Vietnam’s Minnesota twins

• Nguyens

submitted photo Them (left) and Thuong Nguyen, who graduated from Worthington High School three years ago, both now attend Southwest Minnesota State University in Marshall.

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WORTHINGTON — Them and Thuong Nguyen may have been born in Vietnam, but there’s no question that this southwest Minnesota community is their home.

It’s not surprising the sisters share a similar outlook on their American experience — they’re twins. The 2008 Worthington High School graduates are both now attending Southwest Minnesota State University in Marshall, and have forged strong attachments to the U.S. and the city in which they grew up.

Them and Thuong, now 21, were less than a year old when they came with their parents, Lang and Anna, to the U.S.

“You can say our family is very fortunate,” Thuong reflected. “We strived for the American dream and were very fortunate to have the opportunity to come over to America and live our dreams here with everyone else. Most of my dad’s side of the family came to the U.S. shortly after we did, but my mom’s siblings are still living over in Vietnam.”

The Nguyens settled in Sioux Falls, S.D., upon arriving in America.

“I started school at Head Start’s pre-school in Worthington, so we were in Sioux Falls for maybe four or five years,” Them recalled. “My dad was job-searching so he visited Worthington, and he liked it here. He took a job at Swift (now JBS) … and he just brought the whole family to Worthington.”

Soon after getting settled in their new community, Them and Thuong’s parents began searching for the right school to attend. The twins soon made their way to St. Mary’s Catholic School, which they ended up attending for six years.

“My sister and I had some one-on-one schooling to learn better English, but in a short period of time we were speaking just as fluent as all other American students,” Thuong said. “It was hard at first making friends due to our language barrier, but having a twin made it easier because we knew we always had each other’s back.”

While having a twin sister helped, Them acknowledged that the nature of the Worthington community contributed to their smooth transition.

“I honestly love small towns,” Them said. “You get to know people easier; it’s like a community. Worthington is also very international; there are many different races in Worthington. But I also think a lot of people have many of the same interests — we like sports, we hang out at the movie theater, those sorts of things.

“I took a trip over to New York and I didn’t like it at all,” she continued. “It was way too busy, there was way too much traffic, and it was hard communicating with people there. I personally like small towns much more than big cities.”

Both Them and Thuong both enjoy being twins, they said. While they agree that there are downsides to having a twin, they also acknowledge a special bond between them.

“There’s never a dull moment when we are together,” Thuong said, who remembered one occasion that they utilized their extremely similar looks. “We like to tell the story about the time we switched places in homeroom back in middle school. We were both on different teams; Them was on the A team and I was on the B team. Them was always described as the quiet twin and, as for me, I was the loud one.

“Well, one day, we decided to switch places and right away we were pulling it off, but then Ms. Dodds — my homeroom teacher — noticed that I was not very talkative in class and started questioning if it was really me. Then a couple friends of ours noticed right after that it was actually Them. If Them would have just been more outgoing, we could have pulled it off through eighth period.”

Them and Thuong have two older sisters — one lives in Sioux Falls and the other in Seattle, Wash. — as well as a younger sister who attends St. Mary’s Catholic School.

“Thuong and I have a lot more in common with each other than our other sisters,” Them said. “We’re comfortable with each other, and we’ll tell each other everything. We do have our ups and down, and we sometimes try to be unique and try to change it up. She has more of a different style and I like to dress more girly-girl … but having a twin sister, I like it because she always understands me.”

“Them was away in New York for a month this past summer and while she was away, I felt a part of me was missing,” Thuong added.

Them and Thuong have relatives in Sioux City, Iowa, that they often visit, and there is also other family in Florida and Buffalo, N.Y. — and a brother of their father recently came over from Vietnam and now resides in Maryland.

“My mom’s side of the family all still lives in Vietnam,” Thuong said. “They own many acres there and don’t plan on coming over to America any time soon.

“We haven’t gone back to Vietnam yet, but we do plan to down the road,” she added. “With all of our busy schedules, we haven’t decided on a specific date yet.”

Them, for her part, doesn’t seem to be particularly eager to see her native country.

“My dad has always wanted to go back to visit Vietnam, but for me, I don’t really care to go back,” she said. “Even though I was born in Vietnam, I couldn’t even tell you what it looks like. I consider Worthington my hometown because I built all my friendships here, and went to Catholic school for six years and met all my friends there.”

Even though the twins have never returned to Vietnam, the nation’s culture is still a significant part of their lives. Only Vietnamese is spoken at home, and in the evenings the family prays together. On special days, described Thuong, there are rituals practiced for grandparents who died long ago — they pray for them and afterward eat their favorite foods in their honor.

“My mom loves cooking,” Thuong said. “She is the chef in our house. She makes different types of foods. Most of our meals include steamed rice and meat. On weekends Mom makes special dishes like pho, a Vietnamese Asian noodle soup, and curry. She’s best known for her delicious egg rolls.”

The twins both admit to a strict upbringing. Getting approval to date was never easy, Thuong pointed out, and the duo had a 10 p.m. curfew up through their senior year of high school.

“Thuong and I, we were never allowed to sleep over at friends’ houses,” Them stated. “Going over to a friend’s house, we could only stay there for an hour, and we weren’t allowed to have boyfriends. … We weren’t even allowed to go to the movies. But they started to trust us more once we reached the age of 17, when we got our driver’s licenses.

“My parents strictly wanted us to speak Vietnamese so we don’t lose our language, but English does slip out all the time,” Them went on, laughing. “I call it Viet-English. When I went to New York I met people from Vietnam, and I tried to speak Vietnamese with them and they couldn’t understand me.”

“It was hard living in a strict family, but we couldn’t ask for a better set of parents like ours,” Thuong added. “They teach us everything we need to know and make us who we are today.”

And who they are today, they agree, are southwest Minnesotans.

“I recently got engaged (to D.J. Berning, an Edgerton High School graduate) and I plan on going to school for several more years to hopefully get a degree in pharmacy,” Thuong said. “I don’t ever plan on leaving Minnesota. Minnesota is my home, and it just doesn’t feel right leaving a place filled with many memories.”

Them is studying business management and medical coding while currently working at Wild Rose Home Care as a personal care attendant. She does admit, though, to harboring a dream of living in Arizona someday.

“I’m currently with a guy named Josh (Van Duyn, from Colman, S.D.); we’ve been dating for a year this month, and we do talk about future stuff,” Them said. “I brought up Arizona; he’s very considerate and puts my feelings before his, so we’ll see. … I do love warm weather.”

No matter if it’s the Arizona desert or the Minnesota prairie, the twins are both thankful they came to Worthington as very small children.

“With all that has been said, we are glad to be here today with no regrets of getting the opportunity to be here in America,” Thuong said.

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