, in the movie Jurassic Park - Speilberg was able to bring dinosaurs back to life. In San Francisco, this organization was founded at a time when there was a mass exodus from Vietnam, and later from Cambodia, Laos, and the children flooded the schools. What was there background? How did war affect their education? The answers to these questions were not found in any organization at the time. Many of us went to other organizations at the time, but we felt left out, ignored. Several of us decided to start an organization to address our needs. Following the old saying "Religion can't be sustained on an empty stomach" Our group started over dinner. We decided to create the organization National Association for Vietnamese American Education (NAVAE). Despite our lack of resources, we each pledged $100 as seed money for the Organization. (Names other original leaders) Our first conference was called the Indochinese Education and Social Services National Conference, and was held in Arlington, Virginia. Notice that Social Services was integral part of this, because students were refugees. Their first concern was to settle and adapt. Everything here was different, thus it was not possible for schools to take care of students without help from those who handled food stamps and welfare. There was lots of misunderstanding both ways. What language do they speak? What are their learning style? Parent involvement? Educational experience? Can parents help with home work? There were millions of questions without answers. Ours is one of the great success stories of American education. Our students were sponges. They became pride and joy of educators. Many went on to become valedictorians. How much did NAVEA help with this? I'm sure many workshops on language and cultural differences contributed to the understanding of teachers about their students. It was an Anglo speaker at our conference who raised the questions "Where are the other groups?" Our 2nd conference was held right here, and was one of largest turnouts ever at a NAFEA conference. There were over 800 people, and we were strongly supported by educators from the area. Khamchong Luangpraseut was key in getting the Lao community involved. He became the president. It was he who helped change the name of the organization to include Laotians and Cambodians. His death a year ago was a great loss to us all. He was an eloquent speaker on our needs. There was also efforts to include include minority S.E. Asian groups as well. The first female President was Dr. Tran Huong Mai, a linguist from Washington D.C. Later Dr. Diep Nguyen, Dr. Katharya Um, and now KimOanh Nguyen-Lam, one of most popular presidents ever. Now as we enter a new millennium, we have a new president elect, Mr. Bouy Te. As I look at the topics in our program: The Hmong 25 years, Vietnamese Americans, A Self Portrait. . . I realize now we have a new agenda all together. The Ethnic Studies agenda, now we can have a depth of vision, 25 years to look back on in a dispassionate way. There is a a topic "So You Want to be a Principal?" This shows we have come a long way. There is a Grant writing workshops, a Khmer Technology workshops - A CD-ROM program for teaching Khmer. We are moving into the mainstream of America. This shows we have made the transition to 21st century. There are lots of young faces here. I am happy to see their enthusiasm, energy and dedication. I feel like a dinosaur next them. I am very happy to see progress. Thank you for your attention. |
Convener: Dinh Van Lo, NAFEA
VP Programming
Welcoming
Remarks: KimOanh Nguyen-Lam, NAFEA President
Welcoming
Remarks: Ed Fujimoto, U.S. Department of Education
Welcoming
Remarks: 
Welcoming Remarks: Kevin Rocap, Center for Language Minority Education and
Research (CLMER)
Keynote Introduction: Rose
Tran, NAFEA Treasurer
Keynote Speaker: Nguyen Ngoc
Bich, Former NAFEA President (1984-1986)