• sức khoẻ tâm lý - mental health 
• gia đình- family 
• cộng đồng- community 
• người Mỹ gốc Châu Á - Asian American 
• người Mỹ gốc Việt - Vietnamese American 
• Châu Á / Á Châu - Asia 
• thể diện - reputation / face 
• hậu chấn tâm lý - PTSD 
• văn hóa - culture 
• tập quán - custom 
• dịch vụ y tế - health services 
• khám bệnh - examination 

• Summarize your understanding of the causes and effects of the Vietnam War on Vietnamese refugees. (Vietnamese translation: Tóm tắt sự hiểu biết của em về nguyên nhân và hậu quả của Chiến Tranh Việt Nam Đối với người Việt tị nạn.) 
• What is “mental health” to you? (Vietnamese translation: Theo em, sức khỏe tâm lý ý nghĩa là gì?) 
  • Teacher note: It may be beneficial to define mental health as our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. The concept of mental health may be foreign to some students, as this phrase may not exist in some languages.
• Do your family or friends talk about mental health? (Vietnamese translation: Gia đình hay bạn bè của em có bàn bạc về sức khỏe tâm lý không?) 
• In your opinion, is mental health seen as something important in the community? Explain. (Vietnamese translation: Theo em, cộng đồng người Mỹ gốc Việt có coi trọng sức khỏe tâm lý không? Hãy giải thích câu trả lời của em.) 

• Summarize the key idea(s) from this excerpt: “The key idea(s) from this excerpt is ___.” (Vietnamese translation: Ý chính của trích đoạn này là ___.)
• Have you ever seen this situation happen in your family or in your community? When? Where? (Vietnamese translation: Bạn có bao giờ thấy trường hợp này xảy ra trong gia đình hay cộng đồng của bạn chưa? Khi nào? Ở đâu?)
  • Response Starters: “I have/have not seen this situation occur.” (Vietnamese translation: Mình đã/chưa thấy trường hợp này xảy ra.) 
• “How do you feel after reading this excerpt?” (Vietnamese translation: Bạn cảm giác/thấy như thế nào sau khi đọc trích đoạn này? Tại sao?) 
  • “I feel ___ after reading this excerpt because ___.” (Vietnamese translation: Mình cảm giác/thấy ___ sau khi đọc khi đọc trích đoạn này vì __.)

Source 1: 
In the chapter “Betrayed by Our Tongues,” Lý references the American dream after facing racism and harassment. She wants to promise her family will achieve it but is disheartened. Yet, in what ways is this experience, the immigrant experience, a quintessentially American story? How is the trauma that Vietnamese Americans have experienced through war, suffering, and persecution passed down to Vietnamese American youth? What impact might it have on the mental health and behaviors of youth?

Begin excerpt: My father was one of almost two and a half million South Vietnamese soldiers who were captured and sent to the reeducation camps, where they were forced into backbreaking and often dangerous labor, sweeping minefields, digging wells and latrines, cutting down trees. They called the camps trại học tập cải tạo, meaning a place where you could be purified of your sins, offering a chance to recreate yourself through labor that benefited the community.

They told us we only had to attend for about a week and a half, just until they sorted out the paperwork. Then they whipped and electrocuted us. They fed us once every few days, sometimes weeks, part of a potato. My father served a ten-year sentence.

[Word Count: 121]

Source 2:
In the chapter “Betrayed by Our Tongues,” Lý references the American dream after facing racism and harassment. She wants to promise her family will achieve it but is disheartened. Yet, in what ways is this experience, the immigrant experience, a quintessentially American story? How is the trauma that Vietnamese Americans have experienced through war, suffering, and persecution passed down to Vietnamese American youth? What impact might it have on the mental health and behaviors of youth?

Begin excerpt: I could barely speak, I was so touched by her gesture. As I held the turtle in my hands, I thought about why it was that I liked turtles so much. It had become such a part of my identity that I’d forgotten its origin. I revisited those nights, years ago, sitting on tattered couch cushions on the door and listening to my father tell us about his time in prison. He was trying to make us understand what war was then, and what it meant to be a prisoner.

After my father rescued the turtle and the warden saved my father from being shot and ordered his release from prison, relatives found him not far from the camp area. All seventy-two pounds of him. He had collapsed from exhaustion, dehydration, hunger, and pain before he could make his way home. It was over seven years of re-education. But it was not really over. He’d been sentenced to ten years, and the remaining three years of his sentence would be served as the government saw it. His sisters brought him home with them. They fed him. They clothed him. They nurtured and consoled him. Many of his friends were dead. You are lucky, his sisters told him.

[Word Count: 206]

Source 3:
In the chapter “A Lazy, No-Good Daughter,” Lý’s teacher Ms. Walsh calls the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) to report Lý’s parents for child neglect since her father refuses to allow Lý to get glasses. This triggers Lý’s father’s PTSD, widens the rift between her and her parents, and worsens her own mental health. Still, Ms. Walsh says, “If I had to do it again, I would.” Discuss the source of the conflict here and if there could have been a better outcome. What would you have done in Ms. Walsh’s position? In Lý’s? How do you think many Vietnamese American youth grapple with the traumas of their parents? How do they deal with the acculturation gap? What strategies do Vietnamese American youth take to navigate family and societal pressures?

Begin excerpt: Dr. Hayes diagnosed me with dysthymia, or high-functioning depression. It’s a depressive disorder that can sometimes accompany high achievers who are able to mask their depression well, he explained to me.

‘Based on what you’re telling me, I think it’s safe to assume that you’ve suffered from this for many years now,’ he said. ‘You’ve been able to do well, relatively speaking, making it to such a prestigious high school despite your circumstances, and getting decent grades up until recently, but I have a hunch that there’s a lot going on beneath the surface. Making sense of your feelings, naming them, will help you tremendously.’

[Word Count: 105]

Source 4:
In the chapter “A Lazy, No-Good Daughter,” Lý’s teacher Ms. Walsh calls the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) to report Lý’s parents for child neglect since her father refuses to allow Lý to get glasses. This triggers Lý’s father’s PTSD, widens the rift between her and her parents, and worsens her own mental health. Still, Ms. Walsh says, “If I had to do it again, I would.” Discuss the source of the conflict here and if there could have been a better outcome. What would you have done in Ms. Walsh’s position? In Lý’s? How do you think many Vietnamese American youth grapple with the traumas of their parents? How do they deal with the acculturation gap? What strategies do Vietnamese American youth take to navigate family and societal pressures?

Begin excerpt: I watched him one afternoon, sitting by the living room window and staring out at the setting sun. I could hardly see the features on his face, let alone his expression, but I could feel his pain. I wanted badly to tell him that I was sorry. That if I could I would take away all the horror and trauma from the war and his time in prison. I would make him whole again. But how could I tell him that? I had never once told my father I loved him. I had never once apologized to him. I wouldn’t even know how to begin.

As he slipped into an abyss of fear and anxiety, I slipped further into my depression. I began to skip days at the nail salon, where I’d been working most weekends, which only exacerbated my parents’ feeling of betrayal. Unable to contain his rage, my father kicked me in the head one morning as I slept. I was too lost within myself to even react. I was shattered. I was ashamed.

[Word Count: 176]

Source 5: 
Though Lý is initially excited about going to college and finding new experiences, her mental health starts to decline because of her feelings of guilt for leaving her parents behind. Why do you think Lý struggles in particular with these feelings? How might Lý’s immigrant or Vietnamese American identity shape her feelings toward school and family?

Lý experiences a second traumatic event at the hands of a well-meaning authority figure when she is taken to a psychiatric hospital without notice or explanation. There, she meets several people she makes a connection with, but is rattled all the while. Discuss Lý’s experiences and if anything surprised you. How might mental health patients be better served? How might mental health services better serve immigrant and Vietnamese American patients in a culturally responsive way?

Begin Excerpt: ‘This is completely understandable,’ he told me. ‘You’ve probably been depressed for a long time, but you’re a highly functioning depressed person, which is how you’ve managed to do so well despite your condition. But it makes sense that the symptoms would show eventually. I suspect you may have a bit of ADD as well, so the Dexedrine may help with that. We’ll start with a low dosage and see how it feels. If we need to increase it, we’ll increase it.’

[Word Count: 82]

Source 6:
Though Lý is initially excited about going to college and finding new experiences, her mental health starts to decline because of her feelings of guilt for leaving her parents behind. Why do you think Lý struggles in particular with these feelings? How might Lý’s immigrant or Vietnamese American identity shape her feelings toward school and family?

Lý experiences a second traumatic event at the hands of a well-meaning authority figure when she is taken to a psychiatric hospital without notice or explanation. There, she meets several people she makes a connection with, but is rattled all the while. Discuss Lý’s experiences and if anything surprised you. How might mental health patients be better served? How might mental health services better serve immigrant and Vietnamese American patients in a culturally responsive way?

Begin excerpt: And then there were moments when time suddenly didn’t seem to work the same way anymore. It expanded and contracted, leaving me disoriented. What seemed to me to be only seconds were hours in real life. I drifted into my inner world and stayed there for longer and longer periods. I stopped answering my mother’s calls. I began to sleep for twelve hours at a time, even more some days. Holed up in the confines of my room, I didn’t want to leave because I was afraid of what I might end up on the other side of the door and afraid of what others might and within. I was paranoid that friends would finally figure out who I really was, someone who didn’t belong anywhere, not in the prestigious Macaulay Honors College, not among her smart accomplished friends, and not even in her own home.

[Word Count: 146]