This paper explores language policy and planning from the perspectives of global ideologies, national agendas, and local transformation in two Asian countries, Vietnam and Nepal. Through engaged ethnography, we not only unravel complex ideological contestations of neoliberal and nationalistic agendas, but also portray language policy resistance and transformation through the voice of indigenous/minority youth. Drawing on two different historical and socio-political contexts, we first describe how language policies are guided by neoliberal ideologies and nationalistic agendas that increasingly misrecognize linguistic and cultural diversity in both countries. We then draw on engaged ethnographies to reveal how Nepalese and Vietnamese indigenous/minority youth interpret, resist, negotiate, and transform policies that fail to embrace their language and sociocultural identities. Together we argue for engaged language policy and planning in which indigenous/minority youth are critically involved in interpreting, re-envisioning, and transforming language policy on-the-ground.