Truong Vu: Working as a kitchen assistant, cleaning, roofing from 5 am to 10 pm, no one dares to sit near

"At that restaurant, I had to work as a kitchen assistant, wash dishes, clean the house, generally do everything, earn a few hundred dollars a month" - Truong Vu said.

Truong Vu is known as a famous Bolero singer overseas, a duet with Nhu Quynh and Tam Doan. He owns a massive career, many fans admire.

Despite being so famous, few people know that Truong Vu has experienced many difficulties before coming to the overseas music scene.

Truong Vu's real name is Huynh Van Ngonh, born on February 25, 1963 in Vinh Chau district, Bac Lieu province (now Vinh Chau town, Soc Trang province). He is the fifth child in a family of six children of Chaozhou origin who have settled in Vietnam many generations ago.

Referring to famous singers of bolero lyrical music, one cannot forget the name Truong Vu.

In 1983, Truong Vu moved to the US to settle down when he was 20 years old. In America, he had to go through a rather difficult life. Before coming to the music scene, he had to work as a kitchen assistant with a meager salary of only a few hundred dollars a month. He revealed in one of his new livestreams:

"When I first came to the US, it was very difficult for me, I didn't have a car, I didn't have anything in my hand. I had to ask a friend from my hometown to come to America first to introduce me to a restaurant.

At that restaurant, I had to work as a kitchen assistant, wash dishes, clean the house, generally do all the work, earn a few hundred dollars a month. In Vietnam, jokingly call my job a flying saucer engineer.

I do all kinds of things, what people need behind the kitchen is what I have to do, only I can't go into the kitchen to cook.

That friend had to drive me to work every day. I have to work from 5am to 10pm to get home. In the morning I come to clean and participate in preparing breakfast and lunch for customers. At noon, the restaurant is closed for rest."

Not only helping the kitchen, Truong Vu also has to do a lot of other manual jobs to maintain his life. He said:

"While the restaurant was not open from 2:30 pm to 5:00 pm, everyone went to bed and I had to work part-time with corrugated iron roofing, roofing, cutting clothes for the tailor. After 5 o'clock, there were many customers. I have to go back to the restaurant to work hard.

After working for a while, I was promoted to a higher position, not having to wash dishes anymore. But I still felt too much so I only worked for about 6 months, then quit, and applied for another job.

After taking a week off, I applied for a job at a Chinese restaurant in the US. This restaurant is bigger but requires knowing Mandarin. Although I don't know the language, I got the experience as a kitchen assistant so I was accepted.

There was a Vietnamese man who worked as a kitchen assistant a few years before me and told me: "It's okay. You don't need to know the language. I'll show you what you need to do". The job at that restaurant was hard work."

Although it was hard, Truong Vu was quite hardworking and thrifty. Thanks to that, his life gradually stabilized, buying his own car. I said:

"Not to mention, at that time, I had to take the bus all the time, so there was a rather rare incident. Customers who came to the restaurant or ate a typical dish of rotten hot pot, I couldn't stand the smell.

That stench still lingered on my clothes, I went to the street, got into the bus, everyone sitting next to me ran away, no one dared to be near. I didn't know at first, but later realized it was because of the stench.

I have to buy the most expensive French soap, fragrant, clean, but the smell still clings to me, can not be removed.

Since then, I know the idea, just get on the bus and get off the last seat. I worked there for more than 5 months when I bought a bad car. I still remember it was a Toyota 79. Buying a car, I gave up taking the bus and also quit my job because it was too hard."

Also during this time, he often reopened the tapes of Duy Khanh and Che Linh to listen to, learn, and nurture his interests. His passion for singing was so great that he decided to give up going to high school, even though he enrolled.

On a chance occasion, singer Chung Tu Luu heard him sing and invited him to collaborate with Phuong Hoang center and Ca Dao center.

At first, recording was quite difficult for Truong Vu because the languages he used in daily communication were Chaozhou and Cantonese. In Vietnamese, he only understands simple words.

However, his girlfriend Anh Thu was always there, explaining the songs he was about to record and guiding him in Vietnamese pronunciation. In addition, she was also the one who encouraged and supported him to follow the path of singing.

During his early career, Truong Vu had the good fortune to study with singer Duy Khanh for 5 years. He was guided by him on music theory and pronunciation. In addition, Truong Vu was also accepted by the famous singer Che Linh as a student, guiding him in keeping his breath and being attached.

Nhu Quynh - Truong Vu are still two famous singers with a large number of loyal fans.

Thanks to the support from these two talented teachers, Truong Vu sings more and more beautifully, emotionally and is invited to collaborate with many major music production centers abroad. He succeeded on the stage of Thuy Nga Paris by night, a duet with Nhu Quynh.

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