electrical appliance repairman

In the front of a house in Gia Lâm is Nguyễn Hoàng Trung’s small shop filled with drawers and boxes of every tool and electrical component imaginable; wires, pliers, circuit boards, remotes, timers, and conductors are piled into different boxes, creating a sense of organized chaos. The back of the room is partitioned off by two cupboards, behind which is the family’s living room where we sit down for the interview.

I did my undergraduate studies at the Institute of Science in Saigon, which is currently the University of Technology of Ho Chi Minh. After graduating in 1988, I started working for the military company, whose duty was to fix the factory lines. Unfortunately, my family began having problems. One of my daughters had a brain disease and died. Back then, my salary was so small that I requested to go home and bring my skills as an electric repairman to my house. That was January 1991, so it’s been about 20 years already.

The nature of the work has definitely changed. Before, the economy wasn’t very developed and people’s income wasn’t very high. Therefore, there weren’t many high-tech items. When things became more developed, there were more color TVs, video players, and VCRs. Now there are even more advanced technologies. The fact that the electronic devices are becoming more developed and complex is not a challenge for me, though. Even though I mostly fix household items, I prefer working with electronic devices. I like working with them because it requires more knowledge and, therefore, my asking price is higher. Nowadays, in one month, I make 3,000,000 (approx. $150) Vietnamese dong – equivalent to 100,000 dong (approx. $5) a day, excluding utilities. Even though I make more money now, the value of our money has gone down as well.

I am 57 years old. Before, I could work without wearing my glasses. But now, I have two types of glasses: eyeglasses and my magnifying glass. Before, I could fix things that were smaller. But when I started wearing glasses, within one or two years, I could only work with bigger things. That’s why now, 90% of the things I receive are common household items.

The thing that I like the most about this job is that the technical skills and knowledge that you can acquire are limitless. You can learn forever and ever. I always feel like I’m swimming in the sea. I feel like I’m a small person, with little knowledge, always trying to improve myself, but my old age prevents me from doing that. I know I have to quit someday, but I regret this because I love my job. It’s not about the money or the status.  It’s about one thing: being a person of science and technical skill–technical skill that I am always trying to understand.

I have so many unforgettable memories that I could not say them all in one day. But there is one I want to tell. Every summer, I fix fans. There was this very pretty woman that brought in a really dirty fan. I cleaned it really well, but when she went home, her husband scolded her for buying a new fan. He said it was a waste. It turned out the fan had been cleaned so well that he thought it was brand new. This is the story that she told me. Her husband yelled at her, but afterwards, he had to apologize.

The only thing I’m not satisfied with is my family’s opinion of my job. They just know what they see, but they don’t understand my love for this job. That’s why sometimes I’m sad and don’t know what to do.  Because the only person who understands this job is the person doing it. For example, I’ll be fixing a TV, and just as I’m about to finish it—just like a scientist about to discover something—my family calls me to come in and eat lunch. Then I have to stop. In the afternoon, I have to come back and remember where I was. That happens a lot, but I have to sympathize with my wife and children because I am not them. In fact, both sides have to sympathize with each other. However, there have been some advantages: the shop is right at my house so that I can work and take care of the house at the same time. Also, if my relatives have any broken items, they can bring them in to me.

In the future, for the job of an electric repairman, there will be two tendencies. One, people’s income will be higher.  So if something is broken, most people will choose to buy a new one. The number of recycling shops (*where people often sell their broken electrical items to a recycling vendor who eventually sells these items back to a recycling shop) will increase and the number of electric repairman will decrease. Also, people will prefer trading more because you’ll make money faster. But if you do my job, you will not become rich. Our ancestors say, “This job will only support yourself.”  If you are a manual laborer, you can only take care of yourself – no one else. People doing this job will have to do 3 things at the same time: 1) be a professional electric repairman, 2) be an electric trader—Vietnamese people have a saying that is passed down from generation to generation: “no trade never rich”—and 3), this is very important, teach these skills to others. Right now, personally, I am also quite busy as the president of the old soldiers club, which has 256 members. So I work two jobs at once but often I’m at the community office more.

With this type of work, you need to love your job, love techniques, and love new stuff. Technology is always changing and you have to keep up with it. For that reason, I am obsessed with it. This job requires skill and brain cells. But now, my eyes and hands are very weak. For example, if I have to glue two electric items together, I have to do it accurately. If my hands start shaking, and I glue two things together in the wrong position, I just break it even more. That’s why some electric repairmen have to retire. In my heart, I want to keep doing this, but my eyes and my hands won’t allow me. But if you wanted me to teach others about electronics, then I can teach the basics. If I were to teach them about newer devices though, then I probably cannot fulfill those requirements.

In the 20 years that I have been doing this job, what I find most important to tell someone is that, if they want to hold onto this job, they need to have passion.  You need three things to maintain passion: the eagerness to ask questions, the eagerness to continue learning, and the ability to not get too comfortable with what you’ve already achieved. However, usually, when people first graduate from a school for electronics, they ask “how much money can you make in one month?” But with me, I don’t make this my priority. What are more important is a stable life, a sustained passion, and a job that is suitable for me.

I have a burning passion for this job. When I die and reach the other side, I hope that people there will give me things to fix. Second, as long as I’m still living and working at this job, then I’ll continue to love it. I will not quit this job because I love it. I am loyal to it.

Contributors:  Irene Van, Sharon Seegers, Vũ Hoàng An, Nguyễn Thái Linh

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