Today we had our first Vietnamese language class, and the UEF student who was helping us with our fledgling Vietnamese skills assigned us our Vietnamese name. My new name, Thắng, means “win” or “victory” in Vietnamese, in correlation with the meaning of my English name (Nicholas) — “victory of the people”. This experience was definitely a win, though my Vietnamese language skills have a far ways to go before I can claim any victory!

In addition to our first language class, today was also our first site visit. We visited GreenViet, a company specializing in green building consultation and conservation. In the past dozen years, this company has seen remarkable success. I believe a large portion of this success can be attributed to being in the right place at the right time. 12 years ago is about when the sustainable engineering industry as a whole was taking off as concerns about climate change festered. GreenViet was able to fall right in line with the boom of this industry and this has resulted in great company success as they are able to meet the demand for strong sustainable engineering services. In addition, Vietnam and Southeast Asia as a whole is a region susceptible to the effects of climate change. While helping prevent climate change requires a global effort, there is more of an urgency in these areas since the effects are more closely felt. Therefore, there is more of a market for GreenViet’s services due to their geography — they’re in the “right place”.

GreenViet would struggle greatly without strong international connections as it is deeply integrated into the international business environment. It utilizes global partnerships and works on many projects in other countries, such as China, Japan, Korea, and Singapore, as per the presentation. International projects make up a significant portion of their business and have helped to globalize their company, ultimately driving more revenue. Thus, I believe U.S. tariffs may have an adverse effect on their business as the tariffs placed on Vietnam will drive foreign investments away and GreenViet would not be immune to this — a testament to Vietnamese globalization.

Mr. Quang, the lecturer for GreenViet, possessed many admirable qualities that seem to also be another reason for GreenViet’s success. In my opinion, he was very well spoken despite English not being his native language, and he had very insightful answers to student questions. He also had a multidisciplinary background that really resonated with me.