VietNamNet Bridge
August 25th, 2010

One student squandered $100,000 on gambling, another had to quit school and return to Vietnam because he was pickpocketed, and a third found that she could not study while she is pregnant. For quite a few Vietnamese students, reports VietNamNet, studying abroad proves to be a bad choice.

The Gambler. Many Vietnamese students are traumatized when they fail the university entrance exams. However, failure was excellent news for Nguyen Van Duc in HCM City, because this meant that he could go abroad to study.

He was really happy when his parents said they’d send him to study at an Australian university. Duc had tired of the flesh-pots in HCM City. He’d dreamed of going abroad where he believed he could enjoy relax and enjoy life supported by regular money transfers from his parents

After just two months in Australia, Duc had squandered $100,000 on gambling. His father had to fly to Australia then to bring the boy back home.

Duc was desperate to go abroad again. Believing that their son had repented of his mistakes, his parents decided to send him to a school in Russia.

However, Duc had not changed. He asked parents for $1000 a month to pay the rent on a flat. In fact, he lived in a dorm and spent the money parents remitted in bars and discotheques.

As Duc spent more time on play than on studying, he could not finish the university program after several years in Russia. Finally, his parents forced him back home after they concluded that overseas study would not help Duc become a useful person.

The New Mother. Like Duc, Nguyen Huong Giang came from a wealthy family. After spending her freshman year at the University of Foreign Languages, Giang decided to go abroad to study, because that’s become a fashion in Vietnam.

In the UK, Giang did not live in a dormitory, but in a leased flat. She took a taxi, not public transportation, to school. Giang was really a connoisseur; she never bought Chinese-made clothes like other Vietnamese students, but only wore garments sporting famous logos.

While other Vietnamese students, studying abroad on State scholarships, spent only $150-200 a month on incidentals, Giang burned through an allowance of $600 each month.

Not surprisingly, many men paid attention to Giang. Unluckily, she became pregnant. Finding that she could not continue to study in such a situation, Giang had to return home to give birth out of wedlock. Now she does not have time to think of going abroad again.

The Thief. Much like Giang, Mai began university in Hanoi. She was not a very serious student – in fact, she became famous as a ‘playgirl.’ And also like Giang, Mai dreamed of studying abroad. With her parent’s help, she won a scholarship to study at a Japanese university.

As soon as Mai set foot in Japan, she indulged her passion for shopping and sightseeing.

Suddenly one day, Mai was sent back to Vietnam. She’d been expelled from her university after she was arrested for shoplifting at a fancy store. No one could understand why Mai stole the goods, because she seemed to have plenty of her own money.

Overseas study won’t fix a bad kid

Commenting on the surging popularity of study abroad, Nguyen Van Nguyen, a counselor at an ‘overseas study centre’ in HCM City, says many parents send their children abroad when they fail the university entrance exams. They have enough money to do so, and they think this is really a good solution.

Nguyen thinks parents should first learn more about their children. There’s no point in sending them abroad unless they are ready to study. If the kids are bent on self-indulgence, it will cost far less to support their bad habits in Hanoi or HCM City than in London, Sydney or Tokyo.