Hanoi, Vietnam: Language
Immersion
Major Michael Dombroski, USAF
The history of conflict in Vietnam might cause some people to pause when they
find that you were on your way there to immerse yourself in the culture. Images from
the Vietnam War do not necessarily lend themselves to a yearning for the beautiful
beaches and verdant landscapes that are a reality there today. Conflict with major
world powers, dating all the way back to 111 BC with the Chinese, and later the
Japanese and French, and between the North and South, seems the norm. Vietnam
has been conquered and colonized so often it is refreshing to learn that relatively
recently new businesses have cropped up and opportunity exists for the Vietnamese to
build a robust economy. Activities for western visitors that will make them feel right at
home are prevalent, and tourism is increasing.
The Air Force recently sent seven officers to Vietnam to participate in a ground
breaking language immersion program. The officers took part in a four week immersion
in Hanoi, the first such immersion program in Vietnam sponsored by the Air Force
Foreign Area Office (FAO) Proponent Office. The participants came from varied
backgrounds: operational, support, intelligence, logistics; from bases throughout Asia
and the US. They all had some background of Vietnamese language, but were not
necessarily fluent speakers--yet. This program is designed to encourage a commitment
to continued learning and study of all languages and cultures in the world, and to
provide the tools and the experience to do so.
In order to support the USAF mission of Global Engagement and US interests and
responsibilities worldwide, the Language Immersion Program has emerged as a key
tool to prepare our future leaders for their role in the new world order. Immersion
program participants were exposed daily to the living language, and developed the
awareness that may be critical to future operations in Southeast Asia. Living as locals,
students had the opportunity to become attuned to the thought processes of the
Vietnamese. They learned the subtleties of a region that is likely to be in the forefront
of global security at some point in our future, and the payoff will likely be large.
US relations with Vietnam are for the most part relatively good, according to Pete
Peterson, the first US Ambassador to Hanoi. Some areas are contentious, he says,
and we are working diligently to help them understand that human rights improvements
will benefit them. However, he stated that in the case of the MIA issue, our relationship
is now a real partnership.
Besides the Vietnamese Immersion Program, the FAO Proponent Office has
sponsored immersions in other languages as well, including Russian, Turkish, Chinese-Mandarin, Korean, Thai, Arabic, Serbo-Croatian, Greek and Persian-Farsi. For more
information on the immersion program see the FAO web site at:
www.hq.af.mil/af/saf/ia/afaao/fao.
1999, Foreign Area Officer Association
Springfield,
Virginia
Maintained by LTC Steve
Gotowicki.
http://www.faoa.org