by Dr. Andrew Irvine
Faculty Leader
Vietnam is one of the countries in the region known as "Indochina." As I said the other day at the study abroad information session, I've been to India and I've been to China, and the first time I went to Indochina, I got why people called it that. The people of Vietnam have molded the cultural and religious influences of those two major world civilizations into something very special and distinctively theirs.
As if exploring Vietnam for its own sake isn’t reason enough to study there next January, there is the fateful involvement of the United States in the Vietnam War from the early 1950s until 1975. That war took a terrible toll on both countries, and for many Americans, Vietnam means nothing but the War. Studying in Vietnam will teach you how the Vietnamese have been formed by that experience, and will help you understand your own country better.
If that isn’t reason enough, consider that Vietnam is engaged in a dramatic process of economic modernization and globalization that is reshaping social, cultural, and religious life. The Vietnamese call it Đổi Mới (“renovation”). If you study in Vietnam, you will discover firsthand what it is like to be a world citizen, not only as an American but from another perspective you would never experience otherwise.
Need another reason? See my next post, coming soon....
Faculty Leader
As if exploring Vietnam for its own sake isn’t reason enough to study there next January, there is the fateful involvement of the United States in the Vietnam War from the early 1950s until 1975. That war took a terrible toll on both countries, and for many Americans, Vietnam means nothing but the War. Studying in Vietnam will teach you how the Vietnamese have been formed by that experience, and will help you understand your own country better.
If that isn’t reason enough, consider that Vietnam is engaged in a dramatic process of economic modernization and globalization that is reshaping social, cultural, and religious life. The Vietnamese call it Đổi Mới (“renovation”). If you study in Vietnam, you will discover firsthand what it is like to be a world citizen, not only as an American but from another perspective you would never experience otherwise.
Need another reason? See my next post, coming soon....