Dortmund

Nguyen Thi Hong Huong moved from Ho Chi Minh City to Dortmund and sets store in good training.

Nine months ago, Nguyen Thi Hong Huong (27) moved from Ho Chi Minh City to Germany to live with her husband in Dortmund. She is very self-confident and is able to communicate well in German about everyday topics.

She just acquired the B1 certificate in German with the best mark and is best in her class of the German course for foreigners at the Auslandsgesellschaft Deutschland. “I am now attending the level B2 German course and will have my C1 certificate in December 2010. That is required to attend vocational school or university. In addition, I am learning English.” Huong plans to take a six-month vocational preparatory course in 2011. Later, when she feels ready, she will officially begin three-year vocational training at a vocational school.

The German courses are free of charge. Huong informs me that this is one of the first projects that the city of Dortmund offers to foreign immigrants. Her German course has seven students from seven countries – including Brazil, Bosnia and Honduras. Among her classmates she is the “new arrival” to Germany.

“I decided to procure a proper vocational certificate here in Germany. Germany is a developed society; therefore you absolutely need a solid education and official certificate, no matter what you plan to do. If I want to integrate in this society and live in Germany for the long term, I need a good education,” she says confidently.

The Vietnamese community in Germany is presently made up of approximately 100,000 people and the Vietnamese are known as hard workers, ambitious and eager to learn. However, not many women have enjoyed as good an education as Huong is now acquiring. Many earn their living in the retail trade or services. In Vietnam, Huong was a certified pharmaceutical technical assistant and worked at a pharmacy in Ho Chi Minh City. She met her husband through a relative, a Vietnamese computer engineer, who has been working here since 2009. Before coming to Germany she learned German secretly in Ho Chi Minh City for a year. “Although my husband has a good salary, I neither want to be dependent on him or on welfare benefits. I want to become integrated in German society so that I can lead a proper life here; my husband thinks the same and supports me fully.”

Before moving to Germany, Huong lived with her mother in Ho Chi Minh City. Huong misses her very much as well as her friends and relations…but she is very happy with her new life. “It is very different in Germany than I imagined before coming: the Germans are not unemotional, reserved or racist, but very warm-hearted and meticulous. If they want to help someone, they do it wholeheartedly and don’t give up until a matter is completed.” Nguyen Thi Hong Huong moved from Ho Chi Minh City to Dortmund and sets store in good training.

Nine months ago, Nguyen Thi Hong Huong (27) moved from Ho Chi Minh City to Germany to live with her husband in Dortmund. She is very self-confident and is able to communicate well in German about everyday topics.

She just acquired the B1 certificate in German with the best mark and is best in her class of the German course for foreigners at the Auslandsgesellschaft Deutschland. “I am now attending the level B2 German course and will have my C1 certificate in December 2010. That is required to attend vocational school or university. In addition, I am learning English.” Huong plans to take a six-month vocational preparatory course in 2011. Later, when she feels ready, she will officially begin three-year vocational training at a vocational school.

The German courses are free of charge. Huong informs me that this is one of the first projects that the city of Dortmund offers to foreign immigrants. Her German course has seven students from seven countries – including Brazil, Bosnia and Honduras. Among her classmates she is the “new arrival” to Germany.

“I decided to procure a proper vocational certificate here in Germany. Germany is a developed society; therefore you absolutely need a solid education and official certificate, no matter what you plan to do. If I want to integrate in this society and live in Germany for the long term, I need a good education,” she says confidently.

The Vietnamese community in Germany is presently made up of approximately 100,000 people and the Vietnamese are known as hard workers, ambitious and eager to learn. However, not many women have enjoyed as good an education as Huong is now acquiring. Many earn their living in the retail trade or services. In Vietnam, Huong was a certified pharmaceutical technical assistant and worked at a pharmacy in Ho Chi Minh City. She met her husband through a relative, a Vietnamese computer engineer, who has been working here since 2009. Before coming to Germany she learned German secretly in Ho Chi Minh City for a year. “Although my husband has a good salary, I neither want to be dependent on him or on welfare benefits. I want to become integrated in German society so that I can lead a proper life here; my husband thinks the same and supports me fully.”

Before moving to Germany, Huong lived with her mother in Ho Chi Minh City. Huong misses her very much as well as her friends and relations…but she is very happy with her new life. “It is very different in Germany than I imagined before coming: the Germans are not unemotional, reserved or racist, but very warm-hearted and meticulous. If they want to help someone, they do it wholeheartedly and don’t give up until a matter is completed.”