Vietnamese bad habits

[Oriani]

I hope you keep being an independet country!!!

[MissLT]

Thanks, but it's the matter of time that takes them to invade us. Right now, Vietnam is their "little brother." Nonetheless, I don't think Chinese government has given the hope to make Vietnam as a part of their country.

[illinoisboy]

Rose is right. And it is not a matter of education. It is national character. Vietnamese don't need to be drunk to be rude. They are always rude. In the street they will turn their motorcycles right into you without looking or apologizing. It is normal. They ride on the sidewalks right at you. They do not obey the rules of the road, if there are any. They go straight through red lights, no problem. They honk their horns even early on a Sunday morning when almost no one is on the street, honking all the way down the street. It is normal. Why? A honk just means get out of my way. In the swimming pool it is the same. They are not very good swimmers, but they will compete to get ahead of you, turn into you, bump you, kick you. Walking is the same as swimming or riding a motorbike. You just have to watch out for yourself because they will NOT look out for you when they are walking or doing anything else. It is been my experience that they are selfish, rude and aggressive. Forget about fraud, deceit and theft. That is another whole question.

[illinoisboy]

I just read Rose's post about waiting in line in a "queu" as the British call it. Yes, interesting concept. Vietnamese simply do not wait in lines. Back to what I said about not being polite, or even having a conception of how to be polite. She had to learn about standing in line and waiting your turn. I went to a Vietnamese cultural festival with my English club and I stood in line for I don't know how long waiting for some pork to be skinned from a whole hog. One Vietnamese after another, male and female, elbowed in front of me, and didn't act like I was there. They pushed, they put their backs to my face. What made it worse is that the guy behind the counter was just like they were. He just filled the plate of whomever shoved it in front of me. That's polite? Apparently. I'm not talking about bad habits like picking your nose or belching in public. As someone said, every country has their own peculiar habits. These are generally trivial. I'm talking about, for example, people getting on a bus before other people get off - pushing all the time. About people shoving into an elevator before others get off. About people bumping in front of you when you are in line at the Post Office.

Now I ask you Vietnamese: is this true? Do I exaggerate? Do you think people can at least make an effort to consider other people? Do you really think it is a matter of education, like education in school, or education by the government?

What could the government do anyway? There are plenty of laws, such as traffic laws. It's just that in Vietnam, no one obeys them. Just try to cross the street on a green light. Maybe you are used to people practically running you over.

On the good side, when they are not on their motorbikes, getting on and off buses and elevators, [not] standing in line, when they are on the other hand in private homes, in private conversation, in class, in the countryside, I have found Vietnamese people to be generous and kind. I really love my students. They are so respectful to me, and of course polite, just great to have in class. The people I know in my building are also nice (forget it if you are a stranger, though - expect to be stared at relentlessly). I just don't understand how people who can be so very nice can go outside on the street and act like such barbarians.

[kiahassan]

hm let me share my experience.. i think yess vietnamese generally are very very very rude..
1st. when we each airport, me n a friend of mine encounter a rude immigration officer. me n my fren went to the counter together, and we were being scolded and ask to go to the counter one by one with hand gestures as if we were beggars.
2nd. we board a taxi well known for their ethics,called 'vinnasun' taxi, yes they dont charge more than what we should pay, but the driver cant speak english at all and suggested us to go to an expensive hotel while we had clearly told him 15 dollars was our limit budget. when we refused he simply stop by the roadside and and ignore my request to send me to a few hotels a mentioned to him. say thank u? never from a vietnamese. what more an indication to say sorry that he could not help us.
3rd.the only nicest thing was our hotel receptionist name 'HA' (hoang poang hotel, no 156 le thanh ton street, district 1) who was really helpful and nice. other staff were equally rude and less helpfull.
4th. we when to ben thant market the next morning, feeling great and wish we could shop like crazy, but the moment we step into the market, i could not help but noticing how rude a viatnamese can be. they were pulling our hands, give a ridiculous price, when we negotiate they either make a facial gesture or say something in vietnamese language, before giveng a cheaper but still ridiculous price. when we try to walk away, either they will curse us in vietnamese languange, or push our backs, or pull the material we are holding.
not rude enough? wait, we have more
5th. we went to a spa. my fren wish to do facial at ARMANI SPA, dong du street. she thought the price of 35dollars, very expensive will come with a great service. however, the person in charge was very rough, she pour something on the face roughly, with the bottle mouth consistently touching her face, and there is no basic facial service after all. it was so amatur. when she complaned and said that she will write a bad review about them, theyu said GO AHEAD!! no sorry, no discount no nothing!!!
6th. we went back to ben thant market, finding tailor for baju kurung. frustrated, they give us price of which we can do 2 baju kurung in malaysia! but thinking taht they can do it in one day, we gave it a shot. wow! the overconfident girl take the measurement, n refuse to take the sample we brought.she even say her baju will be great and we will come to do more.. n dang!!!! the baju was oversized and outa shape!! even they had corrected the baju for us, but the did not say sorry or thank u, they blame the tailor and told us it is not their fault or at least something tat will make us go there again.
7th. went to another market in district 5, worst. the clever tailor keep on interrupting what we were trying to tell her! she acted like she had been sewing for a hundred years. when the baju kurung was ready, it was out of shape, not following what we want. when she came and send it to the hotel, she blame us and say we agreed to what she had said.
7th back to the airport, same thing. rude immigration officer. very very rude, chewing gum, talk to us while looking away from us, shouts, playing with his cellphone, just rude. some stupidpretty girl almost cause me to fell as she was rushing to the airport door. her luggage rrub my right leg and her body crash my right shoulder. and she simply pass by. very very rude. if i have a choice, i would never go to vietnam again.

[razzanoshoes]

Yep very rude. Been here 9months and cant wait to leave. So sick of being run down - on the pavement. Their constant pushing ahead of someone wether its on the road or in the supermarket s really annoying when you're tired after being woken at 5am from yappig inconsiderate voices right outside your door. But what really gets me is the presumption that you cant speak Vietnamese so therefore its ok to talk about you. They do it in shops all the time. If the customer is viet they certainly dont laugh and keep their childish need to talk about others discreet.
Ive now moved nto my 3rd guest house. 1st stole my money and the 2nd ruined many expensive clothes and numerous times I found staff had been in my room despite orders not to be in there. I moved out after coming back and finding 1 girl looking through my wardrobe ( she didnt even work there) and another girl using my make -up.) Now Ive kindly been given contaminated water from a dodgy company. I had been drinkig it for sometime before noticing worms and dangerous algae in it. Stomach probs explained. Showed landlord and 10 minutes later I had to physically fight to get a sample. It seems they are too terrorfied to do anything about it. These companies poison people then threaten people if they complain. When I told everyone at work why i was off sick only the foreigners were shocked. Everyone either laughed ( how funny cancer causing bacteria that make you ill is) or just shrugged uninterested. Actually this didnt shock me as its the same group of "educated" educators who believe that putting a motorcycle helmet on a childs head will deform it. When you explain that its atually hitting the pavement headfirst without one that will cause damage, they think you're crazy, laugh at you and then end the conversation with this point. A helmet will mess a childs hair do. This is usually followed by laughing and about you in rapid vietnamese. Rude and stupid.
I dont beleive that they are intentionally rude but they dont seem to think about consequences and they tend to just do/react without thinking. They dont just dont care so I can see change coming. Children are given no moral guidence from parents or teachers. There is zero emphasis on social skills in school. When a child does something wrong they are usuallly hit ( sometimes abusively) and just told not to do it. Never why. Parents send their 5yr old chldren to 3 different schools, 7 days a week to avoid parenting. These parents often struggle to understand why their 5 yr old hasnt grasped long divison and algebra. Often blaming the teacher or IQ testing their normal 5 yr old. When a problem like dyslexia or ADD iss brought to their attention its ignored. I understand its embrassing but so is being an illiterate adult.
I know these issues happen in every country and its not culture shock. i have lived in thailand/laos/china/cambodia for many years without bother. I think the government is to blame and can easily fix it. Companies/ drivers/ ;parents should be massively fined. Hit them hard where it hurts and maybe people will learn to respect others. people who respect generally arent rude

[teacup]

I'm a Vietnamese and i feel very sorry to see that you have bad experiences while staying in Vietnam. it's really hurtful to say that Vietnamese are very rude but i myself accept that that's the truth, horribly true. i'm still a student at a university and there are a lot of international students from Australia, Africa, America,..staying there too. many times i want to do a research on how rude are Vietnamese in the view of foreigners but after talking with some of them i know that it must be 100% of them think that Vietnamese are rude. students are late for class for 30 minutes, that's normal in their view. many talk loud and laugh in the class like there is no existence of the teacher. i'm so crazy when thinking about this fact because it happens that they don't respect other students. the most horrible experience i have at class is that a boy, who is older than me and look handsome sitting next to me during lecture time and continuously pick his nose, oh my heaven! i tried to stay away from that boy since then. i just want to say that i really feel sorry for foreign students in Vietnam if they have to get accustomed to a worse lifestyle then that in their country. that's what i think too, i feel angry and sometimes very shameful about bad habits of Vietnamese.