Pull up a chair and tell me your memory.
Why does it matter to you?
I want to hear your story, your point of view.
Tell me what happened to you.
Hi and welcome back to Tell Me What Happened.
The podcast that features folks from all walks of life telling us one true childhood story.
And how that experience, that event, has impacted who they are today.
I'm your host, Jay Rehack, and like all of you out there, I've had my share of childhood experiences.
Some of them were great, some of them were unpleasant, some of them were actually traumatic.
But I'd like to think that everything that's ever happened to me has made me a better person.
Now that may not be true, a lot of people tell me it's not true, I'm not such a great person now,
but that's what I'd like to think, and so I'm going to leave it at that.
Today I have as my guest Ken Tang, the first Vietnamese refugee elected to the Alhambra Unified School District Board of Education in California.
Ken uses his 27 years teaching experience to guide his new roles as a public servant.
And I'd just like to add that I know Ken through the trustee leadership forum at Harvard,
where Ken and I met and he told me an incredible story.
Welcome to the show, Ken Tang.
How you doing, Jay? Thank you for having me.
Now it's great to have you, Ken. You know, we talked in Boston back in June.
You told me this incredible story. I asked you and you were kind enough to be willing to come on the show.
I'm going to not in any way give it away, so I just let you take over.
And so my question to you is, are you ready to tell your story? Yes.
All right, fantastic. Listen, Ken, I'm going to mute myself and not interrupt you during this time.
But at the end, I'm going to ask you absolutely one question.
And that one question is this, how do you think the story that you're telling me, the childhood experience that you had,
how do you think that's impacted who you are today? So take it away, Ken Tang.
So when I was about six years old, back in 1978, at the end of the Vietnam War, probably five, six years after the war.
And just like any ordinary day when our family visits my grandmother.
So just a little context, that's my parents. I'm the oldest. I have two younger siblings.
And we always visit grandma as a family. And on our way, this time, we were met by a messenger that's kind of stopped us in our track.
And he had a conversation with my parents. And after a short conversation, my parents told us to go with this gentleman.
And he took us down to the boat on the river. And my parents were back home.
To be honest, I had no idea where they went. But eventually we went with this gentleman and he took us in the boat.
We went and met at the harbor where we saw two other fishing boats size just to have that context.
I remember vividly where it was raining. It was getting dark towards the evening time.
And we met my parents again at the harbor. And this time we saw that my aunts and uncle and my grandmother from my mom's side were also there.
They were all, you know, hugging and saying goodbye and stuff like that.
So we boarded this boat as a family. And remember everybody was crying and all of that.
So as a kid, I'd been, I think about six years old, wasn't sure what was going on.
But we followed directions and went with my parents. And so we boarded this boat.
And so the two boat eventually left the harbor that evening.
Shortly after the takeoff, the smaller boat encountered some sort of hit something and had a leak that was unreparable.
So everybody from the small boat climb on to the bigger boat, which is where we were at.
So this is about literally over 300 people now on a boat, a small fishing boat.
So we set sail and after sailing towards, I guess, a daybreak, we encountered a boat.
The adults in the boat, they were friends, but by the time they got close, it turned out to be pirates.
And so they, they boarded our boat that we were outgun outman ransacked the boat, robbed everybody of their belongings.
They destroyed the engine from our boat because they thought we had hidden gold inside the engine.
And so they broke everything apart and kind of just left us pretty much stranded and floating.
So as we, as we float it during the day, we encounter another set of pirates later on.
And before these guys took off, they took captives, people for the kids, teenagers, young adults, ranging from age six, seven, all the way on up to age 20 something.
And the second group we encountered later on did the same thing, came on the boat and pretty much trying to look for anything that they can get their hands on that were hidden from the previous one.
So before they left, they took more, more folks, more young kids and teenagers and young adults.
We were just left floating in the middle of the oceans.
This is the South China Sea.
We've floated for probably a day or so and we encountered a third group.
By this time, there's nothing left to take.
But before they left us, again, more people were taken.
So by this time, it's about a good third of the boat were taken, captives by these pirates.
And we were left floating in the middle of the ocean without food and water for about a week.
We had to recycle our own urine as a water source, as I found out later on.
And we thought we were going to die when we saw this humongous ship from afar.
It was bigger than any ship we've ever seen or any boat that we've ever seen.
By the time it got close, it turned out to be a US Navy ship that was patrolling around the air at the time.
And so they lower food and water, helped us out.
And they tow us to the shore of Malaysia on this island called Theoman Island.
On one side of the island is the indigenous people and on the other side is a resort.
It worked out for us in that sense that later on, there was a British couple that was vacationing on the other side of Theoman Island.
They circle around to our side.
But before we got there, as the US Navy ship tow us to the shore of Malaysia,
the original response from the indigenous people was they didn't want us there.
So they pushed our boat out.
Fortunately for us, I think God had other plan.
And in the middle of the night, the wind pushes back near the island.
So by daybreak, we abandoned the boat. We were instructed to jump into the water and the adults carried us in.
That I actually remember because I nearly drowned because I drank a lot of the water before somebody caught me and took us into the beach area there.
So we settled there for a couple of days.
And then a couple of days later, a couple, the British couple that was vacationing on the other side of Theoman Island came around and they spotted us.
And they reported us to the Red Crescent and the UN.
A few days later, both organizations came.
Red Crescent and UN came and assessed the situation.
A few weeks later, they came back and transported us to a refugee camp in the mainland of Malaysia.
There we literally spent the next almost two years living in this refugee camp.
And so there were other people in this refugee camp.
While people live here, they try to locate sponsors from other countries to sponsor the families or locate relatives in other countries that would do the sponsorship.
Fortunately for us, they located my uncle, who is my dad's youngest brother who lives in Phoenix, Arizona.
They got the paperwork, all of that.
So after about a year and a half give or take, we were informed that they located my uncle who did the paperwork for sponsorship and all of that.
And so we were transitioned to a different camp.
They call it a transition camp.
And so there we were given physicals.
I remember having to go see doctors quite a bit.
They gave us shots and just making sure they were monitoring us and everything, making sure that we were healthy and all of that.
And so after a couple of weeks there, they transitioned us to another camp, which tries to prepare us for the journey to the United States.
Long story short, we finally transitioned to the final camp, which was very close to the airport.
As I remember seeing an airplane for the first time and asking my dad, what was that?
That's when I had my first experience learning that that is an airplane.
He told us that we're going to be going on that vehicle to the United States to see my cousin and my uncles.
And so shortly after that, we hop on this plane and travel to the United States landing in LAX.
And then eventually got to Phoenix where we met my uncle and his family.
We lived there for about three months before moving to Alhambra, California, where we live with my aunt, who is the older sister of my dad in Alhambra.
And so there we settled there and that's where I had my first public school experience going to Baldwin Elementary School in Alhambra.
And so throughout my life, I went through Alhambra schools or school close by.
We move around quite a bit, but eventually settled and graduated from Mark Apple High School, which is a school in Alhambra Unified as well.
That's my journey in itself.
But the part where I think that really made an impact for me was my experience being in public school at Baldwin, where I started second grade.
I was supposed to be in third grade, but because of the language barrier, my parents decided to pull us all back a grade.
And so I started second grade there and I remember a couple of weeks into school, teacher asked me to stand up and read.
And I didn't know a word of English, probably maybe two words dog and house were the two words that I remember learning from the refugee camp.
I didn't know how to read and I just stood there and later on at recess time, the kids were making fun of me.
I had no idea what kind of names they were calling me and stuff like that, but later on I learned that they were calling me stupid and stuff like that.
I didn't know how to read, but I remember very vividly there's this guy named Rico, who was Hispanic and he was a big guy.
And so he came to my rescue, he came to defend me and so that was something that I remember as a, you know, when you talked about, you know, a moment in my childhood that really affected me.
I think that was a moment where I really thought back and this guy really, we became great friends.
He helped me learn how to read, he helped me learn to speak English just from not understanding each other and using, you know, just sign languages.
We were able to be amazing friends throughout the entire second grade year and that really helped me in my first experience in public school in Elhamber School District.
And that's my story.
That was great, you articulated beautifully. Thank God for Rico, but can I got to ask you, how do you think all that has impacted you?
Now I know, I know that you're a teacher, so that may have been a reason or impact, but I don't want to speak for you.
Go ahead and tell us how you think everything you went through, which is incredible.
How do you think that's impacted who you are today?
I think it made me more sympathetic and empathetic as a teacher and as a human being.
I think my experience seeing someone other than someone that looks like me came to defend me really made an impact in me as how I see the world.
I think my experience kept me humbled throughout my life.
I think it grounded me as a person, as a human being, and as a teacher, I know that I will never ever call on a student to stand up and read,
especially if I know that that student has really hadn't had a chance to learn how to read.
And so that in itself made me, I think, a better teacher and just my ability to sympathize and empathize with new students,
especially students from other countries who just immigrated to the United States or just came to the United States.
I think that's one of the reasons why I have a really good relationship with a lot of my students
and just understanding that you can always do something for someone else.
And remembering back of what Rico did for me, I wanted to be that person for many of my students,
especially the ones who comes from other countries.
And the school district where I teach in Garvey School District in Cedar Rosamy,
there are so many students that are new immigrants from other countries like Mexico, Latin America, South Asia,
and so that gave me a lot of opportunities to really be an effective and caring teacher for these students.
Thank you, my friend. That's beautifully said, and you seem like the nicest guy in the world.
I talked to you in the fact I looked at teachers like you.
I tried to be empathetic in my own teaching career, but you lived it.
You understand it better than most because you were basically victimized.
I think victimized by your teacher.
I don't hopefully not intentionally, but having you stand up and talk and kids second grade,
I sort of forgive them because they're just kids.
They don't know what they're doing. They're just mean.
But like I say, thank God for the Rico's of the world.
And thank God that you came out of it, that you survived.
I mean, your odyssey, your family's odyssey, it's amazing.
That's all I could say. I don't even know how to say it.
It's just amazing that you're still here and the family's here.
That's just the gift. I'm glad you made it.
Me too. Me too.
And I think because of these experiences, I think it made me not only as a better educator teacher and human being,
but now as a school board member and as a CalSTRS board member,
I have a chance to be that for other people, that I can sympathize with them and I can empathize with them
and really try to understand their situation and help them in a way that we can help me.
Fantastic.
Well, I'm running out of time, but I want to thank you for sharing your incredible journey from Vietnam all the way to Alhambra,
United School District, unbelievable story.
Again, like a miracle. I'm sorry that you guys got attacked by three pirate ships and every other thing that happened to you,
but you made it and you're a testament to the human spirit.
Is everybody in your family still doing all right?
Everyone's doing great.
You know, we lost my dad about seven years ago to cancer, but everyone's doing great.
Both of my younger brothers got married and one lives in Indiana.
The one lives close by in Temple City, California.
And shortly after we got to the United States in 1982, we had an addition to the family and that's my youngest sister who is really close to.
She also has a family of her own with three little nieces that lives close by in the state of San Gabriel.
So we're all very close and we have each other and our family, we're very communal.
It's fantastic. Well, it's great. I'm glad you got that community.
So thank you, Ken Tank for being on our show, telling us that wonderful, sad, but ultimately redemptive story and happy story.
And I'd like to thank our sponsor, Sidelining Publishing.
So until next time, this is Jay Rehak asking you all to please stay safe out there and try not to hurt anybody.
Tell me what happened to you.