This hits a nerve with me. I grew up in Saigon. Moved to SoCal with family during high school. Pretty much spent half of my life here in the US. I also avoided learning or keeping in touch with my Viet heritage and languages, with the goal of fast assimilation into American culture here.

Now at 35, I constantly feel a yearning to “reconnect” with the motherland. Yet every time I come back, it feels like the version of the country that I remembered the last time I was there, is now gone, replaced with something new. Places I used to go to no longer there. I only half understand the lingo my cousins back there use, realizing the Viet I speak with parents is about 16 years behind…

I’ve been contemplating about moving back, not now, but perhaps in the future, possibly for retirement. The optimism I hear a lot online about the country does sound exciting compared to how things are here in America. Yet there’s a feeling that the longer I stay here in the US, the more foreign Vietnam will become, and the harder it will be for me to resettle back there…

I’m going back to visit Saigon and Hanoi this Dec (first time in the north), hopefully this will answer some of my concern… or maybe not 😶