Ellie Thuy Tran presented her work, Vietnam—40 Years Later, to a packed room last Wednesday afternoon.

 
Tran started the presentation asking the crowd if anyone knew where Vietnam was located. There were no students that spoke up, but one adult did know where it was located.
Tran started out her life story telling us where she was born.

 
“I was born in Ho Chi Minh City, but it is also called Saigon,” Tran said. “I call it Saigon because it is shorter.”

 
Tran moved to California in August 2012 when she was 21. She then moved to Wayne a year later and started attending WSC, where her major is human service counseling with a minor in communication. She discovered a fondness for languages, studying German and Spanish, in addition to her English and Vietnamese.

 
Her goal in the talk was to inform WSC students and faculty about Vietnam and what it is like now, compared to what most people think of the war.

 
“I think I am one of the only Vietnamese in Wayne,” Tran said.  Just as she finished saying that, someone in the audience spoke up saying they were also Vietnamese.
“People in America don’t know a lot about my country, except we had a war,” Tran said.

 
Although Tran believes it is cool that people remember and know history, the Vietnam War (to her it is known as the American War) was 40 years ago. Her parents were six or seven years old when the war ended. The country went through a rough time after the war, and she didn’t know much about it growing up.

 
She spoke about how young people like herself grew up in a country that was just beginning to become part of the world economy and start getting back on its feet.

 
She showed that Vietnam is roughly the size of Germany, which has 80 million people compared to Vietnam’s 90 million. She also pointed out that California is larger than Vietnam but has less than half of the population.

 
She then talked about the tropical climate.

 
“The temperature varies between 70 and 100 degrees Fahrenheit. The average humidity is 82 percent,” Tran said. “I was actually quite surprised by this, since it always feels like it is 100 percent. Also, remember Vietnam only has two seasons: wet and dry.”

 
Agriculture is a very big part of Vietnam, especially because it tends to not have many natural disasters, just the occasional flood.

 
Tran mentioned that Vietnam should be on every world traveler’s want-to-go list. There are beaches, jungles and everything in between.

 
She also mentioned how the youth try to not talk about the politics, that they just want to have fun.

 
Although many people don’t realize it, you have probably encountered something that was invented in Vietnam. Flappy Bird was created by Dông Nguyên in Vietnam.

 
“[Flappy Bird] is very difficult,” Tran said. “It is hard to go ten seconds without wanting to throw your phone at the wall. I know my high score is like ten.”

 
She used Nguyên as an example of the younger generation that is not worried about the past. They are just trying to do what they do and get really good at their job.

 
In Vietnam, Tran volunteered on the weekends to be a tour guide for foreigners, allowing her to practice English before moving to America.

 
“If you ever travel to Vietnam, find some contests to see how many people they can carry on their motorbike,” Tran said.

 
She said also there is horrible traffic in many parts of Vietnam, where motorists may be stuck in traffic during rush hour for two or more hours.

 
Before the Q and A session, she showed some pictures and the stories behind them. One that got quite a laugh was Tran shooting a gun for the first time.

 
She also saud she should officially be considered a Nebraskan because she got a chance to visit Memorial Stadium in Lincoln.

 
Tran also showed a website called “If Vietnam was Your Home.” This site provides statistics concerning quality of life issues like poverty rates and life expectancy.