From Hanoi to Hawaii: scattered thoughts on language, mobilities, knowledge production, multilingualism, and mother tongue education

This article, via a bricolage of reflections, scholarly arguments, memories, aspirations, and narratives spanning several decades, and with the assistance of my father, engages with various issues concerning language, the geopolitics of language, and multilingualism. The engagement is presented in the form of scattered tales ignited by my own mobilities across locations, time, space and varied embodiments of memories. Importantly, embedded in these tales are many conversations I have had with my father, whose life stories, education, recollections, and experiences learning and teaching English, have shed light on important issues surrounding language and what comes with it, especially the mostly unwritten-about/little-known world of English and other languages in the North of Vietnam between the 1950s and the late 1980s. The tales and engagement presented in this article are globally relevant and connect to larger debates that many scholars of language, education, applied linguistics, and educational linguistics are concerned about.