2004-11-17 14:38:50阿榕老師
Cross culture report:Interview a Representative of Vietnam
I. Interview a Representative of Vietnam
1. My motivation: There are getting more Taiwanese men to get married with Vietnam women, that is to say there are getting more Vietnamese to be Taiwanese’s wives and mothers. Both Mother and wife play the very important roles in the family, and family is also the base of social structure. Therefore, Taiwan’s culture is changing due to the combination of Vietnam’s culture. However, in Taiwan I never thought to talk to those Vietnamese women who married to Taiwanese. I was a little bit arrogant because most of these Vietnamese women get married with those who they never knew, and money is the beginning of their marriages. I started to think about my attitude and point of view about them since I came to U.S.A. Because I knew how difficult it is to live in a strange environment no matter what my choice was to be here.
2. My interviewee’s background: She’s working in the IV whom I have talked to for several times but never talk too much about privacy. The interview was my first time to get her background. She’s from Vietnam and has been living here for 28 years, she arrived to U.S.A. with her parents when she was four years old.
3. Vietnamese- American culture
1) Family structure
A. The relationship between parents and children: Children are supposed to provide the parents’ life when they get older, and the parents are allowed to live with the children even they’re married.
B. Respect elders: Use certain words and ways to greet elders and the words and ways are different depends on the type of the elders. They present the differences on the greeting words for different type of people.
C. Father makes the decision: In the family mother might make the decision behind father’s back, but basically main be father. Children are afraid of their father so they used to ask their mother first and then their mother will ask the father.
2) Education
A. The purpose of education: Education is very important for Vietnam’s culture. Like most of the Asian culture, in her family all the children have higher education and her father is very proud of that all his children graduated from University California. Lot of Vietnam parents push their children to attend good school and succeed in their life. Succeed in life means to have a good job and marry the right person. Succeed in life also means being able to provide the parents when they retire. However taking care of parents is very important in Vietnam culture. In addition, in her parents’ eyes all the children are equal no matter they are boys or girls.
B. Parental expectation: For my interviewee’s parents what their children have to learn is respect and Vietminh. It’s a kind of embarrassing for them if their children lost the ability to communicate with Vietnamese in Vietminh, hence they enforced the children to learn to speak their own dialect.
3) Religious and Holidays
A) Buddhist religion: They usually go to the temples to pray. There are many different rooms in the temple, so they have to go to those different rooms to give the respect to the gods.
B) Chinese New Year: Generally Chinese lunar is one month later than solar calendar, and Chinese New Year might be at the end of Jun. or the beginning of Feb. In the Chinese New Year, all the family members should get together and it’s a relaxing day means everyone doesn’t do anything at all. The woman of the family will cook a lot of food on the day before the Chinese New Year and warm the food to eat in the first day of a new lunar year. On that day, the family will bring some presents (most of the presents are food just like apple or wine) to visit their relatives and friends. And also might go to the temples to pray good luck for the next year. Parents will give children lucky money which is put in the red envelops. Red color means lucky in Vietnam.
C) Worship ancient at home: They pray their grandparents at home everyday especially on Chinese New Year. In Chinese New Year, they will bring food, like big apple, wine and traditional rice cake to go to their cousins’ house. And set up these foods in front of memorial tablet from the ancient and worship. These foods will be eaten when the worship is finished.
II. My Introspection
1. Purpose: Why did I want to have the interview
1) To choose a suitable representative: If my purpose for this interview were for marketing study of Vietnam, I might fail on the strategy. I red a news and found that I could totally misunderstand Vietnam’s society structure if I just have the information from the interview. According to the news that a Taiwanese company-Kymko sold their motorcycles very well in Vietnam and their sale volume was number two in the market. Obviously they studied Vietnam’s culture well and knew that Vietnam’s society was a maternal society, so they invited all of the retails’ wives instead of the retails to join their party and told them how much profile they could gain if they sold a motorcycle. The sales volume proved they had a successful cross-cultural communication. By the news I know I should have interviewed a native Vietnamese who was born and grew up in Vietnam if I were the marketing analyst.
2) A Vietnamese representative isn’t equal to the Vietnam: I did experience a wonderful intercultural communication with my interviewee. However I wouldn’t think I had a perfect exploration of Vietnam culture. It’s unusual to immigrate to U.S.A. for most of the Vietnamese family but my interviewee’s family can. Therefore my interviewee’s family education might be different from most of the Vietnamese families in Vietnam. In my opinions, economical ability will probably affect parental expectation to their children. Personally I think at least their family value might be different from those who married to Taiwan.
2. Attitude: What should I behave when I get touch the other cultures
1) Be equal to and respect all the cultures: I never thought to know Vietnam culture even though they are getting closer to Taiwan, and had no idea that we have so many commons in our culture until I had the interview. I knew Vietnam through American way so all I know about Vietnam is the Communist Party of Vietnam, Vietnam War and the opera of Miss Siegon.
2) Economy isn’t equal to culture: I’ll be upset if someone think my culture isn’t as good as the U.S.A.’s just because my country’s GMP is lower than American. But sarcastically, I judged others’ cultures by their GMP too. This isn’t a good attitude for an international person especially for an intercultural communication.
3. Process: How did I communicate with my interviewee during the interview
1) I though I would interview a Vietnamese who should know Vietnam culture, then I could finish my assignment as I planed. But I didn’t know that my interview would be a cross Taiwan, Vietnam and America cultural communication (maybe that’s exactly what my teacher wanted) instead of Vietnam culture exploration until I knew her background. American culture affects my interviewee more than Vietnam and she learns more about American culture. So I changed my plan and forgot my assignment just to enjoy the communication.
2) The interviewee is the main: It’s I who invited my interviewee to have the communication. So I was supported to listen more than speak, and should totally respect what she said. But this doesn’t mean I needn’t to listen or respect other communication partners if he or she isn’t invited by me. The communication we had this time was that kind of social talking. There wasn’t any business purpose, deal negotiation or conflict needed to be discussed or solved. I think it could be regarded as the beginning practicing for cross-cultural communication.
4. Expectation: Whom did I talk to?
I studied some data about Vietnam from internet and I also listed some questions for the interview. I expected all my questions could be filled out by my interviewee. I expected to know some Vietnam’s fare tales or folk songs but my interviewee didn’t know anything about that. I was disappointed in the beginning of the communication because she mightn’t respond or reply as what I expected. I focused on the things more than person because I wanted to have an efficient communication. Therefore I finished my interview in an hour at the first time. I didn’t find anything was wrong until I heard my classmate told me she had a wonderful communication with her interviewee. They went out to have dinner and talked a lot, so their communication lasted for four hours. I didn’t mean a long-time communication means a good communication, but I should consider what kind of place or occasion which my interviewee might prefer to and I should ask her how much time she was available. I should pay more attention to who she is and what her need is instead of what I want.
5. Result: My interviewee is a nice lady, even though I think I wasn’t thoughtful enough and she still would like to talk to me for the second time. Hence I can express how I appreciate to talk to her and build closer personal relationship with her. I didn’t know more about Vietnam but I made a new friend.
In my culture there is a proverb which is” The personal relationship is as thick as the paper is”. There are two meanings of the proverb, one is any kind of relationship is as weak as the paper, and the other one is we should be careful to deal with any relationship which we have. I prefer the second definition and that’s why I have the word “PAPER” to summarize my introspection for this intercultural communication. I think this proverb is suitable for the new relationship which we want to build. Actually it’s not easy to build a new relationship with anyone in the beginning especially if we don’t know to respect or care about his feeling. The mutual communication for the first time is so important to build a new relationship that we should treat it as holding a paper. Don’t stretch it otherwise it’s easily to be broken.
1. My motivation: There are getting more Taiwanese men to get married with Vietnam women, that is to say there are getting more Vietnamese to be Taiwanese’s wives and mothers. Both Mother and wife play the very important roles in the family, and family is also the base of social structure. Therefore, Taiwan’s culture is changing due to the combination of Vietnam’s culture. However, in Taiwan I never thought to talk to those Vietnamese women who married to Taiwanese. I was a little bit arrogant because most of these Vietnamese women get married with those who they never knew, and money is the beginning of their marriages. I started to think about my attitude and point of view about them since I came to U.S.A. Because I knew how difficult it is to live in a strange environment no matter what my choice was to be here.
2. My interviewee’s background: She’s working in the IV whom I have talked to for several times but never talk too much about privacy. The interview was my first time to get her background. She’s from Vietnam and has been living here for 28 years, she arrived to U.S.A. with her parents when she was four years old.
3. Vietnamese- American culture
1) Family structure
A. The relationship between parents and children: Children are supposed to provide the parents’ life when they get older, and the parents are allowed to live with the children even they’re married.
B. Respect elders: Use certain words and ways to greet elders and the words and ways are different depends on the type of the elders. They present the differences on the greeting words for different type of people.
C. Father makes the decision: In the family mother might make the decision behind father’s back, but basically main be father. Children are afraid of their father so they used to ask their mother first and then their mother will ask the father.
2) Education
A. The purpose of education: Education is very important for Vietnam’s culture. Like most of the Asian culture, in her family all the children have higher education and her father is very proud of that all his children graduated from University California. Lot of Vietnam parents push their children to attend good school and succeed in their life. Succeed in life means to have a good job and marry the right person. Succeed in life also means being able to provide the parents when they retire. However taking care of parents is very important in Vietnam culture. In addition, in her parents’ eyes all the children are equal no matter they are boys or girls.
B. Parental expectation: For my interviewee’s parents what their children have to learn is respect and Vietminh. It’s a kind of embarrassing for them if their children lost the ability to communicate with Vietnamese in Vietminh, hence they enforced the children to learn to speak their own dialect.
3) Religious and Holidays
A) Buddhist religion: They usually go to the temples to pray. There are many different rooms in the temple, so they have to go to those different rooms to give the respect to the gods.
B) Chinese New Year: Generally Chinese lunar is one month later than solar calendar, and Chinese New Year might be at the end of Jun. or the beginning of Feb. In the Chinese New Year, all the family members should get together and it’s a relaxing day means everyone doesn’t do anything at all. The woman of the family will cook a lot of food on the day before the Chinese New Year and warm the food to eat in the first day of a new lunar year. On that day, the family will bring some presents (most of the presents are food just like apple or wine) to visit their relatives and friends. And also might go to the temples to pray good luck for the next year. Parents will give children lucky money which is put in the red envelops. Red color means lucky in Vietnam.
C) Worship ancient at home: They pray their grandparents at home everyday especially on Chinese New Year. In Chinese New Year, they will bring food, like big apple, wine and traditional rice cake to go to their cousins’ house. And set up these foods in front of memorial tablet from the ancient and worship. These foods will be eaten when the worship is finished.
II. My Introspection
1. Purpose: Why did I want to have the interview
1) To choose a suitable representative: If my purpose for this interview were for marketing study of Vietnam, I might fail on the strategy. I red a news and found that I could totally misunderstand Vietnam’s society structure if I just have the information from the interview. According to the news that a Taiwanese company-Kymko sold their motorcycles very well in Vietnam and their sale volume was number two in the market. Obviously they studied Vietnam’s culture well and knew that Vietnam’s society was a maternal society, so they invited all of the retails’ wives instead of the retails to join their party and told them how much profile they could gain if they sold a motorcycle. The sales volume proved they had a successful cross-cultural communication. By the news I know I should have interviewed a native Vietnamese who was born and grew up in Vietnam if I were the marketing analyst.
2) A Vietnamese representative isn’t equal to the Vietnam: I did experience a wonderful intercultural communication with my interviewee. However I wouldn’t think I had a perfect exploration of Vietnam culture. It’s unusual to immigrate to U.S.A. for most of the Vietnamese family but my interviewee’s family can. Therefore my interviewee’s family education might be different from most of the Vietnamese families in Vietnam. In my opinions, economical ability will probably affect parental expectation to their children. Personally I think at least their family value might be different from those who married to Taiwan.
2. Attitude: What should I behave when I get touch the other cultures
1) Be equal to and respect all the cultures: I never thought to know Vietnam culture even though they are getting closer to Taiwan, and had no idea that we have so many commons in our culture until I had the interview. I knew Vietnam through American way so all I know about Vietnam is the Communist Party of Vietnam, Vietnam War and the opera of Miss Siegon.
2) Economy isn’t equal to culture: I’ll be upset if someone think my culture isn’t as good as the U.S.A.’s just because my country’s GMP is lower than American. But sarcastically, I judged others’ cultures by their GMP too. This isn’t a good attitude for an international person especially for an intercultural communication.
3. Process: How did I communicate with my interviewee during the interview
1) I though I would interview a Vietnamese who should know Vietnam culture, then I could finish my assignment as I planed. But I didn’t know that my interview would be a cross Taiwan, Vietnam and America cultural communication (maybe that’s exactly what my teacher wanted) instead of Vietnam culture exploration until I knew her background. American culture affects my interviewee more than Vietnam and she learns more about American culture. So I changed my plan and forgot my assignment just to enjoy the communication.
2) The interviewee is the main: It’s I who invited my interviewee to have the communication. So I was supported to listen more than speak, and should totally respect what she said. But this doesn’t mean I needn’t to listen or respect other communication partners if he or she isn’t invited by me. The communication we had this time was that kind of social talking. There wasn’t any business purpose, deal negotiation or conflict needed to be discussed or solved. I think it could be regarded as the beginning practicing for cross-cultural communication.
4. Expectation: Whom did I talk to?
I studied some data about Vietnam from internet and I also listed some questions for the interview. I expected all my questions could be filled out by my interviewee. I expected to know some Vietnam’s fare tales or folk songs but my interviewee didn’t know anything about that. I was disappointed in the beginning of the communication because she mightn’t respond or reply as what I expected. I focused on the things more than person because I wanted to have an efficient communication. Therefore I finished my interview in an hour at the first time. I didn’t find anything was wrong until I heard my classmate told me she had a wonderful communication with her interviewee. They went out to have dinner and talked a lot, so their communication lasted for four hours. I didn’t mean a long-time communication means a good communication, but I should consider what kind of place or occasion which my interviewee might prefer to and I should ask her how much time she was available. I should pay more attention to who she is and what her need is instead of what I want.
5. Result: My interviewee is a nice lady, even though I think I wasn’t thoughtful enough and she still would like to talk to me for the second time. Hence I can express how I appreciate to talk to her and build closer personal relationship with her. I didn’t know more about Vietnam but I made a new friend.
In my culture there is a proverb which is” The personal relationship is as thick as the paper is”. There are two meanings of the proverb, one is any kind of relationship is as weak as the paper, and the other one is we should be careful to deal with any relationship which we have. I prefer the second definition and that’s why I have the word “PAPER” to summarize my introspection for this intercultural communication. I think this proverb is suitable for the new relationship which we want to build. Actually it’s not easy to build a new relationship with anyone in the beginning especially if we don’t know to respect or care about his feeling. The mutual communication for the first time is so important to build a new relationship that we should treat it as holding a paper. Don’t stretch it otherwise it’s easily to be broken.