Daughter stands up for her immigrant dad who was mocked by HR for his lack of English proficiency

Each year thousands of people immigrate to Western countries hoping to build a better future for themselves and their families. However, finding employment in a foreign country can prove a difficult task. An immigrant faces issues like language barrier, culture shock and unfamiliarity with the country's job scene and needs to sort through complicated paperwork before settling down. An 18-year-old woman named Emily Huynh, who is a senior at Cleveland STEM High School in Seattle, Washington, shared similar troubles her father faced after moving to the U.S.

Speaking to Buzzfeed News in 2018, Hyunh revealed that her dad, Minh, a Vietnamese immigrant, had been looking for a job for quite some time. Since Minh is not fluent in English, he came across some serious hurdles while seeking to land an opportunity. Minh immigrated to the United States in 1995 and opened a restaurant. When the restaurant went out of business, he started working as an overnight truck driver and after 13 years, he was laid off due to having some issues with his license. Since this left him jobless for two years, Hyunh took it upon herself to help her dad by proofreading his emails and finding employment. 

But things took a sour turn when Minh applied for a job at a company called Dash Delivery by himself. The HR recruiter of the company left him a mocking reply that read: "Let me tell you now, if you no speak English, I will send you home." Speaking of the recruiter's racist response, Huynh told the outlet: "As soon as I read it, I knew he was making fun of my dad's lack of English. I was outraged, but my dad was confused until I explained it to him." She emphasized the fact that older immigrant people often do not understand the depth of racial discrimination they face.

She shared a snap of the email on her X handle @staleboba and shared her personal experience with the online community who were equally outraged. “Non-English speakers have it hard because my dad just got rejected from this job offer and the email stated ‘Let me tell you now if you no speak English I will send you home. All of the employer's emails were also very unprofessional and passive-aggressive,” Huynh wrote in the post alongside a screenshot of the email. She did not expect the post to gain the traction it did so quickly. 

“I was so surprised at the number of people who supported us,” Huynh told ABC News, adding that her father received a lot of job offers after that incident and he was evaluating them. Huynh said that her dad knows how to fluently converse in Vietnamese and Cantonese and he is trying his best to get better at English. “From a scale of 1 to 5, 5 being proficient, I feel like he’s around 2.5. He knows what you’re saying to him but he doesn’t know how to communicate in words,” she shared with the outlet. Minh also teaches himself new words daily and keeps a notebook by the side of his laptop to note them down.

After the post went viral, the owner of the company sent an apology mail to Huynh, admitting that the HR's conduct was “inappropriate and inconsistent with their company’s values.” “While it is true that communicating effectively in English is an important part of the job in question, the manner in which [the employee in question] communicated with you was highly inappropriate and following our investigation, he is no longer employed with the company,” a second email screengrab from Huynh read.

Dash Delivery LLC's owner Kevin Bus told ABC News that it was an upsetting day for them and they had contacted Huynh's family to apologize. “He was hired on to help us with recruiting and interviews but didn’t have a management role. We hope that everyone who has been affected by this insensitive remark can accept our heartfelt apologies,” Bus told the outlet.