4 Different Homes of Mr. Dutton

Interview with Mr. Dutton

Mr. Dutton had been 4 countries that help him to become a teacher of BISS!!

BY DA EUN KIM INTERVIEW DATE : 2011, FEBRUARY, 22TH, TUESDAY

Mr. Dutton has migrated lots of

country such as Vietnam, Tonga, New

Zealand and China since 2001 from his

hometown, Brisbane, Australia. He and his

family decided to go to Vietnam for two and

a half years because of his wife was

working on an “OzAid,” which is basically an

Australian foreign aid funded project for

improving the water supply, and sanitation in

Vietnam. They were living in Ho Chi Minh City

and he was working in an International

School in Vietnam.

After Vietnam, he went to a very

small country called The Kingdom of Tonga,

in the Pacific Ocean. It’s a country of only

90000 people living on and his family

volunteered in lots of projects in Tonga.

Next, he and his family had to go to New

Zealand because his wife’s mom was very

sick and they need to take care of her and

at that time, he did some studying at

universities for a year.

He has experienced new cultures

and experiences and those things made him

became a teacher in BISS. Previously he had

been a performing musician playing in

orchestras, and doing private flute tutoring

in Australia but after he taught music in

Vietnam, he really enjoyed it and he changed

his mind to be a teacher. So he and his

family wanted to do that somewhere in Asia,

so he went to job fairs in Bangkok and

Sydney, and he settled with a job here at

BISS, so he was excited and just took on

the challenge. He said “We really believed it

was the best move, and it helped us

progress in our careers as well.”

At f i rst , m igrat ing to other

countries is a little exciting to him because

it’s an entirely new city, and learning a new

language, finding out new things, traveling

around, and making new friends. However,

after about 6 months he was quite confident

about place where he lived, and that place

became familiar to him and they don’t start

thinking they’re away from home, they

decide where they are is their home.

Moreover, they bring all of their personal

things with them such as all their pots and

pans, and pictures, and hang them on the

wall so those things made him to think he is

in his home.

Mr. Dutton socialized a lot with

teachers, students and some parents when

he was working at the international school in

Ho Chi Minh City. Also, quite a few local

Vietnamese people became friends of him. He

said, "It was really good actually. We enjoyed

living there; very friendly people, safe place,

nice food, nice clothes and lots of good

people to work with. We enjoyed it very

much."

Before Mr. Dutton and his wife both

liked traveling and they actually went to live

overseas on holidays. He thought that every

place he went is all different. Each place

has differences like different challenges,

different levels of safety and security.

He gives example that Tonga,

beautiful place, is a one of the more

dangerous places to live for crime and

things and problems in background so right

before he left Tonga, there was a big riot

there, and the rioters actually were robbed

Mr. Dutton’s house twice. In contrast, this is

all very different from China or Vietnam,

where they felt very safe and he now

thinks the biggest danger in China would

probably just be road and traffic dangers

but he still said people in China are very

friendly and helpful.

Mr. Dutton likes the idea of

migration and he said “it’s an important

thing for many countries to increase their

population of people who can work and

contribute to developing countries. It also

helps societies have a mix of cultures, and

helps them to understand and cooperate

with people of different cultures and

religions, like BISS so it’s a positive thing on

the whole but though forced migration is a

completely different issue.”

The experiences from countries that

he migrate made Mr. Dutton to think about

migration in positive way. He said, “And I

think, wherever we move, for our family

anyway, wherever we move in the world

becomes home.”

Mr. Dutton with his son!!

Mr. Dutton and his family on the

boat

The Kingdom of Tonga-Malinoa

Mr. Dutton caught a huge fish!