Teaching and learning abroad in Vietnam

Professor of history Fred Dickinson (back, right) with his students in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. (Image: Courtesy of Fred Dickinson)

Why did you want to teach in Vietnam?

I have long been aware of a growing interest in Southeast Asia across campus. But since there is no institutional home for Southeast Asian studies at Penn, when I became director of the Center for East Asian Studies in 2019, I included Southeast Asia in CEAS's purview. We created the East-Southeast Asia Colloquium, moved the Vietnamese language program from the Penn Language Center to a more permanent institutional home in the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations (EALC), and sought Luce Foundation funding for more Southeast Asia programming. Given its strong Buddhist and Confucian heritage, Vietnam is particularly approachable for East Asianists.

While my students at Penn don't usually think of Vietnam as part of East Asia, interestingly, there was no question among my Vietnamese students at FUV that Vietnam is East Asia.

I chose to spend my Fulbright semester in Ho Chi Minh City because I had taught a mini workshop on modern Japan at Vietnam National University in the north (Hanoi) in December 2022 and wanted a new experience in the south. Fortuitously, a former student from Penn, now a renowned professor of Vietnamese history at the University of Toronto, was close with the head of Vietnam studies at FUV in Ho Chi Minh City. Even more fortunately, FUV turned out to be one of just a handful of Vietnamese universities open to teaching by foreign academics. Most Vietnamese Universities are state-run and the curriculum closely monitored by the Communist Party. Of the nine U.S. Fulbright scholars in Vietnam in spring 2024, only two of us taught our own courses at a university, both of us at FUV. And as a liberal arts college founded with U.S. advice and money, FUV's academic calendar and curriculum were very familiar-including English-language instruction in all classes.

There are other independent universities in Vietnam, right?

I can think of only two others: the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT, founded in Ho Chi Minh City in 2000), and VinUniversity, which began in Hanoi as a modern medical school in 2018 with the help of Penn Medicine. Under the dynamic leadership of Director Glen Gaulton, Penn's Center for Global Healthmaintains a strong relationship with VinUni, which also boasts a vibrant College of Arts and Sciences. But since I had already taught in Hanoi in 2022, I chose to teach in Ho Chi Minh City last semester.

What did you teach?

I taught my East Asian Diplomacy course. Young Vietnamese are very interested in East Asia, particularly in Japan and Korea, which both have a strong economic presence in Vietnam and are viewed as models for Vietnamese development. China's economic presence in Vietnam is larger, but Vietnam has a love-hate relationship with China. My students were particularly interested in going to Japan or Korea to see how Vietnam might replicate the 'economic miracles' of those two East Asian states. I had offered to teach Japanese History or World History, but the FUV History and Vietnam Studies departments asked for East Asian Diplomacy. I had 22 students, which was an impressive enrollment for an upper-level course.

How was it received differently among those students compared to Penn?

Obviously, they live in a geopolitically volatile space, and China is the big player. It's like being in Central or South America and always worrying about what the United States is up to. This was my biggest surprise, that FUV students were even more critical of China than my students at Penn.

The second thing that surprised me were the numerous cultural echoes of Japan. I am used to the striking contrasts I always find between loud, boisterous America and quiet, well-mannered Japan. But I wasn't prepared for the level of respect and deference that greeted me in Vietnam: from students to store clerks to public officials. I'm used to a robust culture of greeting and bowing in Japan, but I was amazed to encounter even more greeting and bowing in Vietnam. Of course, when I spoke with friends who specialize in Vietnam, they suggested I was receiving special treatment because of my gray hair. [Laughs] Still, I don't get the same respect in Japan with the same gray hair.

I was also surprised by the English-language facility of my students. I had initially thought it reflected socio-economic status and private school experience for a majority at FUV. But it turns out that, while most of my students had graduated from magnate high schools, few of them came from any significant wealth or private schooling. Vietnam has, in other words, a robust system of magnate schools with strong foreign language training, much more impressive than in Japan. FUV also boasts a strong Academic Affairs Department, with excellent advising and English-language tutoring.

It sounds like you learned a lot from this experience, as much as the students did.

Yes, definitely. With four of six countries boasting democracies, market economies, and strong diplomatic ties with the U.S., East Asia is now very familiar to Americans. But Southeast Asia is a different story. Vietnam is neither a democracy, nor a market economy, nor a U.S. ally. Without the political, economic, or diplomatic trends we typically take for granted, Vietnam forces us to rethink fundamental assumptions.

At the same time, Southeast Asia comprises 6.4% of the world economy, 8.5% of world population, and a variety of cultures from the Asia-Pacific, Indian Ocean, and Western empires. And Southeast Asian students are the fastest growing demographic among Asian undergraduates at Penn.

What is the big lesson you'll take back to Penn?

Confirmation of the importance of expanding Southeast Asian Studies at Penn. I'm excited about the new foundation we established for Vietnam Studies by moving the Vietnamese language program from the Penn Language Center to the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations (EALC). EALC currently has three concentrations-China, Japan, and Korea-each organized around more than three levels of language training and numerous content courses.

Penn has offered Vietnamese language for a long time. And our intrepid language instructor, Hanh Nguyen, now teaches three levels of Vietnamese to 60 students per year. Until recently, the program has targeted principally heritage speakers. But following the move to EALC last year, we began fashioning a curriculum for non-heritage speakers, as well. Of course, the more non-heritage speakers we can attract, the better it is for the growth of the program.

At the same time, now that Vietnamese language resides in EALC, we have the potential for a Vietnam concentration, in addition to the China, Japan, and Korea concentrations already offered in the EALC major. That will require, however, more faculty able to provide an assortment of content courses on Vietnam. We cannot, of course, immediately hire more Vietnam-focused faculty. But another key outcome of my semester at FUV is a Penn/FUV faculty exchange, currently under negotiation. Hopefully by 2025-26, we'll see one or two FUV scholars of Southeast Asia teaching a course at Penn every year. We also hope to have a Penn/FUV undergraduate student exchange up and running soon.

Would you recommend other faculty do these stays abroad, teaching?

Definitely. Living abroad involves a level of cultural immersion not available through mere travel and, therefore, promises a wealth of new discovery. Actual teaching abroad enriches the experience even further, since you have in your students a captive focus group from which you may learn directly about the host country. Teaching in a country outside your immediate research interests can be even more exhilarating. I have taught in Japan, Belgium, and Vietnam and would say that interactions with my 22 students at FUV was the most eye-opening and rewarding teaching experience of my 30-year career at Penn.