Three Westerners are Vietnamese "language ambassadors"

Stephen Turban (American) is passionate about stand-up comedy; Kyo York from New York (USA) is passionate about Trinh Cong Son's music; Andrey Nguyen (Russia) is fascinated by traditional cuisine. Three Westerners came to Vietnam from faraway countries but shared a love for Vietnamese culture. To satisfy that passion, they turned to Vietnamese as a bridge, a means of communication. By chance, they became "language ambassadors" to help Vietnamese fly high and far.

“Hello everyone. Let me introduce myself: my name is Stephen, my Vietnamese name is Vu. I have been in Vietnam for four years.” With a confident voice, standard pronunciation, and cheerful eyes, Stephen Turban, a former student of Harvard University (USA), introduced himself on the stand-up comedy stage in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) in 2024.

Four years ago, on the same stage, the young man made the audience burst into laughter when he mistakenly said “Vu” instead of “Vu”. “I only realized I had pronounced it wrong after the performance,” he said. “But it was a memorable experience.”

Now, Stephen has become a familiar face in the Ho Chi Minh City stand-up comedy scene with the stage name “Stephen Vu”. He performs in Vietnamese, bringing the audience familiar and humorous stories. “The other day, I went shopping, I greeted the staff “Hello, sister”, she was surprised and said “Good!”, he said, making the whole audience laugh.

Stephen Vu (white shirt, far left) in a performance on stage at the Ho Chi Minh City Youth Cultural House.

Born in 1993 in Hawaii (USA), graduated with a degree in Statistics from Harvard University, worked at McKinsey, a strategy consulting firm, and was a PhD student at Harvard Business School. Stephen has had a brilliant academic career. In 2017, he traveled to Vietnam to study Vietnamese just to understand the culture, but then decided to stay long-term.

“When I left Vietnam, I went to America, to China, but I kept thinking about Vietnam,” he said. “Ho Chi Minh City is my home. I will definitely stay here for a long time.”

In 2020, he co-founded Lumiere Education, which supports high school students around the world to conduct research projects under the guidance of experienced mentors. Through this initiative, Vietnamese students and students from many parts of the world have the opportunity to participate in advanced research in the fields of machine learning technology, cancer research, economics , etc. Stephen said he loves the energy and progress of Vietnamese people. “There is something very special about Vietnam. I don't know how to describe it, but there is a poem by Che Lan Vien that I really like : When we are here, it is just a place to live/When we leave, the land has become our soul.”

Stephen Vu performs stand-up comedy.

Stephen's passion for stand-up comedy came by chance. One day, he followed his Vietnamese teacher to see the Saigon Teu group perform at the Youth Cultural House (HCMC), and he was immediately captivated by the art. For nearly a year, Stephen quietly followed the performances, participated in group activities, and even asked to join the Zalo group to read the script, learn how to juggle, and handle situations on stage.

One day, overcoming his shyness, he boldly texted the group: “Do I have any chance to stand on stage?” “At that time, we just thought he wanted to learn Vietnamese better, but who would have thought he wanted to perform stand-up comedy in Vietnamese,” Hien Nguyen, one of the group’s founders, recounted.

Given the opportunity, Stephen diligently wrote the script, asking two Vietnamese teachers to correct each line to make it natural and charming. To date, each of Stephen's performances has been warmly received by the audience. On social networks, hundreds of comments sent compliments: "Charming, Vu's comedy is very funny", or "Stephen is so charming! Thank you for understanding Vietnamese to the point of performing stand-up comedy"...

Stephen Vu and members of the stand-up comedy group Saigon Teu.

Vietnamese is still a challenge for Stephen. He said he can only understand about 70% of the stories his friends in the group talk about, “because they often speak slang, all Gen Z language.” To keep up, he always carries a small notebook filled with new words he hears, along with their meanings and real-life examples.

Off stage, Stephen is still jokingly called “King of Da Kao Ward” by his friends – a nickname he really likes. Stephen aims to understand 95% of what Vietnamese people say, expand his business to 100 employees and improve his performance skills. “I am a living example of “Vietnam mania” – an American who “loves” Vietnam, an unofficial ambassador,” he said.

Unlike Stephen Vu, Kyo York, a young man born in 1985 from New York (USA), came to Vietnam on a charity trip in 1999. From someone who did not know Vietnamese, he gradually spoke fluently, sang clearly and became a singer specializing in Vietnamese music.

Kyo York said that it was Trinh Cong Son's songs that made him fall in love with the Vietnamese language and culture. Music became a bridge that helped him understand more deeply the Vietnamese people and soul. From then on, the American guy decided to stay in Vietnam, choosing a professional singing career as a way to show gratitude to the place that nurtured that love.

Singer Kyo York on stage performing.

In the early days, it took him nearly 10 days to memorize and pronounce a song correctly. “At first, I found Vietnamese music very difficult, from the meaning of the lyrics to the pronunciation. I listened to CDs, learned from friends, and gradually understood what the lyrics wanted to say,” he said. After more than 10 years, it only took Kyo two days to memorize the lyrics and process the song.

For him, singing Vietnamese music is not just about expressing the melody but also about telling a story. “A singer is a storyteller through music. To sing well, you have to understand why the composer wrote the song and what he wants to convey,” Kyo York shared. Before performing, he always researches the circumstances of the song’s composition, historical context and the writer’s emotions to convey the true spirit of the song.

If before the audience called him “the Westerner who sings Trinh’s music”, now the name “singer Kyo York” has become familiar. He is loved for his clear, emotional voice.

Even though he is a foreigner, Kyo York enjoys Vietnamese traditional customs.

Kyo York does not hide his pride in his journey to conquer Vietnamese: “Vietnamese is extremely difficult, has accents, many meanings, and once you learn it, it is different in practice. I studied it myself, without going to school, and it took me more than two years to speak it fluently.” To him, Vietnamese is a miracle, helping him understand the culture and, most of all, to sing in the language he loves.

When trying his hand at folk songs, he had to practice even harder: “For foreigners, speaking Vietnamese is difficult, singing folk songs is even more difficult. The melody, pronunciation, and singing style are all different. I had to practice a lot,” he said. Thanks to the guidance of his friends, Kyo York gradually performed from Northern to Southern folk songs, surprising the audience with the sweetness and pure Vietnameseness of his voice.

With nearly 770,000 followers and 18.1 million likes on TikTok, “Anh Tay Oi” - real name Andrey Nguyen, also known as An - has become a social media phenomenon because of his Western appearance but Vietnamese “operating system”. He understands Vietnamese culture, language, and especially Vietnamese cuisine to the point of surprising and delighting netizens.

Andrey buys cakes and bargains professionally.

Born in Russia to a Russian mother and a Vietnamese father, An was taught to speak Vietnamese by his father from a young age. At the age of 6, he followed his father to Hanoi to live with his grandparents. An grew up surrounded by stories about his homeland, in the love of his grandparents and the simple life of Hanoians.

On the first days of school, his “Western” face made his classmates shy away and not dare to talk to him. Only when they heard An speak Vietnamese, even though he still lisped, did the whole class gather around and teach him to read poetry, play tug of war, shoot marbles, and jump rope. “Communicating with Vietnamese people every day helped me pronounce more accurately and gradually adapt to life,” An said.

Growing up in the heart of Hanoi, the Russian-Vietnamese boy was passionate about traditional cuisine. He often wandered in the small alleys of the old town, enjoying pho, sweet soup, coffee, fried green rice or fried fermented pork rolls to "listen to the rhythm of life of the old Hanoians". It was his curiosity and love for Vietnamese culture that prompted An to open a TikTok channel, where he shared clips of "Westerners bargaining at the market", "burning votive paper in the right way" or "eating balut for the first time". In 2023 alone, those videos attracted nearly 30 million views.

TikToker Anh Tay Oi participates in a livestream session at Luc Ngan lychee garden (Bac Giang), June 2025.

The audience loves An not only because of his humor but also because he lives like a real Vietnamese. The image of a Westerner wearing a conical hat, carrying a basket going to the market, talking openly with the salesgirl has become a familiar brand. An said that it was thanks to his grandmother's teaching: "If you don't know something, just ask the people, start a sincere conversation and you will be loved." He has applied that teaching in every meeting, every video, making everyone see in him a closeness, naturalness and respect for Vietnamese culture.

An’s everyday stories are always full of humor. Once, he jokingly reminded an African-American friend to “stay in the right lane”, but unexpectedly, his friend responded in equally perfect Vietnamese. “I was very surprised. Then I asked for his number to meet for coffee”, An said.

In early 2024, he signed up to participate in “King of Vietnamese” to improve his vocabulary and expression. His charming introduction made the audience laugh: “Looking at me, everyone wondered: Is this person from the Northwest or the Central Highlands? The physical features are completely Vietnamese, only the facade is mixed with Westerners.” After the contest, he spoke Vietnamese more fluently, even incorporating folk songs and proverbs into his daily life.

TikToker Anh Tay Oi guides a foreign friend to cut banh chung with bamboo strips.

Not only spreading the love of Vietnam to the audience, An also helps international friends understand more about Vietnamese culture. He used to take friends out for draft beer, sit at sidewalk stalls, give them baskets of local gifts including eggs, peanut candy, dried apricots... "I am lucky to live a simple and happy life in Vietnam," he shared.

Three Westerners, each with their own journey and experience, but all have one thing in common: they overcome the language barrier to understand and tell their own story about Vietnam. Learning from books, from life, from the simplest things, they let Vietnamese become the beat that accompanies every step on stage, in music and in everyday life.

Article: Phan Anh

Graphics: Mai Anh

Phan Anh

Source: https://thoidai.com.vn/ba-chang-tay-la-dai-su-ngon-ngu-tieng-viet-217603.html