VietNamNet Bridge - Nguyen Sieu, who studied in the US, says each culture has its own bright and dark parts. Instead of criticizing Vietnam, international students should learn about the culture and adapt to it.

Nguyen Sieu won scholarships from seven leading universities in the US

Nguyen Sieu won scholarships from seven leading universities in the US, has a bachelor’s degree in cinema and media studies at Vassar College, New York with the impressive GPA of 3.9/4.0. 

He now works for Paramount Network as Junior Associate Producer-Editor after internship periods at Walt Disney, MTV and Blumhouse.

Sieu became a ‘hot face’ after publishing his book ‘Co don de truong thanh – Nhat ky tu nuoc My’ (Being lonely to mature – a diary from the US). The book shows the US country, people and culture in the eyes of Sieu, who has been living there for five years.

“I hope the book will show a true look about the US to all those who cherish the ‘American dream’. The US in the eyes of an international student is not quite the same as the US in film or the press. America in film is flashy, but the ‘strange land’ for an overseas student is full of challenges and pitfalls,” Sieu said on Saostar.

As a student who lived 18 years in Vietnam and five years in the US, he observes both cultures and give comments about them. 

“I hope the readers can understand that neither the US nor Vietnamese culture is better than the other. Both the East and West have their own characteristics. If you think America is more eminent than Vietnam, you're wrong!” Sieu said.

Answering this question, Sieu said he stays in the US partially because the media & entertainment industry in the US is well developed and wants to learn from the filmmakers there. 

The knowledge and experience he can get in the US will be useful for his future, even if he returns to Vietnam.

He believes five years in the US are still not enough for him to understand the country. 

He said that staying in the US doesn’t mean that he has severed all relations with Vietnam’. He has worked with the publishing house in Vietnam on the publishing of ‘Co don de truong thanh’ and he writes about social matters on Facebook to connect with the young Vietnamese community. 

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