Stuff Vietnamese people like

Vietnamese people are prejudicial for a reason. Prejudice is passed by tradition from one generation to another, by the means of Vietnamese language. You have to address Vietnamese people by personal substitutes. There are many of them, so, to do it right, you must ask or guess that person’s age and marital status. In English, starting a conversation with “I” and “you” is much simpler. In Vietnam, you need to judge.

Such questions like “How old are you?”, “Are you married?”, “How much is your salary?” are not sensitive ones. Avoiding answer them will hurt Vietnamese people a lot. Also, Vietnamese people like using the words “good person”, “bad person.” When you want to know about a person and ask a friend, you will hear her/him say, “She’s a good daughter” or “He’s a bad student.”

“How much does it cost?” is popular, too. Your neighbors will wanna know if your new motorcycle is expensive or not. Be sure that you give them a higher price, so they will give you a discourse on where to buy cheaper things. They’re a good source of information about Vietnam.

Vietnamese people are so stubbornly determined to dwell on negatives. When a white guy’s holding a Vietnamese girl’s hand on the street, Vietnamese people will cast them a nasty look. Most people will think this girl is a whore or is digging the guy’s money (especially when he’s old enough to be her father). Hardly will you find a Vietnamese person who thinks this white guy is an asshole, and you know why. Sometimes, they think it out loud to make the girl lose her face.

If you’re the target of rumors due to prejudice, remember “Ignorance is bliss.”

It’s undeniable that English is very important language for any Vietnamese person. Vietnam even has its own system of English certificates with A as the elementary, B as the intermediate and C as the advanced level. Most office jobs require those kinds of certificates. In a job interview, 9 out of 10 interviewees will say they plan to learn English if you ask them about their status/plan to attend any evening course.

Vietnamese people love practicing English as often as is humanly possible. Don’t be surprised when you happen to see a group of Vietnamese people chatting in English at a bookstore or in a restaurant. Don’t comment about their noisy behaviors, because they’re trying to let you know they are speaking English. They sign up for English speaking channels like HBO, Cinemax, Star Movies, etc. and state that these channels help them improve English a lot, while in fact, they will immediately switch to another channel if the movie doesn’t have Vietnamese subtitles.

Western tourists are easily found as English teachers here in Vietnam, without any teaching skills. Most of them handle speaking classes where they only need to discuss with their students about cultures, Vietnamese one in particular, for their own benefit. Because Vietnamese people like learning English with a native speaker, they don’t even care that they don’t improve at all after those courses.

Vietnamese people like English, whether or not they are good at it. If you’re short of topics to talk about, encourage them to speak of their efforts in learning English.

Vietnamese people like white people, apparently because they always wanna have fairer skin. If you happen to speak English, they will like you more, even if you’re from Africa. Vietnamese people like white people speaking Vietnamese even more. So, speaking a little Vietnamese or proving that you wanna learn Vietnamese is a plus. Joe Ruelle became famous overnight, and you could be, too.

Most Vietnamese people like being seen with a white person, though there will be some rumors later (just in case it’s a white guy with a Vietnamese girl). If you’re white, you’ll surely be introduced to their friends and invited to parties.

If you’re a white guy and wanna seduce a girl, walk into a room and crook a finger. Actually, you have to do nothing at all but be there, and girls will be drawn to you. Unfortunately, Vietnamese guys are very different from girls in this regard. But don’t think that marrying a Vietnamese girl is easy, because not many of those who run after you stand a chance of winning over prejudice.

Make friend with a Vietnamese person and you’ll suddenly have a group of Vietnamese people surrounding you. Be prepared to attend lots of parties, events, “interviews” of all sorts, because here you’ll be treated like a Hollywood celebrity. However, Vietnamese people won’t like much your rejections to accompany them, because they’ll lose an opportunity to show themselves off and lose face with their friends.

There’s no special reason why Vietnamese people like the day a lot, maybe just because it’s the day people can start passing messages around through Yahoo Messenger, and put them on the status of their social network pages. You wanna know what those messages are? Very simple. It’s Today’s Friday the 13th, or anything they got from other people.

Most Vietnamese people only know Friday the 13th as the day of bad luck. Few of them knows the origin of Friday the 13th or can actually tell a story about it. But they do acknowledge a few days ahead that the next Friday will be the 13th.

Friday the 13th seldom occurs. That’s why Vietnamese people make sure that they mention the day at least once. If they didn’t talk about it at all, they would feel like forgetting an important day in their lives. As if it were their wedding anniversary! Of course, Vietnamese people also grab this opportunity to impress people who don’t happen to remember this special day. The fact that other people will parrot unthinkable things they say make them very proud.

If you’re a white person, and wanna befriend with Vietnamese, learning some terms like paraskavedekatriaphobia, or telling your own experience of the day would be useful because Friday the 13th occurs thrice this year. They then can’t help running to the first person they know to retell your story.