This article is the first of a series which focuses on immigrants’ narratives of how they adapted to a new country. For a program such as BFTF, students learn to recognize that people do not necessarily correspond to the stereotypes which come along with a nationality or an ethnic background. One of the reasons that national stereotypes cannot encompass the uniqueness of individuals is because individuals may identify themselves with more than one country and/or culture. A student who represents France, for example, may actually identify himself as an Albanian-French. For Vuong Nu Thi Dong, her heart calls two countries “home.” She immigrated from her motherland, Vietnam, to Iceland on December 27, 2002. The plane ride was her first, the Icelandic language was her second, and she became the third member of her family who immigrated to Iceland.

I first listened to Vuong in Citizenship class with Dr. Beasley. Vuong had been presenting on what she had learned about Bulgarian culture from her partner. She stumbled through her English, but she did not give up. In fact, she gave a six minute speech on Bulgarian culture and displayed a patience and resilience that belied any notions of shyness which she later admitted to me. She gave her audience the impression of strength and confidence.

Perhaps Vuong’s patience and courage to speak before a group of people in an unfamiliar, third language comes from that airplane ride when she realized she could not understand any Icelandic. One week after that airplane ride that landed her in Iceland, she attended 7th grade without any knowledge of Iclandic. She was scared that she would not fit in with Icelandic culture, but she decided immediately to try.

Within one year, Vuong mastered Icelandic. Her school added to her course load, and she took up a job at age 13. Her paycheck went to her mother so that expenses could be met. To this day, her parents work low-income jobs because immigrants take up unwanted tasks in Iceland. Although her family has not encountered any violence or direct discrimination, Vuong mentioned that she has heard of other immigrants being targets of violence in Iceland.Vuong has credited her success at school due to her ability in mathematics and sciences. “There is so much cancer, and not enough medicine,” she related to me. She may very well be a researcher one day. However, if she decides not to become a scientist, she promises me that she will try her hand at politicking. ” I am complicated girl - I like sciences and math and international politics.”