Life in a new world
Ren Nguyen, 13, Vietnam

By MATTHEW RODRIGUEZ
Observer-Dispatch

Sometimes two is one too many. Ren Nguyen’s strong connection with Vietnamese and American cultures is occasionally a source of ridicule. Because he speaks Vietnamese and English, he has an accent in both languages, sometimes mixing the two.

“My dad’s friends talk to me very fast, and I don’t know what they’re saying,” says Nguyen, who left Vietnam when he was 3. “When I don’t know what they say, I just go along with it.”

But having two cultures gives Nguyen the best of two worlds, he says. He enjoys eating pho — a Vietnamese noodle soup — and riding his skateboard. Recently, his friend, Phil Eanniello, introduced him to baseball.

And in turn, Nguyen, a seventh-grader at John F. Kennedy Middle School in Utica, introduced his friend to his culture, taking him to a Vietnamese Mass.

Nguyen says sometimes people have a negative perception of his native country.

“My dad, he visited Vietnam, and he videotaped it,” Nguyen says. “And for one thing, we don’t eat cats and dogs.” Nguyen is proud of both cultures. “I’m happy that I can speak two languages,” he says. “And next year, I can take Spanish, so that would be three.”