Soukanh Thavisouk: Immigrant to advocate The Courier News Sat, 03 Jul 2010 22:18 PM PDT When Soukanh Thavisouk fled Laos for the United States in 1979, he knew "only a few words" of English. He'd learned French as a second language in Laos before the country fell to communism during the Vietnam War and he escaped as a refugee, first to neighboring Thailand.