The first Vietnamese kindergarten in Seattle, USA

Hoa Mai Kindergarten is the first English-Vietnamese bilingual school in Seattle, Washington, USA. All members of the class are people of color, including the teachers.

According to Seattle Globalist, Hoa Mai Kindergarten has only been in operation for a little over a month, but it is the work of the Vietnam Friendship Association (VFA) for the past seven years. During 2009-2011, VFA sat down with Vietnamese families in Seattle to identify the community’s biggest concerns.

They all see the loss of Vietnamese culture and mother tongue as a top concern for their children, said James Hong, executive chairman of the VFA.

The bookshelf in the Hoa Mai Kindergarten classroom includes modern Vietnamese storybooks (Source: Seattle Globalist)

“And at the same time, we knew that in Seattle, a lot of Vietnamese students faced barriers to learning,” said former VFA President Vu Le. “That’s when we came up with the idea of ​​a kindergarten where we could teach both English and Vietnamese, and teach and promote the culture.”

VFA has been working with the Center for Arts and Childcare Solutions to map out a project to build this school in time for the city government’s proposal to universalize preschool education for all 3- to 4-year-old children. The proposal was approved last year.

Vu Le’s two-year-old son, Viet, is currently attending the school. Viet’s class is one of three at Hoa Mai Kindergarten, which opened on December 14, 2015. Viet’s classroom is decorated with lanterns and colorful umbrellas hanging from the ceiling like chandeliers. All the members of the class are people of color, including the teacher.

In another classroom, a bookshelf by the window holds fairy tales like “The Emperor’s New Clothes” and modern Vietnamese novels like “Brave Little Mushroom.” On a recent weekend morning, students were served peaches and flatbread. Last week, lunch was tacos, cucumber salad, and lemon curry chicken with rice noodles.

Children eat lunch at Hoa Mai Kindergarten (Source: Seattle Globalist).

These details were all arranged intentionally by the Hoa Mai school management board. The school has adopted the “Soy Bilingue” language curriculum, with one of the school’s core principles being to reflect culture not only through language but also through props, stories, folk songs, and images, explained Ms. Gloria Hodge - Director of Hoa Mai School.

Hoa Mai School dedicates Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings to Vietnamese speaking and learning, while students learn English in the afternoons. The two languages ​​are taught alternately on Tuesdays and Thursdays, Ms. Hodge said.

In the Seattle area, many churches, temples and Vietnamese community groups offer language classes, but Hong said they only take place on Saturdays.

Hong was born in California to parents of Vietnamese descent. Part of an education system that prioritized English but lacked opportunities to learn Vietnamese, he and many other Vietnamese Americans share a common concern about their mother tongue.

However, today the Seattle education system supports multilingualism, and the city's preschool program (SPP) also plans to open bilingual programs with more languages ​​in the future.

Hoa Mai School and other Seattle preschools offer free tuition to children from families earning less than 300 percent of the federal poverty level.

Teacher Johnson Nguyen and a Vietnamese girl at Hoa Mai School (Source: Seattle Globalist).

Hodge, who grew up in Pasco, also has a Vietnamese mother. She speaks primarily English and Spanish, but her multilingualism has helped her career, something she hopes will be shared by Hoa Mai students. She says multilingual skills will give her a competitive edge in the workforce.

Susan Nguyen, a South Seattle resident, enrolled her son, Aiden, in the bilingual program at Hoa Mai School as soon as it opened.

"Every time he comes home, he tells me about the songs he learned, sings them to me, and shows me the pictures he drew," she said. "Aiden tells me about learning to pronounce his name and eating lots of delicious food."

Initially, Nguyen was very worried about her son's adjustment at Hoa Mai and called the school every day at lunch to check on him. "He was always taken care of by my family and was a bit stubborn so I didn't know how things were going," she said.

However, the school reassured her and Aiden seemed happy to be at school. Aiden said he had many friends at school, although Nguyen had not yet met them. "He has become more confident around other children," she said.

Although Aiden, five, can understand some Vietnamese, he is not fluent at home and is trying. "I am very happy that my friend introduced me to this school," Nguyen said.

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