Yen: I think that, [in] our way, that up to certain age you have to marry. So I marry because of that too, because I met [my husband]. I think he's okay. Because I stopped keeping in contact with my boyfriend back in Vietnam, because we always wanted to leave. He wanted to leave. I wanted to leave too. So we thought we can't go to steady relationships. So we said, ‘Okay, we just dating, boyfriend-girlfriend, and then we go our different way.’ And then I met my husband here. I think he's okay. He's not violent. He's not aggressive. So I marry him — I think that the thing that pushed me to marry [was] because I reached the age that I had to marry. I was 32 when I'm [married]. You know, people marry when they were 25. And at 25 I was still back home. If I marry back home, then I'm stuck. I will be stuck there. You can't leave because family, then kids. How do you leave? So that's why.




D: So you really wanted to leave…

Y: I prolong it like that — my marriage — until I reach here, and then—

D: Yeah, so you had this dream of leaving Vietnam, that wouldn't have been possible if you'd gotten married?

Y: Yeah, no. A lot of people [were] like that in Vietnam, those years. They can't get married. They couldn't get married. Because once they get married, there's a lot of things — strings attached to them, like kids, and then husband or wife, and then in-laws and all that. So it's hard to leave the country. So most of us stayed single. And then we had more chance to leave the country if we're still single. Easier. No strings attached.