When I was 11 years old, I conducted the very first workshops by myself where I taught about Vietnamese culture to several primary schools in France. The first time I did it, I was just my mother’s assistant. And I wished so much to be in her place, that I gradually became the teacher and she became the assistant.
Each time I went to a school, I always wore an ao dai, the traditional Vietnamese costume. I mostly wore a red or blue ao dai with a very colorful dragon on it. All the students were surprised that I was wearing a robe.
Me and my cousin, Hugo, danced the dance of the unicorn as an opening to start the class. After that, I started the story of the legend of the dance of the unicorn. It is always the best part of the workshops because everybody was interested and asked me a lot of questions about the costumes, the unicorn and several other things…
Then, I told them that it was the traditional Vietnamese costume for boys and girls. I also always brought with me a red suitcase filled with lots of things from Vietnam so they could discover some real Vietnamese stuff like Vietnamese ingredients for cooking, books in Vietnamese, lucky red envelopes with some Vietnam dong inside... Plus, everytime, I would bring a second, bigger suitcase filled with several ao dais so that the students could try it and experience my culture.
I feel proud and happy because I have the opportunity to present the beauty of my Vietnamese culture and the ao dai to French children.
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