My name is Nguyen Hoang Lam, and I am from Hanoi, Vietnam. I am the only deaf person in my family. Before, I lived in Hanoi with my parents, but now I’m living in Ho Chi Minh City with my wife and my son.
I participated and studied in a project called “Opening a High school-University for Deaf people in Vietnam” in Dong Nai for 9 years. I graduated high school in 2008 and I also received certificates in Sign language teaching and Sign language analysis. Now, I’m a student in a teaching certificate program of Dong Nai college. I’ve gained a lot of knowledge about Sign language, deaf culture, the deaf community and a better understanding about our society.
Besides studying, I’m also a Sign language teacher. I teach for hearing students and the teachers for deaf people who are concerned about using Sign language to communicate with deaf people in Dong Nai and Ho Chi Minh City. I’m one of the members of a research group in Dong Nai college working on Sign language use in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Hai Phong and other places, in order to produce Sign language teaching books, dictionaries, and CDs. I like these works.
In my spare time, I participate in a Deaf culture club in Ho Chi Minh City every Saturday morning. I was chosen to be the vice president of this club. I want to improve the situation of deaf people in Vietnam.
When I was a student in primary level I didn’t receive a lot of knowledge because the teachers didn’t use Sign language. Now, I’ve studied hard to prepare myself to be a teacher for deaf people in order to give them better opportunities to study in the future.
