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Topic 2 - Culture – tradition and festival

section 1: CULTURE - CUSTOM
1. If I were to meet (an important older person) in your culture, how should I greet them to be polite and show respect?
- Firstly, take off your hat.
- Open a polite smile.
- Using polite greeting sentences to greet those people, for example the sentences equivalent to: “good morning, sir”.
- However, you should study the way to use proper titles when addressing different subjects. This is not the same to English. For example, if that person is an old woman, you are supposed to greet her with: “Chao ba a!”; whereas a greeting sentence toward an old man is “Chao ong a!”.
- It is desirable to call Vietnamese professional and government officials by their title, i.e., Mr. Assemblyman, Mr. Doctor, Mr. Lieutenant, etc.
- Instead of saying such formal greeting sentences. You can also expressing your respect toward those people by asking them some familiar questions, equivalent to “ How are you?”, “Have you had your dinner yet?”, and so on.
- About the handshake etiquette, in Vietnam, the older would be the one who offer his/her hand first. So you’d better not offer to shake hand until that person shows that he/ she is going to do so.
Women, especially those in the countryside, still shy away from shaking hands, especially with men from their own country. It is best not to offer to shake hands with a woman unless she offers her hand first.
2. Describe a custom from your country that you would like people from other countries to adopt. Explain your choice, using specific reasons and examples.
That’s about the custom of giving gifts.
     If gifts are taken for the family, they should be items that they could not easily obtain themselves. To take something that they could buy easily would be a bad reflection on their economic means. They love anything oversea, and it does not have to be expensive. If you give the children things, each should have a separate gift. It is not polite to take a whole bag of candy and give it to them as a group.
    Gifts for brides and grooms are usually given in pairs, including blankets. A single item indicates the marriage is not expected to last long. Two less expensive items are more desired than one nicer one.
3. Can you tell me something that foreigner should not do in Vietnam:
There are numerous taboos on all aspects of life in Vietnam. A few of them are as follows:
- Don’t express lavish admiration for a new baby, because the devils might hear you and steal the child because of his desirability.
- Going dutch with a Vietnamese is not appreciated. If you run into someone at a restaurant and you join his table, let him pay the whole bill or pay it all yourself. The senior person usually pays.
- Hats are not usually worn inside churches, even Catholic ones.
4. When people move to another country, some of them decide to follow the customs of the new country. Others prefer to keep their own customs. Compare these two choices. Which one do you prefer? Support your answer with specific details
- This is a difficult choice, and the decision is not always conscious. Many practical and social factors influence people.
- Very often it depends on age
- Older people have spent a lifetime doing things a certain way. Their social customs are part of who they are as people. It’s very hard for them to start doing things differently.
- The younger generation finds it easier to leave behind the culture of their native country and adapt to the customs of their new country. They are not as set in their ways as adults are. Children also feel the pressure to fit in from the other kids in school.
- A major part of adapting to the customs of a new country is learning that country’s language.
- Children learn the language in school, and use it daily while going to class and playing with other people.
- But many times adults coming to a new country don’t have time for formal language classes. Their first priority is getting a job. Sometimes they work with people from their own country, and they don’t have to use the new language. Or they may find a job that doesn’t require much speaking at all. This means even if they’re trying to learn the language, they don’t have a lot of opportunities to practice that
- For my part, I believe that people who want to make their home in a new country need to find a balance. They should keep the best of their native culture and adopt the good things they find in their new country.
5. Sometimes it is very difficult to learn the way people do things in a new culture. What can we do to make life easier for newcomers?
- Obviously, time can help them.
The longer they settle their life in that new country, the easier for them to adapt with lifestyle of the new culture due to constant observation and contacts with the local people.
- Studying the new language
Language and culture is closely related to each other. If they can speak the living country’s language fluently, it is much easier for them to understand and adapt the new culture. Also, studying new language also means studying new culture
- Making new acquaintance with the local people. These people can directly tell new resident about their habits and customs that they expect this person to observe.
6. Where is Vietnamese culture stronger, in the country or the city? Can you give some examples?
In Vietnam, culture is stronger in the country than in the city. Let’s have a look in one of the most famous custom of Vietnam: the custom of chewing betel and areca nut.
    A quid of betel consists of four materials: an areca nut, betel leaf, a chay root, and hydrated lime.
    The custom of chewing betel-nut is unique to Vietnam. Old health books claim that "chewing betel and areca nut makes the mouth fragrant, decreases bad tempers, and makes digesting food easy".
    A quid of betel makes people become closer and more openhearted. At any wedding ceremony, there must be a dish of betel and areca nut, which people can share as they enjoy the special occasion.
     During festivals or Tet Holidays, betel and areca nut is used for inviting visitors and making acquaintances.
    Nowadays, the custom of chewing betel remains popular in some Vietnamese villages and among the old. But in the urban, it is not of so popular.
7. Do traditional cultures contribute to the development of modern societies? Why? Why not?
8. Give some prominent features of your culture:
    It can be said that there were three layers of culture overlapping each other during the history of Vietnam: local culture, the culture that mixed with those of China and other countries in the region, and the culture that interacted with Western culture.
    The most prominent feature of the Vietnamese culture is that it was not assimilated by foreign cultures thanks to the strong local cultural foundations. On the contra