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Little Saigon Sees Business Sense in CSUF’s Vietnamese-Language Program

Advance Beauty College’s Nguyen: important for second generation “to be at least bilingual”

California State University, Fullerton, plans to start a program that will offer business courses, bachelor’s degrees, and teaching credentials in the Vietnamese language.

The move is the university’s latest effort to craft curriculum to serve the Vietnamese-American population in Orange County. School officials said the program will be the first of its kind in the U.S.

“Some students … will benefit directly by using the B.A. as a launching point for careers in international business,” said Mitchell Avila, associate dean at the university’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences. “But more broadly, by supporting this community through this educational venture, we indirectly support expanded trade and economic development in Orange County.”

OC is home to the largest group of Vietnamese-Americans in the U.S.—a population estimated at 179,000, or about 6% of the county’s total population, according to the 2011 American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Many members of the ethnic group live in Little Saigon—a 3-square-mile area that includes parts of Garden Grove, Westminster, Santa Ana, Huntington Beach and Stanton. The community is believed to represent the highest concentration of the Vietnamese population in the world outside of Vietnam itself.

International Business

Cal State Fullerton is close to starting its Vietnamese track for its international business major.

“I expect it to be in place for students no later than fall 2014,” Avila said.

The school’s anticipated bachelor’s degree program will offer a major and a minor in the Vietnamese language.

The Vietnamese-American business community here has seen a need for business-oriented instruction in Vietnamese for some time, especially for second-generation professionals who serve first-generation immigrants. The Vietnamese American Chamber of Commerce in OC has offered language classes for professionals for the past year or so.

“It’s one of the most successful programs put on by the chamber,” said Tam Nguyen, chairman of the Fountain Valley-based chamber. “The class meets every Monday. We’re averaging about 20 to 30 professionals seeking to learn the language. These are physicians, attorneys, professors—very well-educated Vietnamese-American professionals in their 30s and 40s. And basically a lot of them don’t speak it. We’re serving our community by serving patients and clientele, [many of whom are] first-generation folks. We’re finding that it’s really important to be at least bilingual.”

Alum’s View

Nguyen, who earned his MBA at CSUF in 2005, owns Advance Beauty College Inc. in Garden Grove. The beauty school has nearly 40 employees and has about 500 students in a typical term. It was among the five companies honored at the 2012 Family Owned Business Awards hosted by the Business Journal and CSUF’s Center for Family Businesses.

Nguyen said he welcomes the university’s bid to offer formal academic courses, and he is serving as co-chair of an advisory council the school has formed for the Vietnamese-language program.

Cal State Fullerton currently offers some Vietnamese language classes, which draw about 100 students per semester.

Those courses will be counted toward the major once the program is set up, according to Avila.

“The B.A. program would focus [not only] on language acquisition, but also culture, history and particular needs of the Vietnamese community,” Avila said. “I think some of those needs are for folks in local communities to be better served by social agencies [and other sectors, including] government, education and nonprofit.

“There is a gap between the needs of the community and the ability of those groups to provide for that. Part of that is a lot of the members of the Vietnamese community are still first generation. And as the population continues to grow, the needs are expanding, so we anticipate demand from government agencies, and the fields of medicine, education and business.”

Federal Funds

Cal State Fullerton began developing the bachelor’s degree program with an initial grant of $238,000 in 2009 from the U.S. Department of Education. It received another $350,000 last year.

Some of the funds are being used to develop a teaching credentials program, which will be housed in the university’s College of Education and involve two different tracks: A bilingual authorization track would allow teachers to give instruction in Vietnamese; and a single-subject credential would allow instructors to hold Vietnamese-language courses at schools.

“Local high schools do have Vietnamese classes, but the teachers are usually certified in another subject,” said Natalie Tran, an assistant professor who serves with the chamber’s Nguyen as co-chair of the advisory council for the program.

“These teachers can take the state’s language proficiency exam to teach the classes,” Tran said. “But teaching language is very different from teaching science or math. We’re establishing a pathway so that teachers can receive the proper training to teach language.

“And I think this would be beneficial for non-Vietnamese individuals as well, who might be interested in working and providing services in that community.”

“Finally”

It’s about time, Nguyen said.

“There is the tone of, ‘Gosh, finally—we should’ve had this a while ago,’ ” he said. “Our community has been here since 1975, and almost 40 years later … finally.”

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