Woman living away from home for 17 years tells story of foreign husband's love for Vietnamese Tet

"If I don't marry a Vietnamese woman, I won't be able to celebrate Vietnamese New Year, eat banh chung, celebrate the colorful Tet seasons, and when I grow up, I'll still receive lucky money from my parents like this."

Love blossomed from a chance encounter Born and raised in Hue, Ms. Thuy Tien (38 years old) has been in Japan for nearly 17 years as a direct manager of a pharmaceutical distribution company. It was also during those years that she met and fell in love with her current husband, Mr. Ronny Wroblewski (German) at a cultural exchange festival between international students of Shizuoka University, Japan. After a few conversations, she realized that he was a gentle, talented, hard-working person who always knew how to transmit positive energy to the other person. Her cheerfulness and liveliness also made him feel attracted after many meetings and feelings of love arose. Also because of love, he decided to give up his job in Germany, settle down in Japan with her, and build a home in a country that is not their homeland.

Thuy Tien and her husband got married after 5 years of dating.

She said: "The first time he came to see my parents in Ho Chi Minh City, everything went smoothly. My parents were very happy and bought a lot of delicious food for their 'future' son-in-law to eat. A very happy memory was when my father bought balut eggs for Ronny to eat, then jokingly said: 'If you can eat this, I will let you be my son-in-law'. In the end, my husband ate it deliciously and even praised it." Because the two were on the same page and had the family's approval, their love story went quite smoothly. During their time together, perhaps the romantic and unexpected proposal was something that Thuy Tien could never forget. "My husband always surprised and touched me, the most memorable was the romantic proposal in Paris. Back then, we traveled around Europe. While in Paris, he proposed to me. "He knelt down, gave me a ring and asked me if I wanted to marry him," she shared. After knowing each other for 5 years, in 2016, they decided to get married. Currently, the small family has 2 more young members, 1 boy and 1 girl. Perhaps Thuy Tien is lucky that her in-laws consider her as their daughter, love her and take care of her to the fullest. She always feels the love and closeness from her in-laws. There is no distance between the family, every month her in-laws still send many German goods to Japan for their children, always reminding them to take care of their health. When there is time, they also return to Germany to visit their in-laws.

Ms. Tien always 'teaches' her husband and children about the customs and traditions of her homeland through pictures and videos on the Internet.

"It may be a bit romantic, but after all these years of marriage, my husband and I are still the same as the first day. After getting married and having children, I am still comfortable: doing the work I like, going to cafes, eating delicious food, meeting friends... My husband is especially rare, because he helps me with all the housework. From taking care of the children to cooking, he takes care of everything, supports his wife, and especially loves me very much", Ms. Tien proudly said about her husband of many years. Foreign husband loves Vietnamese New Year After nearly 17 years of living in Japan, Ms. Tien can count on her fingers the number of times she has returned home to celebrate the traditional New Year in Vietnam. She said that Japanese people do not celebrate Lunar New Year and the New Year season in Vietnam does not coincide with the holidays in Japan, so everyone still works normally. "However, because the Vietnamese community in Japan is very large, celebrating Tet away from home is not difficult and I usually celebrate Vietnamese Tet early to make up for it. When people celebrate the New Year, I take the opportunity to celebrate Lunar New Year in Vietnam," Ms. Tien shared. Talking about her husband, she said that her husband Ronny Wroblewski loves Vietnamese Tet very much: "My husband loves his wife, so he also loves Vietnamese culture, especially the traditional Tet customs. In addition to experiencing it directly, my husband and children are still 'taught' about the customs and traditions of their homeland through pictures and videos on the Internet. He and the children all consider Vietnamese Tet as other important holidays in Europe such as Christmas or New Year. The Vietnamese community in Japan celebrates Tet with full melon seeds, candies, sticky rice cakes... so my family still celebrates New Year's Eve, New Year's Day, and eats Tet feasts just like at home. The three of us always say that traditional Vietnamese food is delicious and unique. My husband and children still learn Vietnamese, speak Vietnamese, eat Vietnamese food, and often return to Vietnam to visit. That is also my wish, to always preserve my family's Vietnamese roots and culture."

Ms. Tien's husband and children love Vietnamese Tet.

According to Ms. Tien, every time Tet comes, at some Japanese companies where the majority of employees are Vietnamese, the company also has a policy to support you to take a few days off to celebrate the Lunar New Year according to Vietnamese tradition. But the majority still go to school and work as usual. Those who live in the same dormitory often invite each other to cook Vietnamese food, with all the dishes like at home, to welcome the New Year together. On the first day of the new year, everyone also takes the opportunity to ask for leave to go to the temple to pray for peace and happiness for the new year. In Tokyo, there are also many Vietnamese shops and restaurants, so on the first day of the year when meeting fellow countrymen, people do not forget to give each other good wishes and lucky money for the new year. “Honestly, when a couple loves and is attached to each other, they will also love the culture, traditional customs, homeland and family of the other person. I am the same with his Germany, so he is no different from my Vietnam. Now, we have 3 homelands: Vietnam, Germany and Japan, so returning to Vietnam to celebrate Tet with my husband and children is like returning home, returning to the loving arms of a big family," Ms. Tien confided. Every time she returns to Vietnam to celebrate Tet, on New Year's Eve, her family and parents prepare the offering tray, staying up to wait for the first moment of the new year. On the first morning of the year, the whole family goes to wish relatives and friends living nearby a happy new year. One year, she even returned to Hue, taking her husband and children to visit citadels, mausoleums, ancient pagodas, watching the clear Huong River every spring and telling him about her childhood here. "My husband always shares that he is very lucky to have a Vietnamese wife. Cultural differences are erased by love, but still retain all the novelty and excitement for a German like him. Without a Vietnamese wife, it would be difficult to celebrate Vietnamese Tet, eat banh chung, and welcome the colorful Tet seasons. Now that I'm grown up, I still have three Mom gave lucky money. I also hope that the family will always keep the good and meaningful traditions of traditional Vietnamese New Year holidays for their children and grandchildren in the future," Thuy Tien confided.

Tu Linh - Vietnamnet.vn

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