VOA慢速英语--越南难民克服过去的困境成为一名牙医

Vietnamese Refugee¹ Overcomes Troubled Past to Become a Dentist

Sonny Duong went from being a Vietnamese refugee to a career as a dentist in the United States. But his path was not a straight or easy one.

Born in Vietnam, Duong came to the U.S. and worked hard as a child. But then he became involved in drugs and crime. Later, he learned² the nail beauty business -- caring for and shining customer’s fingernails and toenails. It is from this job he met the woman who told him he could, and should, become a dentist.

Three years after the Vietnam War ended, six-year-old Sonny and his family fled his birthplace. His parents had both been sent to “re-education camps” after the fall of South Vietnam.

His father and others worked together to build a boat in which to escape.

One of three children, Sonny was the middle child. His younger brother died in an accident in Hong Kong, where the family lived in a refugee camp before coming to the U.S.

Later, in Southern California, Sonny worked hard helping³ his parents earn money for food and housing⁴. They would compete on weekends with other refugees⁵ for seats on buses, which took them to farms to harvest fruit.

He remembers his parents worked long hours, at several jobs. They bought machines for their home where Sonny and his sister helped the parents make baby car seat covers and other products made out of cloth.

The children also cooked and took care of themselves while their parents worked. Sonny’s mother and father grew up poor in Vietnam, and neither had much schooling⁶—but they wanted education for their children.

“So they didn’t have an education, so they don’t have anything other than their determination and physical labor⁷. So, the hope for my sister and I, you know is that we have a better opportunity to get an education.”

So for Sonny and his sister, homework came first.

But when he got to high school, Sonny made some bad choices. He began abusing⁸ drugs, became involved with a criminal group, and went to jail⁹. Duong told VOA he was guilty to crimes he is “not proud of.”

“And I think the reason that happened was because for the most part of my life I didn’t really have an identity¹⁰. It was really hard to assimilate¹¹ with Americans in Southern California, and the only people you had were other refugees. And I think there was a lot of discrimination growing up because the Vietnam War just ended.”

His father died suddenly in 1994.

Then a break came — a telephone call from across the country.

In 1996, a friend called Sonny Duong from Richmond, Virginia. He asked the young man to come live with his family and work in their nail beauty business.

When his plane landed in Richmond, Duong had less than $20. His hope was to live a clean, drug-free and honest life. Fourteen years later he would graduate from Virginia Commonwealth¹² University (VCU) with a dentistry degree.

With determination, he stopped using drugs and stayed off of them.

He learned the nail business. One of his best customers was a woman named Hazel Luton. She worked at the VCU School of Dentistry. Hazel urged the young man to do more with his life.

Sonny Duong learned to work in a dental¹³ laboratory¹⁴ at a nearby community college.

But he later decided¹⁵ he did not want to work in a lab; he likes people too much.

Duong told Hazel he would like to go to dental school, but was not sure if he could do it. It would mean up to 10 years of classes.

“And she said you know, it may take you 10 years, but in 10 years you can either be a nail technician¹⁶ where you are now, a dental lab technician, or a dentist. What title would you prefer to have?”

It was, he says, ‘the big moment,’ and he decided to try.

Sonny Duong met a man who gave him determination to finish. Marshall Brownstein worked at the VCU Dentistry School. Doctor Brownstein gave him a list of the classes he would need to take for admission¹⁷ into Dental School.

Duong put up the list at his home. Every time he would complete one of the classes, he would mark it off the list. Brownstein told VOA he is happy that Duong followed his plan, and says he is proud that he became a dentist.

Duong was also driven by a dream he had after his father died. In it, his father was angry, telling him how he sacrificed so much coming to this country for him.

Sonny Duong finished at VCU with a degree in Biology, becoming the first in his family to get a college degree. Then he was accepted into the VCU School of Dentistry. Up until then he had worked 50 to 60 hours a week to pay the cost of schooling.

But when he went to Dentistry School he stopped working as a nail technician.

In 2010, he finally graduated and became a dentist. Yet he had large loans¹⁸ to pay back.

?His plan was to work for a few years at a Community Health Center in Fredericksburg, Virginia, to pay back the money he owed. But he has never left.

“The rewards are just immeasurable. The people that I have reached and helped and the families, kids, and there are three generations in some families that I treat and the smiles that they have and the joy they bring to me, kept me in the program.”

Now married, and the father of two young boys, Sonny Duong says his education path was not a traditional one. But it is one that is possible, he says, because “we live in such a great country.”

“I always tell people, in this political climate, that I still feel this is the greatest country ever, because, if I put myself when I was twenty years ago, in any part of the world, I feel like I couldn’t turn my life around and become a dentist, have the opportunity to help the people that I help, every day.”

I’m Anne Ball.

And I’m Caty Weaver¹⁹.

Words in This Story

nail – n. the hard covering at the end of a finger or toe : a fingernail or toenail

determination - n. a quality that makes you continue trying to do or achieve something that is difficult

opportunity – n. an amount of time or a situation in which something can be done

proud – adj. very happy and pleased because of something you have done, something you own, someone you know or are related²⁰: feeling pride

assimilate – v. to adopt the ways of another culture: to fully²¹ become part of a different society, country

graduate – v. to earn a degree or diploma from a school, college, or university

customer – n. someone who buys goods or services from a business – n. the activity of making, buying, or selling goods or providing services in exchange for money

prefer – v. to like (someone or something) better than someone or something else

moment – n. a very short period of time

reward – n. money or another kind of payment that is given or received for something that has been done or that is offered for something that might be done

1 refugee   

n.难民，流亡者

参考例句：

• The refugee was condemned to a life of wandering.这个难民注定要过流浪的生活。
• The refugee is suffering for want of food and medical supplies.难民苦于缺少食物和医药用品。

2 learned   

adj.有学问的，博学的；learn的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He went into a rage when he learned about it.他听到这事后勃然大怒。
• In this little village,he passed for a learned man.在这个小村子里，他被视为有学问的人。

3 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

4 housing   

n.房屋，住宅；住房建筑；外壳，外罩

参考例句：

• Do you think our housing sales will turn around during this year?你认为今年我们的住宅销路会好转吗？
• The housing sales have been turning down since the summer.入夏以来，房屋的销售量日趋减少。

5 refugees   

n.避难者，难民( refugee的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The UN has begun making airdrops of food to refugees. 联合国已开始向难民空投食物。
• They claimed they were political refugees and not economic migrants. 他们宣称自己是政治难民，不是经济移民。

6 schooling   

n.教育；正规学校教育

参考例句：

• A child's access to schooling varies greatly from area to area.孩子获得学校教育的机会因地区不同而大相径庭。
• Backward children need a special kind of schooling.天赋差的孩子需要特殊的教育。

7 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

8 abusing   

v.妄用( abuse的现在分词 )；虐待；辱骂

参考例句：

• Stop abusing the child. 住手，不要伤害这孩子。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He was always abusing people. 他老爱骂人。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

9 jail   

n.监狱，看守所；vt.监禁，拘留

参考例句：

• The castle had been used as a jail.这城堡曾用作监狱。
• If she carries on shoplifting,she'll end up in jail.她如果还在店铺里偷东西，最终会被抓进监狱的。

10 identity   

n.身份，本体，特征；同一(性)，一致

参考例句：

• He never revealed his identity.他从未暴露过自己的身份。
• He showed his identity card and went in.他把工作证亮了一下就进去了。

11 assimilate   

v.（被）吸收，（被）消化，（使或被）同化

参考例句：

• Some foreigners assimilate easily into our way of life.有些外国人很容易被我们的生活方式同化。
• It is difficult to assimilate a lot of information.难于在较短时间内摄取许多信息。

12 commonwealth   

n.共和国，联邦，共同体

参考例句：

• He is the chairman of the commonwealth of artists.他是艺术家协会的主席。
• Most of the members of the Commonwealth are nonwhite.英联邦的许多成员国不是白人国家。

13 dental   

adj.牙齿的，牙科的

参考例句：

• You can get free dental treatment.你可以得到免费的牙齿治疗。
• I had undergone a major dental operation.我经受了一次牙科大手术。

14 laboratory   

n.实验室，化验室

参考例句：

• She has donated money to establish a laboratory.她捐款成立了一个实验室。
• Our laboratory equipment isn't perfect,but we must make do.实验室设备是不够理想，但我们只好因陋就简。

15 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

16 technician   

n.技术员，技师

参考例句：

• The technician is busy repairing the machine.技师正忙于修理那台机器。
• A skilled technician takes years to train.一个熟练的技师需要数年时间才能培训出来。

17 admission   

n.允许进入；承认；入场费，入会费，入场券

参考例句：

• We attached a condition to his admission to our school.我们对准许他入校附加了一个条件。
• By her own admission,she was responsible for the accident.她自己承认，事故应该由她负责。

18 loans   

n.借出物，借款( loan的名词复数 )v.借出，贷与（尤指钱）( loan的第三人称单数 )；出借（贵重物品给博物馆等）

参考例句：

• They are offering loans at extortionate rates of interest. 他们在放高利贷。
• Government loans have been the salvation of several shaky business companies. 政府的贷款救活了几家濒临倒闭的公司。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

19 weaver   

n.织布工；编织者

参考例句：

• She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快，而且布的质量很好。
• The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。

20 related   

adj.有关系的，有关联的，叙述的，讲述的

参考例句：

• I am not related to him in any way.我和他无任何关系。
• We spent days going through all related reference material.我们花了好多天功夫查阅所有有关的参考资料。

21 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。