Vietnam
By Mariya Levenets
Introduction
• Location: Southeast Asia
• Formal Name: Socialist
Republic of Vietnam
• Capital: Hanoi
• Population: 83.5 million and
grows by 1.04 percent.
Culture
• Worship of ancestors
• Holidays
o There are eleven lunar holidays
• Tet nguyen dan (Lunar New Year)
• Tet thuong nguyen
• Tet trung nguyen
• Attitudes
o Respect teachers and parents.
• Dress
o Special Occasion
• Women
• Men
Customs
• Formal Greeting: Shake hands
• Other: Greet verbally and bow the head slightly. As
well, maintain about three feet of distance.
• Men are considered as the authority.
• Women are supposed to take care of the children
in the family.
Prejudices
• Vietnamese were not allowed citizenship in
Cambodia and were removed from their place of
residence.
• About 200,000 out of 450,000 Vietnamese were
murdered.
• Many were forced to move to South Vietnam.
• About 150,000 ethnic Vietnamese were forced to
migrate to Vietnam.
Injustices
• During the Vietnam War many innocent children,
women, and children were killed.
• Innocent children and women were killed during
the My Lai incident.
• More than 500 women, children, and men were
killed.
• Some of the United States soldiers raped women
and teenagers and then killed the victims.
Stereotypes and Negative
Images
• Vietnamese are ‘gooks’.
• Vietnamese are stereotyped as generalizing that
they are people living in a third world country in
Asia.
Positive Images
• Vietnamese are very respectful people.
• The Vietnamese appreciate kindness and hard
work.
Taboos
•
•
•
•
•
Touching someone’s head
Waving index finger to get someone’s attention
Crossing index fingers
Using many hand gestures
Hands on hips or arms crossed on the chest
Tips for Teachers
•
•
•
•
Be on time
Direct contact is not suggested
Respect personal space
No touching during a conversation
Tips for Teachers
• Provide notes to the student written in simple
English.
• Avoid taboos to prevent miscommunication.
• Address the topic of the Vietnam War carefully.
• Useful phrases:
o Xin chao (Formal Greeting)
o Co khoe khong? (How are you doing?)
References
•
Brigham Young University & ProQuest Information and Learning Company. (2007).
Asia and Oceania. Provo, UT: ProQuest Information and Learning Co.
•
Cookman, Claude. (2007). An American atrocity: the my lai massacre concretized
in a victim’s face. Journal of American History, 94(1), 154-162. Retrieved from
http://search.ebscohost.com/ogin.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=25498521
&site=ehost-live
•
Enhrentraut, S. (2011). Perpetually temporary: citizenship and ethnic Vietnamese in
Cambodia. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 34(5), 779-798. Retrieved from
http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sih&AN=59877112
&site=ehost-live
References
•
Maguire, M., & Saris, Jamie. (2007). Enshrining Vietnamese-Irish lives. Anthropology Today, 23(2),
9-12. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost. com/login.aspx?direct =true&db=sih&AN
=24596298&site=ehost-live
•
Juan, Karin Aguilar–San. (2009). Little saigon’s : staying Vietnamese in America.
from http://site.ebrary.com/ lib/molloy/docDetail.action?docID=10353992
•
Vietnam. (n.d.). Retrieved April 1, 2012, from http://www.culturecross ing.net/
basics_business_ student _details.php?Id=7&CID=223
Retrieved