Dinh Nguyen's Draw My Life

Transcript
[Dinh draws Vẽ cuộc đời tôi, Vietnamese for Draw my Life]

Dinh: "Hi, guys, sorry if my writing is in Vietnamese, I cannot write in English too well, so bare with me!"

[Dinh draws Vietnam and an arrow pointing to Hanoi]

Dinh: "I was born in Hanoi, Vietnam in 1997 as Nguyen Xuan Dinh, I had three sisters and one brother, I was the second youngest out of five children, my youngest brother was born in 1999."

[Dinh draws his family]

Dinh: "My dream one day was to become an actor and star in movies, my dad was a restaurant owner and my mother was a dancer."

[Dinh draws himself at age 3]

Dinh: "When I started nursery, I pretended to act out characters from movies and I told my teachers I wished to be an actor."

[Dinh draws his elementary and junior high schools]

Dinh: "My elementary school, I met many good friends and went there until I was 10."

[Dinh draws himself at age 10]

Dinh: "When I was 10 and my brother was eight I moved to Canada, my sisters decided to stay in Vietnam since they were 18, 19, and 20, and since Vietnamese was my first language and my school was one of the few schools that had very little English teachers, It was a huge language barrier, especially with my neighbors, first language Vietnamese, plus, an Hanoi accent, plus inability to speak English too well, equals a lot of bullying."

[Dinh draws his school in Canada]

Dinh: "I was bullied a lot at my new elementary school, I could not write or read in English, but today, I can read English but still cannot write it, and I had to have my worksheets printed out in Vietnamese, and it made cheaters in exams harder to copy down my answers, which was extremely common, much to my amusement."

[Dinh draws his bullies]

Dinh: "My bullies were stupid, they call me Charlie, Victor Charlie, VC, G**k, Viet Cong, and yes, my family did have a history with communism, which was even more popular in my family than democracy, but today, my family likes America and forgives it, I tolerated it all year, but once kicked one in the testicles, with hilarious results."

[Dinh draws him singing]

Dinh: "In high school, at the age of 15, had a very good singing voice, and could sing pretty well, and girls and by that time, my English improved, but still couldn't pronounce certain words correctly."