History

Not at school, I'm afraid. History lessons were a long list of dates and battles to learn by heart, and I'd forget them the moment I walked out of the exam room. What I did love were my grandfather's stories. He'd lived through the subsidy period, and he could make queuing for rice with ration stamps sound like an adventure film. The last time I read about history was only last week. I've been working through a book about old Saigon, with photographs of streets I ride along every day, and it's strange to see a tram where there's now a bubble tea shop. We did go on a few school trips, to the Cu Chi tunnels for one. I was thirteen, and I remember crawling about ten metres underground before panicking and backing out, to the great amusement of my classmates. It gave me more respect for the people who lived down there than any textbook had. So yes, young people should learn history, just not as a memory test. It should explain why our streets, our families and even our meals look the way they do.