Alumni in Society(Graduated 2021)
Four years at CIC taught me about “differences,” which helps me to run my business smoothly with people from many different countries.
Pham Thuy Linh
Graduated March 2021
Restaurant Management
Graduated March 2021
Restaurant Management
| 2020 | Married a Korean man in her native Vietnam while still a student at CIC. |
|---|---|
| 2021 | Graduated from CIC. Opened a restaurant in Vietnam with her husband, taking responsibility for customer relations and personnel management . |
| 2023 | Restaurant listed in the Michelin Guide |
Opening a restaurant in my home country after graduating from university
In January 2021, I opened a New York-style restaurant with my husband in the city of Hanoi in my native country of Vietnam. My husband is the head chef, while I am responsible for customer relations and personnel management. Although many restaurants went out of business during the COVID-19 pandemic, our first customer spread the word about our restaurant by sharing photos. Our reputation grew from there, allowing us to attract a stable customer base. Thanks to the relationships that we have built with our food suppliers, we now receive many orders from foreign businesses for events such as dinner parties. Two years after opening, our restaurant was listed in the Michelin Guide.
Thanks to our customers and suppliers, our restaurant is running well, but business is never easy. We try to remain humble and to keep learning.
Thanks to our customers and suppliers, our restaurant is running well, but business is never easy. We try to remain humble and to keep learning.
If different values are accepted, mental barriers disappear
In 2015, I left Vietnam to study abroad in Japan, where I met my future Korean husband at a Japanese language school. He had aspirations of becoming a chef. We promised each other that we would one day open a restaurant together, and in 2020, I returned to Vietnam, and we got married. We began preparations to open our restaurant.
CIC hosts international students from many different countries, and I was able to make a lot of friends, some of them Japanese. The class that left a lasting impression on me was “Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages.” There were many international students in this class, and I was frequently surprised at the differences between us. The lesson that our values are formed beginning in childhood and differ from country to country, and that failing to accept different values will build up walls of discrimination, remains deeply etched in my mind. Nowadays I frequently interact with customers, chefs, and businesses from many different countries, and I think that the fact that I can talk and conduct business with them without feeling any barriers is thanks to my studies at CIC.
CIC hosts international students from many different countries, and I was able to make a lot of friends, some of them Japanese. The class that left a lasting impression on me was “Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages.” There were many international students in this class, and I was frequently surprised at the differences between us. The lesson that our values are formed beginning in childhood and differ from country to country, and that failing to accept different values will build up walls of discrimination, remains deeply etched in my mind. Nowadays I frequently interact with customers, chefs, and businesses from many different countries, and I think that the fact that I can talk and conduct business with them without feeling any barriers is thanks to my studies at CIC.
