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Tuan Eckert: He's like one of them!

sistermagpie

By sistermagpie
in The Americans [V]

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sistermagpie

sistermagpie

Thought we should have a thread for our Number 3 Son. So Tuan is a Vietnamese agent 21-Jumpstreeting as friend to new immigrant kid Pasha. He's possibly the hardest hardliner we've seen yet. So far he's criticized the Russians (including his fake parents) for allowing Alexei to not only come to America, but to continue breathing; Pasha for being weak and saying he'd rather die in the USSR than in the USA--and for being malleable; Pasha's mom for babying her son, his foster family for thinking they're so good taking in a boat person. There's just no end to people who suck in Tuan's world!

I do really like the idea of giving Philip and Elizabeth a kid who, like them, grew up in the shadow of war and deprivation. It signals more focus on their own childhoods and how it affected them psychologically, but they're also older than Tuan with American children of their own. No doubt they will displease him soon enough.

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Umbelina

Umbelina

He saw Americans kill his entire family.  I'm pretty sure Tuan is anti-American.  The podcast suggest he is there

Spoiler

because of some kind of subterfuge.

however.  So what could that mean? 

Spoiler

Perhaps he did shave a few years off his life in order to be "adopted" under that program into the USA.  Perhaps he learned English in Vietnam, working for the communists as a child-spy of some sort with American troops.  Maybe he was good at it so his training increased, carrying messages, listening in on conversations, reporting back.  Then they decided he was very good, and after the war ended, trained him a bit more there, then decided to get him into America as a semi-sleeper agent for a year or so, stayed in contact with him, which wouldn't be that hard at all, and are now using him in whatever operation it is Philip and Elizabeth have going?  It would be easy for a 16 year old to pass as 14, or a 15 year old to pass as 12, especially with Vietnamese features and size.  New name, so an "illegal" in all meaningful ways.  Plant an agent, let him grow up, then use him.

I dunno, just spitballin'

It doesn't seem like the Jennings trust that kid at all though, or am I misreading that?

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kokapetl

kokapetl

(edited)

Tuan probably came to America when he was an adolescent, as an orphan refugee, and recruited by the USSR while at university. It's 1984, Saigon fell in 1975. I'd say he's probably in his early twenties.

Edited by Kokapetl
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sistermagpie

sistermagpie

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6 hours ago, Kokapetl said:

 

Tuan probably came to America when he was an adolescent, as an orphan refugee, and recruited by the USSR while at university. It's 1984, Saigon fell in 1975. I'd say he's probably in his early twenties.

 

Is he working for the USSR or just with the USSR for Vietnamese intelligence?

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SlackerInc

SlackerInc

Just now, sistermagpie said:

Is he working for the USSR or just with the USSR for Vietnamese intelligence?

Based on what Joe and Joel said in the podcast, 

Spoiler

he's on loan from the KGB's sister intelligence service in Vietnam.  So the latter.

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kokapetl

kokapetl

I don't know. Even the Jennings can really only exist in the fictional world of The Americans, the idea of Vietnam being able to provide anything close to a Jennings platinum quality agent, and that platinum agent being trained for America and not a neighboring SE Asian country, seems ludicrous. It's about as likely as Obama's birth certificate being faked so he could become the president some day. 

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crgirl412

crgirl412

I am glad Tuan has his own thread!   Thanks sistermagpie! 

I think they trust him BUT Elizabeth has given him a couple of looks that to me said that she thought he might be a loose canon.  She can't say he's not committed so she can't be looking at him thinking his weakness is going to cost them.  

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PinkRibbons

PinkRibbons

(edited)

One thing that bugs me is a huge hole in Tuan's cover story: if he had been brought to America at age 10, he would not have an accent. Now, Pasha probably wouldn't be able to tell, but presumably the Eckerts have told Tuan's story to the school he's enrolled in, and he could be asked about it by classmates. I know I would immediately start wondering about him if I he said he'd been brought over and still had an accent. It just doesn't happen that way. I know plenty of kids who were speaking unaccented English within a few months (although I realized much later in life that at least one friend in particular didn't have much vocabulary, which used to drive me nuts when we played Barbie and she would just repeat everything I said instead of responding).

My mother has been teaching ESL for years, and she's always said that with very few exceptions, almost anyone who started speaking English (in a full-submersion environment) under the age of at most 15 will not speak accented English. At 15 it's a little bit shaky -- you can almost tell people's ages at immigration by the amount of accent they have. My cousin, a work friend, and Lev Gorn (Arkady on this show) all have 15-year-old immigration accents, which is to say that you sometimes almost can't hear it, but it's still there.

Edited by PinkRibbons
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SlackerInc

SlackerInc

7 hours ago, PinkRibbons said:

One thing that bugs me is a huge hole in Tuan's cover story: if he had been brought to America at age 10, he would not have an accent. Now, Pasha probably wouldn't be able to tell, but presumably the Eckerts have told Tuan's story to the school he's enrolled in, and he could be asked about it by classmates. I know I would immediately start wondering about him if I he said he'd been brought over and still had an accent. It just doesn't happen that way. I know plenty of kids who were speaking unaccented English within a few months (although I realized much later in life that at least one friend in particular didn't have much vocabulary, which used to drive me nuts when we played Barbie and she would just repeat everything I said instead of responding).

My mother has been teaching ESL for years, and she's always said that with very few exceptions, almost anyone who started speaking English (in a full-submersion environment) under the age of at most 15 will not speak accented English. At 15 it's a little bit shaky -- you can almost tell people's ages at immigration by the amount of accent they have. My cousin, a work friend, and Lev Gorn (Arkady on this show) all have 15-year-old immigration accents, which is to say that you sometimes almost can't hear it, but it's still there.

Uhhh...my best friend of many years came on the last airlift from Saigon at age seven, was immediately adopted by a white family in small town Minnesota, grew up there with no other SE Asians, and no longer speaks any language but English.  But he has a definite accent.

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Umbelina

Umbelina

Tuan could have learned English in Vietnam as well, and developed that accent.  I think we'll learn more about just how old he was when he began speaking English, and why, and how old he really was when he was adopted.  There is backstory there.

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Umbelina

Umbelina

I like Tuan simply because he's so different from most of the anguished people we see on the Soviet side of things.  He's pretty straightforward in his hate, yet, at the same time, fairly realistic as well.  For example when he said the USA would destroy the USSR as well.  No knitted eyebrows or soulful looks from him.  He thinks it, he says it, at least when he thinks he's in safe company.

In that way, he's a wild card, but also, story wise, kind of refreshing.

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