Stuff Vietnamese people like

In Vietnam, the Academy Awards is known as the Oscars. It’s an important event here because people like American movies. While the Vietnamese film industry lacks a movie that is worth watching, Vietnamese people won’t have to complain much, because they can enjoy American movies at the cinema for as cheap as $1.5-3.5.

Academy Awards is the topic for every February, when the Tet holidays are over. Unlike Grammy Awards which nominations are not new, most of the movies nominated by AMPAS haven’t reached the Vietnamese audience yet. That’s why Vietnamese people will do anything, pay any price (this is not quite true), resort to any form (that means they download them in the office), just to watch those movies before the Oscars night. They will recommend and share those movies to others who haven’t watched them yet, and win the race.

Unlike Westerners, Vietnamese people don’t throw any Oscar party where people get involve in an Oscar pool. Somehow, they stick to their imaginative winner list, and if any in this list didn’t win, they would blame the Academy for bad judgment.

Every year, the awards history is mentioned again on newspapers. How many Vietnamese movies have been nominated for Best Foreign Language Film? Ask them, and they’ll be very embarrassed. Don’t blame Vietnamese people for their ignorance with Vietnamese movies, they are not xenophiles, they are learning English through American movies.

Vietnamese people work overtime a lot, due to the nature of their work in specific industries like IT, advertising, PR, etc. And that means they spend more than the average one-third of a day in the office. What’s better to compensate for the unpaid overtime (applied sometimes) than downloading in the office?

Unsurprisingly, the truth is, Vietnamese people download in the standard 9-5, too. Because ISP cost in Vietnam is rather high while the speed is quite slow. Most people limit the use of Internet to minimum, only web browsing or chatting. Downloading at home, no matter how irritatingly tempting the prospect seems, is a road they are not going to travel.

In the office, there are more than one connection, with much higher speed. Vietnamese people are very economical. They think that it would be a waste if they didn’t take the opportunity to download pirated software, music, American movies, TV shows, e-books, etc.

Of course, when there’s an Internet downtime or a blackout, they will feel exasperated. They will make it sound as if they wanted to work, while in fact, they don’t like their downloading corrupted. Their downloading habit affects the office operation, causing low productivity as well as slower connection. So often do they hide it from their colleagues. In companies where downloading is limited or prohibited, people remain more discreet.

When in Rome, do as the Romans do. When in Vietnam, do download in the office.

Yahoo Messenger is the most popular means of online communication in Vietnam. Yes, if you don’t wanna lose contact with Vietnamese people, it’s best you set up a Yahoo account and start learning Vietnamese way of chatting (passing everything people send you to your acquaintances, except your bosses).

Vietnamese people choose Yahoo Messenger because they exceptionally like the emoticons set (smileys) from Yahoo Messenger 6.0. They consider it the best way to transfer their emotions in a message. If they are on Linux and use Pidgin or Kopete, for sure they try their best to find a way to install the Yahoo emoticons. They prefer chatting to downloading in the office, though both are often disallowed. If they have a day off work due to blackout, they’re available to chat once they’re at home.

Another Yahoo product Vietnamese people don’t wanna give up is Yahoo 360. Since Yahoo announced the closure of this poorly performing social network, they have been scared to lose their blog entries. Even though there are better blog services, Vietnamese people always choose Yahoo 360, because they can easily connect with the Yahoo Messenger network they’ve already used.

Vietnamese use the “status” to update you about their thoughts. Their “status” changes every day, every hour, even minute, every time Vietnamese people think of something interesting to share with others.

Don’t suggest Vietnamese people to use Windows Live Messenger, Skype, Google Talk, AOL Instant Messenger, ICQ, or anything that most people use in your home country. In Vietnam, either of those IMs would come a very poor second!