Fish Sauce by Anhthao Bui

Fish Sauce by Anhthao Bui
Fish Sauce is realistic fiction, and Anhthao’s second anthology collection.

Saturday, November 1, 2014

Disagreement

Oct. 20 Additional Readers' letters
From Mercury News readers
POSTED:   10/20/2008 11:42:34 AM PDT


Disagreement
NOTE: The following letters are unedited and reflect only the views of the author
I disagree with Michael M. Rosenblatt's opinion about Madison Nguyen's recall is anti-communist (Page 16A, Oct.16) It is not the right time to show anti-communist while we have so many things to concern.  If the recall would succeed and bring the anti-communist fame for the Vietnamese-American community in San Jose, so what for?  It will contribute another deficit budget burden on San Jose working taxpayers. Thus, I cannot breathe without eating and drinking like great hero Lý Tng, or I am in the qualified category to receive welfare. The Nguyen's recall act is the prediction of the President Richard Nixon's great quote, "Others may hate you, but they don't win unless you hate them back, and then you destroy yourself."
Anhthao Bui, San Jose


Don't blame teachers for parents' failures

Jan. 31 Readers' letters: 
From Mercury News readers
POSTED:   01/30/2014 03:19:49 PM PST

http://www.mercurynews.com/opinion/ci_25029915/jan-31-readers-letters-price-postage-minimum-wage
Don't blame teachers for parents' failures
I feel sorry for Daniella Martinez, who could not read at the third-grade level ("Teacher rights getting needed court scrutiny," Page 18A, Jan. 26). However, I am disappointed that she blamed her illiteracy on her teacher. If her parents were concerned about her achievement, they would have noticed her failure in the first grade and contacted her teacher to learn about their child's failure and how to help her. The Alum Rock School District has Student Success Teams to help student achievement. The district's policy requires teachers to attend parent-teacher conferences at least three times per school year. Many parents have ignored notices about these conferences. Without the parents' help, the school cannot perform its duties.
Anhthao Bui

San Jose

Editorials should not dictate votes

Nov. 5 Readers' letters
From Mercury News readers
POSTED:   11/04/2008 03:53:21 PM PST

 Editorials should not dictate votes
I think the media's mission is providing readers accurate and fair information with neutral points of views or different opinions, such as pro and con. However, I was disappointed when the San Jose Mercury News and some Bay Area newspapers recommended politicians, measures and bonds for voters as if they led readers to follow their political philosophies. I think it is not fair for those who do not receive recommendations.
Anhthao Bui
San Jose

Cultural Mosaics


Cultural Mosaics

          American culture values individualism. An Individual is a center of the universal circle with spinning communities to the self, such as family, extended family, neighbors, friends, learning environment, religious organizations, and workplaces. The widespread and diverse loops tangle with one another to build a solid, silky cocoon to conceive and develop a human identity, to shield the individual, and decide the person’s fate. The relationship between a person and a community is the reciprocal status: individuals form a community; a community nurtures individuals as a self-center.

          Family is the closest community that a human naturally attaches to at first. Researchers say that a fetus feels and interacts with the mother and the people surrounding her. The mother’s emotions and temperament transmit to the unborn baby. Music and poetry are staples of Vietnamese culture.  The rhyming verses calmed me down, so I did not hit my mother’s belly from within. The lullabies called me to leave my mother’s womb to crawl the Earth in order to participate in our family’s bookish worships and to practice the Vietnamese social rites. The melodies cradled and carried me to Lala Land. The bookshelves nurtured my creativity, fed my hungry caterpillar mind, and sowed the seeds of charisma. The charisma gradually sprouted, grew, and harvested a ripened literary fruit.

          The hurricane of liberty whirled me and the aesthetic fruit to the United States and dropped us on the dry Rocky Mountains in California. The artistry fruit hit the rock and cracked it down into many pieces. Day by day, I watered my writing passion with rainy tears, fertilized it with hardships. The American society patiently cultivated the promised tree with education and kindness. I absorbed the Western culture and the American prominent values: independence and individualism. I solely split the Vietnamese cultural tree, but deep down in my uttermost veiling the Vietnamese value: an orientation toward family.

          Individuals and communities build the concrete bond that relies on each other. Individuals engage with communities to develop physical needs, to strengthen social skills, to regulate emotional competency, and to stimulate potential. Communities need individuals to exist and to structure social laws, morality, and cultural trends.

--San Jose: Friday, October 31, 2014