Through free language classes, resident hopes to change perception of home country

Free language classes are rare in any community, but at the Oconee County Library, one resident offers Vietnamese classes free of charge every month.

Once a month for the past three years, Martine Thy Nguyen has been offering free lessons in her mother language—Vietnamese—to a small group of Northeast Georgians.

Mara Nelms has been Martine’s student for a year. She says she was excited to learn about a different language and culture for free.

“There’s not a lot of places where you can get free instruction,” she says.

Nguyen says she teach Vietnamese so that Americans will see her home country through the lens of its language and culture, rather than the war that the United States waged there against Communist forces in the 20th century.

She often incorporates songs as a part of her le