Summary Blog

I had some luck in my attempts to investigate Vietnamese culture because there are plenty of resources available on the Internet for people who want to learn. My intention was to use this information, along with interviews with my former roommate Nick and his friends to learn about his culture, however I was only able to interview Nick alone, so my data is limited to one person’s responses and views. As I shared in my previous blog, the Vietnam used literary Chinese as its system of writing for a long time, as did the countries around it, which I find extremely interesting. Albeit a bit off track of where I planned to explore the language, but relevant to acknowledge that many cultures can use a language completely foreign to their own as a system of writing, without being affected by it in the way they perceive things.

For much of its recorded history, Vietnam was considered "indochina" along with Cambodia and Laos because of the influence of both India and China on the culture, however the Chinese were the first to "conquer and claim" the territory around 111 BC, so there is a more evidence of Chinese influence which is consistent with much of Southeast Asia (columbia.edu). Although the origin and history of the country is interesting, it isn't quite as relevant to intercultural communication, so from here on out I will focus on what I learned form my interview with Nick.

My interview with Nick started with how he reacted during the transition from Vietnam to the US, and what he noticed about differences in the cultures. Nick was acutely aware of his feelings, and simply responded “culture shock,” the first big difference was the difference in the attitude towards time. Many Americans hold strict time schedules, especially institutions such as schools and businesses. He shared that “I was late for class in high school and I got punishment by washing dishes” which is consistent with my experience in high school, repeated tardiness would result in suspension. In addition, this affected his experience with people in general, and he felt that people viewed him negatively because he was not accustomed to being on time.

According to his feelings about moving, Nick experienced the emotions consistent with the U-Curve model from Martin and Nakayama (337). I asked him to describe his feelings about moving, and if they changed over time, to which he said, “I was happy at the moment when i stepped into the airplane to go here. Then one week later I miss everything,” which shows the high level of excitement for a new place, then the low of the U-curve. The end of the model is when the person learns to adapt, and Nick mentioned this as well, “the missing feeling gradually disappear [because] I got used to the way US people live.”

One thing nick mentioned is that he noticed the independence of Americans, because he said “he big thing I can observe is that US kid, they want to live independent so they start to work early, even in high school. Asian kids still don’t work much even in college.” This theme resonates with Martin and Nakayama, although in a different context, because it is referenced that in romantic relationships in the United States, “Togetherness is important as long as it doesn’t interfere too much with a person’s freedom” (406). The takeaway message here is that Americans are very independent, whereas Vietnamese are very collectivist.

The best part about my interview with Nick was to see the themes I learned about intercultural communication really come to light, and be expressed in very real ways by someone who lived it. He was able to articulate many themes, difference in time perspective, the U-Curve model of culture shock, and independent vs collectivist culture.

Something to note, in Lincoln, there is a food truck called Heoya, as well as Pho Factory, which serve Vietnamese food for those who would be interested in trying it.

References:

http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/tps/1000bce_vn.htm#bronze
Martin, J.N. & Nakayama, T.K. (2013). Intercultural Communication in Contexts (6th ed.) New York: NY: McGraw Hill.

Cuong Le (Nick), Personal Interview 12/3/2013