Xin Chào
This initiative was created from the need to understand how a Czech-Vietnamese identity is influenced and shaped by different cultures. As a Vietnamese-born in Czechia we want to get to know more about our Vietnamese heritage and roots.
We believe it is important to learn and understand one’s culture. This solidarity project is about sharing stories and creating conversations to encourage open and honest discussions that confront the misrepresentations of Vietnamese culture. We aspire to build a safe space where people can prosper and feel secure in exploring and accepting their cultural identities without fear of judgment.
There is a desire to enable and ensure an inclusion in the society. By sharing historical background and life stories, Czech people would have insights into Vietnamese immigrant’s life.
Roots of the Future is about breaking a new ground and creating a welcoming space for exchange and learning.
Here we will share our journey.
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To the Future and Beyond!
Let us take you on a journey to teach you about the history of our parents and close ones, who moved to foreign countries in hopes of finding a better life.
This blog was created for those who are interested in learning about family, cultural and mostly Vietnamese origins. Here you will get a chance to read stories of people who left their home back in Vietnam and came to Czechia and much more about Vietnamese heritage.
This project deals with the lack of information that some of young people have regarding their parent’s immigrant background. By sharing stories about our culture, we hope to connect more people together and underline the importance of knowing the history of (y)our culture. With this project we aspire to pass these stories on future generations.
By learning and understanding the history of our roots, we believe it is fundamental for shaping our future world.
„Don’t forget that the culture that is going to survive in the future is the culture that you can carry around in your head.“ – Nam June Paik
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Xin Chào 2023
„Od zážitku nebo nápadu ke zralé myšlence je dlouhá cesta a pořádný kus práce. To platí pro básníka, hudebníka, technika i filosofa. A teprve ke konci této práce se ukáže, zda to celé stálo za to. Neboť nápad, který se nepodaří dobře artikulovat, možná ani za mnoho nestál, rozhodně nám však není mnoho platný.
Einstein kdysi řekl, že vědecká práce je deset procent talentu a nápadů – a devadesát procent úsilí a píle. Proto každá tvořivá práce vyžaduje jistétovládání přiměřené řeči, v níž se těchto devadesát procent odbývá. Pro hudebníka to bude řeč tónů, pro matematika řeč symbolů…“
A pro nás je to dobře strávený čas s přáteli a rodinou, ať už při jídle nebo jen tak. Ke sdílení příběhů, životních rad a názorů je vždy potřeba řeč a jazyk. V českém přísloví se říká „Kolik řečí mluvíš, tolikrát jseš člověkem.“ V našem projektu budeme v novém roce nadále usilovat o objevování naších multikulturních identit, využívat vietnamskou, českou ba i anglickou řeč, abychom se mohli seberealizovat, učit se a sdílet s vámi zajímavosti a poznatky z česko-vietnamské kultury.Přejeme vám všem mnoho zdraví a energie do nového roku!
Citace: Jazyk a Myšlení, Malá filosofie člověka & slovník filosofických pojmů, Jan Sokol (zakladatel a první děkan Fakulta humanitních studií UK Praha)
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Interesting cultural & migrant initiatives from different corners of Europe 🇪🇺
In our journey Roots of the Future, we constantly search for opportunities to broaden our horizons and to learn from different initiatives in order to get the best practices, integrate them into our own work and bring out impactful results.
‚‚Youth workers in EU are able to promote and provide social harmony on the basis of respect and understanding.“
Carla Molteni, ESC volunteer of CultureGoesEurope Erfurt e.V. in GermanyThe members of our team are encouraged to seek these opportunities and inspirations and share them with you.
Roots of the Future was created within the framework of Solidarity project. Group of a diverse young people demonstrate the power of together to address local challenges. Through different initiatives they aim to:
- influence people’s perception on refugees and migrants in a more open-minded way
- create an inclusive society through active citizenship and cooperation
The best way how to gain meaningful knowledge on youth work is through exchange, case studies of intercultural actions and cultural & migrant initiatives.
Therefore it is very important for our team to learn about how the youth & community can promote migrant integration and how empowerment works through intercultural youth work.
The Open-Air Festival For Democratic Education „Dialogue for Democracy“ in Erfurt, Germany From the 15th to the 21st of August one of our members had a chance to take a part in a Study visit ‚Intercultural Trialogues‚ in Germany. This project gathered 20 youth workers & activists, many with migration backgrounds to share experiences, methods, and case studies of migrant/intercultural actions in their local realities with a focus on the use of spaces, e.g. youth & community centers.
This program was designed to provide opportunities to find a common ground between young people from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds. Moreover, there were used methods that are based on non-formal education, involving non-verbal techniques, and methodologies that focus on movements, dancing, and singing.
There was a space for us to share different study cases. Among all examples from all over the Europe and beyond, the Solidarity project Roots of the Future was presented.
Cultural & migrant initiatives from Erfurt, Germany:
👉🏼 @sprachcafe.erfurt
👉🏼 @globalbiogardens
👉🏼 Saline 34
👉🏼 Plattform e.V. & @werkhausinklusion
👉🏼 @klanggeruest
👉🏼 @projects_forabetterfuture🇪🇺 #interculturaltrialogues is a small scale partnership in the field of youth, supported by the Erasmus+ Program of the European Union
These pictures were made for the project ‚Intercultural Trialogues‘ by CultureGoesEurope Erfurt e.V. with participants‘ consent for dissemination.
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Vietnamese feast & a talk about cultural shocks of a Vietnamese and a Czech girl
On Sunday 18/9/2022 Roots of the Future prepared their first event in the city Budweis in Czechia. The program included different perceptions of experiences from traveling in Vietnam, where people also got to know the traditional Vietnamese dining setting and had a chance to get a taste of traditional daily life food. While playing an interactive game Kahoot, it challenged people to get into their competitive spirits and new connections were created during a non-formal game ‚Tell your Story‘.The presentation was prepared by 2 friends who were courageous to have a month-long trip during the summer to discover new places and try new things. With open minds and curiosity, they traveled all over Vietnam from the south to the north, and along the way they encountered both pleasant and unpleasant experiences. Thanks to the authenticity and sincerity of these travelers, people had the opportunity to experience Vietnamese culture on a completely new level.
The Vietnamese-Czech group set out to bring Vietnamese culture closer to local people by sharing travel insights and experiences from Vietnam. Their aim was to compare the experiences of two friends and how their points of view differ based on their individual cultural origins. A knowledge quiz revealed surprising facts about Vietnam and the winners were gifted with tea by Master Vietnam and hand-painted Asian-themed reusable textile bags.
Food is one of the most popular ways to experience another culture. However, in this age of modern technology and social media, people forget about the importance of spending time together. This evening, the Vietnamese feast showcased some delicious dishes that usually cannot be found on the menu, moreover, people were reminded about the importance of social interactions and connections.
A variety of traditional Vietnamese dishes were presented, which according to the Czech visitors were served in a rather strange way. People who had not known each other before came to sit together, they shared food, scooped it up with chopsticks and combined it according to their taste. The organizers have prepared a game ‚Tell Your Story‘ as an icebreaker for people to get to know each other better.
„It was very classy and I even enjoyed the quiz very much. My friend and I ended up in fourth place, so I’m happy for us. And the food was really really good. I was surprised how we suddenly were able to slow down and enjoy the present moment. What’s more, we were even able to talk to people we’d never seen before. Thank you so much for a wonderful experience“ said Martina.
Alla travelled from Hradec Králové to join our event.
Martin one of the guests commented on the evening „A presentation about Vietnam plus a Vietnamese feast. From now on this is a new standard for cultural events.“
The Roots of the Future project was born out of an initiative to create intergenerational dialogue and cultural exchange between young people and the general public.It engages people with Vietnamese roots to take an interest in family history and cultural origins. The aim is to find and share common values to transcend the differences between 2 cultures and enrich each other. Roots of the Future is a story of self-discovery, learning and exchange
A big thank you goes to Restaurace Bambus in České Budějovice for hosting us, to the lovely owners of a Bookstore ‚Na Konci Vesmíru‘ in Panská st. in České Budějovice for providing us with technical support & to our sponsor Master Vietnam. ❤
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Preparation and process of our first event 18/9
25/10
One day we were having a meeting when suddenly Vee asked us: „What if we organize an event about Mai’s journey with her Czech friend?“ After hearing this idea we all agreed and said: „Ok, let’s do it.“ From that moment we started the preparations.
It was a new experience for everyone, except for Vee. Nobody knew what to expect from it and how much work and communication will be needed. I have to admit that we had an intense preparation. We came to every meeting which also bonded us more as a group.
We were posting the progression of the event on our social media regularly, and because of the magic and power of social media, we got our first sponsor. Vee shared this idea of the event on her FB and Tung, who’s CEO of a Vietnamese-Czech educational institute, noticed our poster online. And because he really liked the idea of our project, he decided to send us his products Master Vietnam and in exchange we would promote them.
When we thought about how to make our event more interesting and entertaining for our guests we came up with these ideas: a quiz about Vietnam, tea tasting with Vietnamese dessert, custom tote bags, coffee and tea as a gift for winners, and lastly – a special Vietnamese menu.
Our team wanted to make the experience for our guests as authentic as we could so we came up with the idea of a special menu with traditional Vietnamese cuisine. It’s the part of the day when people have a good, quality time together.
Our ideas were set, that was the easy part. The next step was to make them into reality.
We had to find a place where the event would be held, prepare our blog and our Facebook page, create a Facebook event, we had to come up with the design of the poster and promote it on social media to attract people‘s attention, paint the tote bags, create the quiz and make the presentation, within 3 weeks.
Luckily, we had connections with one lovely couple who owns Bambus restaurant right on the square. We told them about our event in brief. They loved our idea and the meaning of it and eventually, they agreed to lend us their place right away.
I’d say that the week before the event was the most hectic one because we had to prepare the quiz for the guests, prices for winners, make a list of hosts, do a presentation about Vietnam, and Mai and her friend Alen had to prepare their speech.
18/9 was the day of our event. The event was supposed to start at 4 pm. We met in Bambus at 3 pm to make sure that we had everything prepared. We had to prepare a seating chart and fortunately, we were able to fill up the whole capacity. We had some complications with our notebook which was supposed to be used for our presentation. Luckily enough our team member Martin had his notebook prepared for these cases. I think we were very blessed because whenever something went wrong or when we had a complication, everything was somehow solved in the end.
Mai and Aja talked about their journey for about an hour. It was a new experience for them since they have never talked in front of a big audience before. They were kind of worried but in the end, it wasn‘t even noticeable how much they were stressed. They talked about their expectations, experiences, and perspectives through the eyes of a Vietnamese girl born in Czechia and a Czech girl. We had a good time and great laughs during our presentation.
It was our guest’s first experience with this kind of dining. The whole meal was prepared and cooked in Bambus and everyone loved it. All this hard work paid off when we saw and heard their reactions. We received some positive feedback from our guests when they were leaving.
It was one of our first achievements during this project and because of the whole preparation, we bonded together as a team. We learnt something new from others and learnt how everyone works during stressful situations and most importantly, we managed to work as a team.
Thank you team for this.
About Us
The 12 month long project involves young people with immigrant background by encouraging them to be curious about their family history and cultural origins.
Roots of the Future is about discovering the Vietnamese roots of youngsters with immigrant background in the Czech Republic through storytelling and exchange.
We encourage youngsters to become curious about their own heritage and culture through sharing the stories of their parents and close people in order to identify multiple identities.
‘The youth is the hope of our future’.
– Jose Rizal
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