US schools add Vietnamese to dual immersion

Several states are adding Vietnamese in dual language immersion school programs to help refugees' children keep their parents' language.     - - Donna Poisl

BY AMY TAXIN

GARDEN GROVE, Calif. (AP) — When Thuy Vo Dang came to the U.S. as a young girl, her English took off. Her parents sent her to Vietnamese school on the weekends to learn her native language, but she eventually had to study it in graduate school to become fully literate.

Now, the 35-year-old mother of two and archivist for University of California, Irvine's Southeast Asian Archive has been lobbying for her Southern California school district to start the state's first dual immersion elementary school program in Vietnamese. She said she wants to help keep the language alive for the next generation.
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