Keeping the flame of Vietnamese alive in Laos: The story of four Generations living far from their homeland
WVR - Although they have lived in Laos for nearly a hundred years, the family of Mrs. Nguyen Thi Nuong has preserved the Vietnamese language, passing on cultural traditions to younger generations through love for their homeland.
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| The cozy family meal of Mrs. Nguyen Thi Nuong, a Vietnamese-origin woman in Laos. (Source: VNA) |
Amid the peaceful capital of Vientiane in neighbouring Laos, there is a small house where the familiar sounds of home always echo: the Vietnamese language. For nearly a century, this has been the home of Mrs. Nguyen Thi Nuong (a 97-year-old woman of Vietnamese origin) and also the place where the flame of Vietnamese has been kept alive across four generations.
Mrs. Nuong’s family has eight siblings. Only the eldest brother was born in Vietnam; the rest grew up in Laos. Yet, in their modest home within a multicultural community, Vietnamese has never been absent. “The children naturally learn Lao at school, but at home, they must speak Vietnamese. Nobody is allowed to speak Lao inside, so all of them speak Vietnamese clearly—none of them have a lisp”, Mrs. Nuong recounted slowly but proudly.
Language is not only preserved through words but also through lifestyle and customs. From family meals with the warm invitation “please join us, grandparents, parents”, to traditional ceremonies such as Tet, ancestral death commemorations, or the Doan Ngo Festival with the ritual of “killing pests”, everything is faithfully maintained. She recalled: “Early in the morning on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, my sister-in-law would sit on the bed and apply lime to the children’s navels to ‘kill pests.’ Even the smallest details of our culture, my family has never forgotten”.
At 97, Mrs. Nuong remains lucid and lives in harmony with the love of her children and grandchildren. More importantly, she has passed down not only the language but also the Vietnamese moral character. “I keep the Vietnamese language because it is the language of my mother, of my homeland. When you live far away, you must not let it be lost”, she said.
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| Mrs. Nguyen Thi Nuong. (Source: VNA) |
Her granddaughter, Ms. Pham Thu Huong (55), shared that the family has lived in Laos for four generations. Although born and raised abroad, the children still speak Vietnamese fluently. “Sometimes the kids unconsciously mix in a few Lao words, but the parents correct them immediately. Now, their vocabulary, grammar, and writing are all very good”, Ms. Huong noted.
Even more proudly, Mrs. Nuong’s descendants are also proficient in Lao, English, and Thai. But the most important thing, according to Ms. Huong, is keeping their “Vietnamese roots” in this era of globalization. “To preserve Vietnamese for the younger generation, the whole family must have a strong commitment, uphold traditions, and dedicate time to nurture it”.
Mrs. Nuong’s great-grandson, Mr. Tran Viet Thanh Phong (29), is a clear example. He learned to speak Vietnamese from an early age despite growing up in a multilingual environment. “When I was little, learning Vietnamese was a bit hard, but my parents were very persistent. Now that I have a family of my own, I will also teach my children Vietnamese. Even when you know many languages, preserving your mother tongue is the most important thing”, Phong said.
The family of Mrs. Nguyen Thi Nuong is not the only one, but they are a remarkable example of maintaining Vietnamese abroad. In an era of integration, when language and culture can easily dissolve, a four-generation family still upholding the purity and subtlety of Vietnamese is truly precious.
Because language is not only a communication tool—it is also where memory, identity, and the soul of a nation are preserved. Through perseverance and love for their homeland, Mrs. Nuong’s family has shown that even thousands of kilometers away from the Fatherland, as long as the national language is preserved, one can fully live with a Vietnamese identity.
This story is a beautiful song about the love for the Vietnamese language—a love not only expressed in words but also embedded in moral values, rituals, and traditions. Family meals, death commemorations, the New Year tree, and traditional Tet—all have created a miniature Vietnam in foreign land, nurtured with sincere affection and deep national pride across generations.
