Today was a great first day. It was super nice to meet everyone with the welcome celebrations and dinner. Something that stood out to me when talking with the UEF students was that they don’t use the traditional Vietnamese word for hello, they instead just say common greetings in English. This came about when we were saying Xin chào when arriving at UEF and students telling us that they just say hi in English instead. I was surprised at this because I feel like hello is the most common word to learn in a language of a country you’re visiting so hearing that they do not even say it was interesting. This has be wondering if this is only revenant for the younger generations as they are much more exposed to the English language or is this also something that the older generations have adapted to as well.
Regarding the ethical issues I found it super interesting to find out that the government owns 100% of the land. At first this came as a bit of a surprise, however I later remembered that Vietnam is a communist country so it does make sense why the government owns all of the land. I want to follow up with the UEF students and see how this affects the citizens in Vietnam. Their opinion on it and more details about how owning businesses go about, as well as renovating and making changes to things that aren’t technically owned by them.
When on the city tour I noticed how the differences in how some buildings seem to be more developed surrounded by some underdeveloped buildings. However as we drove around we entered a more developed part of the city with the opera house and more high end stores as well as many hotels. Felt like it was very similar to how cities in the states have different neighborhoods that are more/less developed than others. Connecting with the ethical issues I begin to wonder if this is because of how the government owns the land and chooses to distribute it to different businesses. Questioning if this came to be because they wanted to have a more populated and developed focused area and than a more underdeveloped area.
The welcome lunch and dinner were both delicious and I thought it was interesting as well as helpful how they were showing us how to properly eat the food in front of us. At dinner talking with the UEF students we spoke about the proper and respectful way to begin dinner by waiting for your elders to take the first bite but some of them were saying they grew up with that tradition and don’t follow it as often anymore. This was interesting for me to hear as during a pre-departure class I focused a bit on the culture generation and remember reading about just how much there is a strict way to do things with elders and also how there are ways of running a household. Specifically with the household I remember talking about how the older generations still follow and believe this very deeply but the younger generations have been gearing away from it so I think its interesting this is another aspect of their traditions the current generation is moving away from.