Vermont Public is independent, community-supported media, serving Vermont with trusted, relevant and essential information. We share stories that bring people together, from every corner of our region. New to Vermont Public? Start here.

© 2025 Vermont Public | 365 Troy Ave. Colchester, VT 05446

Public Files:
WVTI · WOXM · WVBA · WVNK · WVTQ
WVPR · WRVT · WOXR · WNCH · WVPA
WVPS · WVXR · WETK · WVTB · WVER
WVER-FM · WVLR-FM · WBTN-FM

For assistance accessing our public files, please contact hello@vermontpublic.org or call 802-655-9451.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Tankhun Thongjunthoug on growing up in an immigrant family in the American class system

A family of four people standing with flowers on a track at a high school lacrosse game
Tankhun Thongjunthoug
/
Courtesy
Tankhun and his family.

Tankhun Thongjunthoug’s parents each moved alone to the United States in their early 20s to make a new life for themselves. They met in Los Angeles and started a restaurant there. But Tankhun’s father wanted a safer place for his family, so in 2008 they moved to Vermont, where they had to work their way back to owning a business.

Their restaurant in Montpelier, Pho Thai Express, has been open since 2015. In this episode of "What class are you?", reporter Erica Heilman talks with Tankhun about what it was like to grow up in an immigrant family, and how he experienced the undercurrents of the American class system. He begins with why his parents came to the United States.

This interview was produced for the ear. We highly recommend listening to the audio. We’ve also provided a transcript, which has been edited for length and clarity.

Tankhun Thongjunthoug: Their parents wanted them to pursue excellence, and wanted them to go to America, hey, to build a better future for themselves and for their children as well, you know, my brother and I. And that's what they did. My dad, everything he does, it's all because he wants us to do well. And you know, that's his goal, but my mom, she made a promise. Like she promises to her mom that she will work, do everything, for us. Like my dad, he had a goal. But my mom, she made a promise.

Erica Heilman: When you were growing up in, you know, elementary school, middle school, what were your parents doing?

Tankhun Thongjunthoug: When we moved here, we, my dad had to work hard because, you know, from going back from nothing to something, we like didn't have that financial power anymore, like as we did in LA. So we had to start all over again. And my dad, you know, we didn't have that much money growing up, which is why he had to work hard, night shifts, because the pay was better than, you know, than average.

Erica Heilman: What is your memory of who you were in relation to other people in your school life?

Tankhun Thongjunthoug: Yeah, so talking about that. When I was like 6, when I was in kindergarten, I didn't really thought about that, because I thought we were like, all the same. It's something you don't really think about when you're, like, playing Legos with the other classmates.

But you know, as we become more aware of things that go around, that happens around us, that's when around like, first grade, for example — like birthday parties, for example. People always having, like, pizza parties, like renting out places for their birthdays. And you know, that is pretty expensive, to rent out a place for the evening and order all these foods and pizzas, right? It costs money. Like, it's not free. I never really got mad because I never had one. But whenever we did have money, he would always buy me clothes, food, toys, like everything so that I could feel like any other kid in my school at the time.

Erica Heilman: What did you notice about how the culture of school, how people distinguished each other or characterized each other based on resources? What they had, what they had access to?

Tankhun Thongjunthoug: Yeah, so I started to see that when I entered middle school, I started to see that when people distinguished themselves with their hobbies, you know, like for example, athletes, they hung out with other athletes. Many of my friends who did sports, they wanted to make varsity for their — as soon as they get to high school, they want to make varsity sports.

So when I was in high school, right, I played lacrosse. And lacrosse is a pretty expensive sport with all the equipment, the helmet, padding, like everything is pretty expensive, like hockey. And I was OK with it because I recently started playing, and I was, like, thinking about, "Oh, you know, if I had played when I was younger, I could have played at a university level." But because I just recently started, you know, it's obviously not achievable. Could be. But lacrosse is very expensive, like one club is $1,000, $2,000.

And some of these parents, right, these families — they don't mind paying $1,000 every single year for their kid to play a sport even if they're not good at it. They just have that money to be loosely throwing around, while my dad, he had to work pretty hard to even get that amount of money. So it wouldn't have been beneficial, because my dad, he would have to work twice as hard. And yes, then I had that horrible feeling that I was, I kind of felt envy of other people.

I have one friend whose dad is pretty wealthy. He's a businessman. And to tell him how my dad owns a small shop that sells Thai food, like, I wouldn't want to say something for him to think, like, negatively about. So I was like, should I really tell him that — what my parents do for a living?

So from not talking to my friends about what my parents do used to be from a social thing, they'd be like, "What's Thai food?" They'd be skeptic about Thai food and the Thai culture. So I kind of kept that hidden. But through COVID, it transitioned from a social, hiding it socially to, like, financially hiding about it.

Erica Heilman: And when did you feel that?

Tankhun Thongjunthoug: During COVID, because that's when businesses, you know, start to hurt a lot, economically. Our business, we were like greatly, greatly hurt. And these people, you know, my friends, they weren't, you know, they were doing fine. I mean, because they were working jobs that — their parents didn't own a business, for example. So they were just, they were just working. They still got money. But my mom and dad, they own the restaurant.

COVID definitely hurt us. We had to take loans. And, you know, it's never a good thing when you hear someone taking out a loan. Like, if I were to talk about getting a loan to my friends, they'd be like, "Man, this person is not doing financially well," And that's when — then they wouldn't really drop me, because I wasn't financially well, but they'll just think about, you know, "Isn't Tank a person with a family who's not doing financially well?"

Erica Heilman: What do you think is going to happen to you when you grow up? What do you want?

Tankhun Thongjunthoug: I want to be — I want to be like someone like my dad. He's like my role model, my brother's role model. I see him as a hard working person, you know? He’s not afraid to get his hands dirty, just for us to have a good life. And that's something I look up to, something that I want to be.

When you first move here with nothing to his name, to something now. Like, he owns the restaurant. I want to be something like my dad, because he never gave up. My dad never gave up. He could stop right now with this business, just because he already reached his ideal class. Yeah. So I would keep where I'm at now, because, you know, it's like honoring my parents legacy, right? They got to this class for us, and I would want to keep it that way.

Explore the series: What class are you?

This audio story was produced by Peter Engisch.

Have questions, comments or tips? Send us a message.

Erica Heilman produces a podcast called Rumble Strip. Her shows have aired on NPR’s Day to Day, Hearing Voices, SOUNDPRINT, KCRW’s UnFictional, BBC Podcast Radio Hour, CBC Podcast Playlist and on public radio affiliates across the country. Rumble Strip airs monthly on Vermont Public. She lives in East Calais, Vermont.
Latest Stories