Last word: A Summer Study Tour to Northern Vietnam

By UUPer Mark Ashwill, SUNY Buffalo

In 1995, Allan Goodman, now president of the Institute of International Education, wrote prophetically in The Chronicle of Higher Education about the need to shift the focus of research and academic studies of Vietnam from the war to a country in rapid political, social and economic transition. By doing so, he argued, not only would we add to our base of knowledge about societies in transition, but also we would finally be able to exorcise the demons of what is known in Vietnam as the "American War."

For its part, Vietnam has had neither the luxury nor the cultural predisposition to dwell on a war that caused the deaths of more than 3 million people and left 300,000 missing in its wake. It is a youthful and dynamic nation of nearly 80 million people who continue to look to the future after centuries of foreign invasion, occupation and war.

The past five years have witnessed a flurry of activity that has brought the two former adversaries closer together, mainly through forms of people-to-people contact such as academic exchanges, business relationships, study abroad programs, faculty seminars, the work of nonprofit organizations, and a growing number of Vietnamese students studying in the United States.

This summer -- from July 17 to Aug. 2 -- the University at Buffalo World Languages Institute is offering a study tour to northern Vietnam for a select group of teachers from New York. The tour will provide an opportunity to learn about Vietnamese culture and society in both formal and informal settings. The meetings arranged with local educators from schools and post-secondary institutions are among the program’s highlights. The study tour will benefit American teachers and their Vietnamese colleagues by enabling both to develop relationships, as well as learn about each other's education systems and societies.

Participants will create course materials about Vietnam they can use in the classroom. This will benefit their students, most of whom know too little about a country that is -- in many Americans minds -- synonymous with war. The program is designed to help teachers learn about Vietnam on a first-hand basis in order to pass that information along to their students and others.

Program highlights:

• An on- and offline pre-departure orientation about Vietnamese culture and society
• Visits to local schools and other institutions
• Meetings with local educators
• Presentations (in English or in translation) about Vietnamese history, economic development, and the education system
• Visits to sites of cultural and historical interest
• A two-day trip to Ha Long Bay

(UUPer Mark Ashwill is director of SUNY Buffalo’s World Languages Institute)