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Tôi phải ở lại trong ngôn ngữ này, như đã trong một cơn mơ bổng, như đã trong một cú kéo chìm, một tự trói buộc, nhọc nhằn và vẫn ở đó, chút lửa nhen. | I have to reside in this language, as in a flying dream, as in a sinking down, a self-bound, burdensome and still there, little fire.

Editor’s note: This essay by Nhã Thuyên opens a notebook of experimental and experiential Vietnamese poetry, the collection of which is gathered here . The pieces of this notebook, having transformed across time and space as well as various material forms, are presented here in their digital bodies as reproductions of the print edition tôi viết (tiếng Việt) | i write (in Vietnamese) (AJAR, 2021) and its art exhibition in Hanoi . We encourage readers to click on any images of text for enlargement. Print copies of tôi viết (tiếng Việt) | i write (in Vietnamese) are available for purchase here . Read the English version of editor Nhã Thuyên’s opening essay here.

Vài ghi chú về tôi viết (tiếng Việt

tôi viết (tiếng Việt) | i write (in Vietnamese) tượng hình một triển lãm của các sinh thể, vật thể chữ, tạo ra từ sự chơi giữa văn bản và hình ảnh, âm giọng trên nhiều chất liệu và phương tiện, kèm ấn phẩm thơ của những người viết (tiếng Việt) và người trẻ làm nghệ thuật ở Việt Nam.

Khi nghĩ về từ, về chữ như một vật thể hay một sinh thể, hiện diện đó liệu có thể là một hữu thực-động đậy hay chỉ là một tưởng tượng thơ? Chữ viết phẳng dẹt trên giấy trên màn hình có thể cọ quậy, hít thở, được tay ta cầm lên, đặt xuống? Chữ, có thể là một thứ gì, không dính chặt với các tiền giả định về nghĩa để tạo nghĩa bằng hiện diện sinh-vật thể? Và cái “đẹp” của các sinh-vật thể chữ bày ra ấy được nhìn thế nào để không bị bó buộc trong cảm giác về tính trang trí của vật liệu? 

Quá trình làm việc của các tác giả, dịch giả và nghệ sĩ trong dự án này, cốt lõi và xuất phát điểm là hành động viết. Viết chữ và chữ hiện, biến, sinh, hóa, tan, loãng, được, mất; viết chữ dịch thành viết họa, viết hình, viết âm, viết giấy, viết đất, viết nước. Những sinh-vật thể chữ ở đây là quá trình tìm, thử, thử sai, dịch và tự dịch giữa các vật liệu và các phương tiện, để quay lại câu hỏi ban đầu: tôi có thể viết một thứ tiếng (Việt) nào, và thế nào? Câu hỏi này thiết thân đặc biệt với những người viết trẻ, những người viết đã-đang dùng không chỉ tiếng Việt trong đời sống và viết, những người viết tiếng Việt không bắt rễ địa lý, những người viết không có lựa chọn nào ngoài tiếng Việt, những người muốn ăn đời ở kiếp với tiếng Việt… Một câu hỏi về rễ , nguồn . Các dòng chảy vừa chảy vừa xa nguồn. Rễ mọc ngược hút khí. tôi viết (tiếng Việt) tự thân là một lưỡng lự, lưỡng nan, tiến, thoái. Chỉ hành động viết của người viết, như hành động chảy của nước, như hành động tìm chất của rễ, nhẫn nại, tẻ nhạt, miệt mài, chập chững, len lỏi, cuốn trôi.

Tại sao tiếng Việt, và một cái ngoặc?

Cuối năm 2019 đầu năm 2020, tôi phác thảo vài ý tưởng tôi (cùng) đọc thơ tiếng Việt . Tôi đã e dè gửi một lời mời trong những ngày tháng đóng cửa lảm nhảm nói chuyện với tường của mình: tôi sống và viết tiếng Việt (thế) nào? Đây cũng là sự tiếp tục, trong một cách thức lẻ hơn, cụ thể hơn, câu hỏi lúc phác thảo một hình hài AJAR: có một cộng đồng nào của những người viết (tiếng Việt) và cá nhân nương dựa, tham dự trong cộng đồng ấy thế nào? Từ lời mời mở đó, một nhóm nhỏ người trẻ yêu mến chữ nghĩa hình thành. Vừa ấn định ngày gặp tại một thư viện riêng, Hà Nội bùng dịch. Một vài người quyết định không đến, nhưng hầu hết chúng tôi vẫn gặp nhau và ngồi cạnh nhau trong căn phòng nhỏ, rì rầm tập thơ Bến lạ của Đặng Đình Hưng và trong một khoảnh khắc, quên đi khung cảnh bắt đầu trở nên hỗn độn hơn của thành phố. Ba tháng dập dềnh các cuộc gặp on-offline, chủ ý và ngẫu hứng, đứt nối thời gian và xáo trộn không gian, xoay quanh các tác giả, tác phẩm, các chủ đề thơ tiếng Việt, thơ dịch – dịch thơ, người xưa kẻ nay, Đặng Đình Hưng, Phùng Cung, Phạm Công Thiện, Hoàng Cầm, Tô Thùy Yên, Đinh Hùng, Tản Đà, các tác giả AJAR đã xuất bản và của chính những người tham dự mang tới. Mỗi người bày ra một sự đọc, cùng những băn khoăn về đọc và viết, cụ thể hơn, đọc và viết thơ tiếng Việt. 

tôi viết (tiếng Việt) nối dài chuỗi thảo luận nhiều cảm hứng đó, và/để đối diện câu chuyện khó và khó san sẻ hơn. Những mặt và mặt nạ dần thân thuộc và thêm đôi ba mặt xa lạ thân thuộc khác nữa, nghe và nói qua màn hình Zoom, lúc mau lúc thưa, lúc hào hứng lúc vô vọng, lúc kéo dài tới khuya, lúc ngắt giữa chừng. Mỗi tuần một câu hỏi được xới lên, viết hay không viết, tiếng mẹ hay tiếng người ngoài, ta hay tây và những từ đó thực sự có ý nghĩa gì, trong và ngoài, (kiếm) sống và viết, chuyên-nghiệp dư, các chủ đề dễ lọt tai bắt mắt, các nhóm phái, các tạp chí, các mô hình xuất bản, quá khứ và hiện tại, tính chính trị của viết… Mỗi người tiếp tục đọc, gợi ý đọc, không nhất thiết các văn chương tiếng Việt, và nhiều hơn là theo mối quan tâm của từng người, bất kể comics hay Đường thi. Những cái tên được nhắc nhỏm, xếp hàng dài trong ký ức đọc: M.Rilke, M.Duras, L.Borges, Charles Olson, Sylvia Plath, Linda Le, Đinh Linh, Phạm Thị Hoài, Dương Nghiễm Mậu và những nhà văn tôi chưa từng nghe đến. Đọc “văn mẫu”, để nhớ và quên, để viết sự đọc, để viết cùng người sống và người khuất, để nghĩ về mình như một người đọc, “đọc dở và đọc nốt” (chữ dùng của Phạm Thị Hoài, một nhà văn viết tiếng Việt xa xứ các bạn thường nhắc), đọc trôi dạt và đọc neo đậu. Những tiếp cận cá nhân về viết giữa các nghệ thuật được đề xuất dưới dạng những thực hành ở thì hiện tại hoàn thành tiếp diễn: những di sản, những thể nghiệm viết đã và đang xảy ra như thế nào và ta có thể viết thế nào từ đây? Làm thế nào để bền bỉ thơ sống thơ, theo nghĩa rộng rãi nhất của từ này, và làm thế nào những ý hướng viết không dễ thỏa mãn thị trường sống sót được? Mỗi người cũng “mò” vào nháp viết và dịch của nhau, chấp nhận nỗi sợ hãi bị nhìn thấy để bàn thảo các chuyện kỹ thuật bếp núc, chuyện viết rồi/để mà xóa, các bài tập về cấu trúc, cách biên tập, việc giữ hay bỏ những bài thơ đầu tay, cả việc viết thơ (thất) tình thế nào. Họ tự nhiên xây dựng các kết nối, cùng làm các dự án riêng chung. 

Cấu trúc 12 tuần đọc viết ban đầu thành một sự đi dai dẳng hơn. Nhìn lại bản lưu các giờ đọc viết, dằng dặc các tác giả tác phẩm, các bản thảo đọc dở, các nhật ký ngỏ, tôi ngợp trong năng lượng của những mỏ quặng ẩn lộ kho báu nơi những người viết trẻ còn bẽn lẽn với danh xưng “người viết”. Mong muốn vị kỷ của tôi phần nào hiện thực hóa: tôi nhìn thấy những người đọc, người viết tươi mới, đang ấp ủ các dự định viết, vỡ vạc các thực hành chữ, dù hướng tới viết như một chốn riêng hay một việc, một nghề, một nghiệp. Những cái tên đang ủ nụ và đã nở trong tập sách và triển lãm này mong sẽ dần trở nên thân thuộc với bạn đọc, trong những phấp phỏng đọc viết của riêng họ.

Câu hỏi về cộng đồng trở nên riết róng hơn với riêng tôi sau một chặng đường đủ dài, từ những bước háo hức với sum vầy, kết, tụ, mắt mở, đến những bước chao đảo vì tản mát, chia, lìa, khép cửa. Một cộng đồng không làm sẵn mà luôn phá vỡ và biến đổi. Không có cách nào tuyệt đối không nhọc nhằn cọ xát. Không có cách nào tuyệt đối cô độc, khi còn mơ cái cộng đồng của hai tồn hữu-biểu tượng của Maurice Blanchot: “How not to search that space where, for a time span lasting from dusk to dawn, two beings have no other reason to exist than to expose themselves totally to each other- totally, integrally, absolutely- so that their common solitude may appear not in front of their own eyes but in front of ours, yes, how not to look there and how not to rediscover the negative community, the community of those who have no community?” (Maurice Blanchot, Unavowable Community, bản dịch tiếng Anh của Pierre Joris) [Tạm dịch: Làm thế nào không tìm kiếm không gian đó, khi từ hoàng hôn dùng dắng tới ban mai, hai hữu thể không có lý do tồn tại nào khác ngoài việc phơi trần hoàn toàn trước kẻ khác – hoàn toàn, nguyên khối, tuyệt độ – và nỗi cô độc chung của họ có thể hiện ra không phải ngay trước mắt họ, mà trước mắt ta, phải, làm thế nào không nhìn ra nơi đó và làm thế nào không lần lại cái cộng đồng âm bản trống không này, cái cộng đồng của những người không có cộng đồng?”] Mỗi cá thể đọc-viết đang trở thành là một cấu trúc khép phải mở ra, lần nữa, lần nữa nữa. Mỗi người viết luôn là một giữa những người viết người đọc khác, những người đã viết và những cuốn sách đã ra đời cùng những người chưa viết và những cuốn sách chưa ra đời. Mỗi cuộc gặp một gương soi. Tôi luôn là tôi số nhiều. Thuộc về và không thuộc về. Mắc kẹt và không tự huyễn

(Nhiều) tôi muốn ở lại trong ngôn ngữ này, trong tiếng Việt, sau những rời rụng, những tàn phá, những hủy hoại, những chia cắt, những kết nối lại. Tôi phải ở lại trong ngôn ngữ này, như đã trong một cơn mơ bổng, như đã trong một cú kéo chìm, một tự trói buộc, nhọc nhằn và vẫn ở đó, chút lửa nhen. 

Tháng Hai, 2021

Some notes on tôi viết (tiếng Việt) | i write (in Vietnamese)

tôi viết (tiếng Việt) | i write (in Vietnamese) imagines and constructs an exhibition of word-objects and letter-beings born from a play between texts and images and sounds in various materials and mediums, along with poetic prints of young (Vietnamese) writers and artists in Vietnam.

When thinking of a word, a letter, as an object or a living thing, can this presence possibly be a wriggling being, or does it only exist as a poetic imaginary? Is it possible for letters, lying on the flat surface of a paper or a screen, to jiggle, breathe in and out, be picked up and put down by our hands? Could a letter be something that does not stick tightly with presumptions of its signification, but instead connotes the presence of its object and being? And how can the “beauty” of these exhibited word-objects and letter-beings be seen without being constrained in the decorative effect of the materials?

The core and starting point of the authors, translators, and artists in this project is the writing action. Writing letters: they appear and disappear, are born and transform, melt and dilute, are lost and are found; writing letters translates into writing pictures, writing moving images, writing sounds, writing paper, writing earth, writing water. The word-objects and letter-beings here are a process of searching, experimenting, failing to experiment, translating and self-translating, between different materials and mediums, to come back to the initial question: which (Vietnamese) language could I write in , and how? This is an intimately significant question to the young writers gathered here: writers who use languages other than Vietnamese in their ordinary and writing lives, writers who write in Vietnamese and are not yet geographically rooted, writers whose only choice is Vietnamese, and writers who want to commit their whole lives to Vietnamese. It is a question of root , of origin . As streams flow away from their origin when forming their existences. As roots absorb nutrients from the air to grow upwards. tôi viết (tiếng Việt) | i write (in Vietnamese) is by itself a hesitation, a dilemma, a going back and forth. What apparently exists: the act of writing, as the act of water flowing, as the act of roots absorbing nutrients, patient, boring, resilient, tiptoeing, creeping, and floating.

Why Vietnamese, and a parenthesis?

By the end of 2019 and the start of 2020, I had sketched some ideas for a workshop series tôi (cùng) đọc thơ tiếng Việt | i (with you) read Vietnamese poetry . I was hesitant to send out an invitation to people whom I didn’t yet know after the months and days I had closed my doors for soliloquy, speaking to my own walls: How could I live and write in Vietnamese, and in which Vietnamese language? The project continues, in a more private and concrete way, the question asked when cherishing an AJAR being: Is there a community of (Vietnamese) writers that each individual can rely on and participate in, and how?

As a response to my open invitation, a small group of young word-loving people formed. Our first meeting was set at a private library during the COVID-19 outbreak in Hanoi. Some decided to stay home, but most still met and sat together in a small room, murmuring the words of Đặng Đình Hưng’s Bến lạ ( Unfamiliar Landing ) into each other’s ears and for a moment, forgetting the growing chaotic scene of the city. For the next three months, we would hold meetings online and offline, intentionally and improvisationally, un-chronological and spatially mixed up, we worked around the authors, literary works, and subjects of Vietnamese poetry, we discussed translated poetry and the act of translating poetry, writers of the past and the now, poets such as Đặng Đình Hưng, Phùng Cung, Phạm Công Thiện, Hoàng Cầm, Tô Thùy Yên, Đinh Hùng, Tản Đà, as well as AJAR’s new authors , and the writings of the participants. Each participant exposed their personal reading selves, full of wonder for reading and writing, specifically reading Vietnamese poetry and writing poetry in Vietnamese.

tôi viết (tiếng Việt) | i write (in Vietnamese) continues these inspirational reading and writing workshops, and/in order to face a more difficult issue that is more difficult to share. These gradually familiar faces and avatars, and some other familiar strangers met, spoke, and listened to each other through the Zoom screen, frequently exciting and occasionally hopeless, discussions sometimes lasting for many hours, and sometimes being disrupted. Every week, a new question was asked: to write and not, the mother’s tongue and the others’s, east and west and what these words could even mean, inside and outside, writing and (earning a) living, professionalism and amateurism and professional amateurism, catchable subjects of the “contemporary worlds”, literary groups and movements, literary magazines, publishing modes, the past and the now, the personal politics of writing and of the writers, and more. Each continues to read, offering a shared reading list of (not necessarily) Vietnamese literature; while also calling in more personal interests, inviting comics and Tang poetry alike. Many names began to appear in a long queue of reading memories: M.Rilke, M.Duras, L.Borges, Charles Olson, Sylvia Plath, Linda Le, Đinh Linh, Phạm Thị Hoài, Dương Nghiễm Mậu, and many others I had never heard of. Reading “good samples”, to remember and to forget, to write the act of reading, to write with the dead and the living, to think about oneself as a reader, to “read partially and read completely” (“đọc dở và đọc nốt”, a quote from diasporic writer Phạm Thị Hoài), to read adrift and to read anchored. The participants’ personal approaches to writing in between various art forms suggest a practice in the present perfect continuous tense: what are the ongoing legacies of world literature and literary experiments, and how do we write from here? How can we make poetry live poetically, in the most extended sense of the phrase, and how are the writing intentions which do not easily satisfy the market’s desire able to survive? These young writers also “scoured” each other’s drafts of compositions and translations, accepted the fear of being seen to talk more in depth about techniques, about writing and/in order to erase, exercises to build a writing structure, and practices of editing, what to do with their “first” poems or how to write a broken (hearted) poem. They naturally built their own connections and worked on individual/collaborative projects.

The initial structure of a 12 week workshop has since transformed into a more enduring journey . Revisiting the archive of reading and writing folders, the long list of writers and books, the drafts of compositions, some open writing diaries, I become overwhelmed and energized by the ores with hidden treasures in these young writers, who are still reluctant to identify as “writer”. My partly selfish desire has been visualized: I can now see fresh readers and writers in their incubation of writing and reading ideas, who are enthusiastic to plunge into not yet defined practices, though each looks toward writing differently, as a hobby, as a private room for expression, or as a job, a profession, a career. The budding and blossomed voices in this notebook hopefully soon become familiar to our readers, with their swaying paths of reading and writing.

The question of community has become more urgent and heavy to me personally after a long enough journey of AJAR, from the wide-eyed gatherings with open hearts to the wobbling steps of separations with closed doors. It’s never a ready-made and stable community, but communities that are always changing, transforming into others. There is no way to completely not crash into others. There’s no way for absolute solitude. With the persistent dream of Maurice Blanchot’s community of two: “How not to search that space where, for a time span lasting from dusk to dawn, two beings have no other reason to exist than to expose themselves totally to each other—totally, integrally, absolutely—so that their common solitude may appear not in front of their own eyes but in front of ours, yes, how not to look there and how not to rediscover the negative community, the community of those who have no community?” (Maurice Blanchot, Unavowable Community, English translation by Pierre Joris).

Each becoming-personality of reading and writing is a closed structure that needs to open up, once more, once more again. Each writer is a different one among other writers, among their readerships, the ones who write with books already born, and the ones who are not yet writing, with their books still waiting to come to life. Each meeting each mirroring. I am always a plural I. Belonging and unbelonging. Being stuck and not deluding oneself about it.

(Plural) I want to reside in this language, in Vietnamese, after falling apart, after the destructions, the devastated attempts, the separations, the reconnections. I have to reside in this language, as in a flying dream, as in a sinking down, a self-bound, burdensome and still there, a little fire.

February, 2021

Nhã Thuyên has recently published bất\ \tuẫn: những hiện diện [tự-] vắng trong thơ Việt (self-published with support from the Goethe Institut, Vietnam) and its English edition: un\ \martyred: [self-]vanishing presences in Vietnamese poetry (Roofbook, USA, 2019), and moon fevers (Tilted Axis Press, UK, 2019).  With Kaitlin Rees, she founded AJAR in 2014, a micro bilingual literary journal-press, a precariously online, printed space for poetic exchange. She’s been talking to walls and soliloquies some nonsense when having no other emergencies of life to deal with. 

NT’s blog: www.nhathuyen.com  

Các sách mới của Nhã Thuyên bao gồm bản tiếng Việt tập tiểu luận bất\ \tuẫn: những hiện diện [tự-] vắng trong thơ Việt (tự xuất bản với hỗ trợ của viện Goethe Hà Nội) với bản dịch tiếng Anh un\ \martyred: [self-]vanishing presences in Vietnamese poetry (Roof Books, Hoa Kỳ, 2019) và tập mỏng gồm những bài thơ cũ moon fevers (Tilted Axis Press, UK, 2019). Cùng Kaitlin Rees, cô sáng lập và biên tập AJAR, một tạp chí văn chương song ngữ siêu vi, một không gian trồi sụt cho những hão huyền thơ ca. Độc thoại lảm nhảm với tường và làm những thứ vô tích sự khi không phải bận bịu những chuyện cấp bách khác của đời sống.

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accidentally on purpose

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A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON MAKING INVITATION IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE IN TERMS OF CROSS- CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE 1 E A 5 Ha Noi -2018

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Translation_as_a_sociolinguistic_activity

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A full understanding of the nature of human communication requires not only an appreciation of the concept of language but also its relationship to the surrounding world. If we consider the differences among people, due to such factors as age, gender, social class, family background, life experiences and the enormous complexity of human relations, understanding each other seems to be rather a difficult task. If we then include the component of various cultural identities, communication across cultures should be all but impossible. And yet, more often than not, we do understand each other. It is widely accepted that knowing a language involves more than knowledge of its grammatical structures. In this paper we will look into all those necessary factors, which enable us to communicate successfully. The paper is organised as follows: we shall take the notion of learning a foreign language as a departure point and differentiate it from the process of acquiring a first language. Next, we will briefly overview the concept of linguistic competence. We will then introduce the idea of performance concentrating on appropriate language use from the pragmatics perspective paying particular attention to the theory of register and following from it ‘context of situation’.

Research Article

Ali Mohammed Saleh Al-Hamzi

Based on cross-cultural pragmatic research perspectives, the present study aimed at comparing the attainment of speech acts of invitation between Indonesian and Yemeni EFL learners. The study participants were 30 undergraduate students from Airlangga University, Indonesia, and 30 undergraduate students from Sana'a University, Yemen. All of the participants were different in terms of their cultural background. The data were gathered by using Discourse Completion Task (DCT) and then analyzed on the bases of Bruder and Tillitt (1999), Al-Khatib (2006), and Suzuki (2009) compilations of invitation strategies. The findings of the study displayed some similarities and differences in terms of invitation making. Some invitation strategies seemed to be culturally specific to one culture and others are universal across the two cultures. In this regard, Indonesian EFL learners preferred to be indirect in the use of speech acts while invitation making with the high preference to use Yes/No questions, asking for willingness and Wh. questions strategies. They believe that the use of such strategies helps them to add some polite expressions that they use in their daily conversation while using their first language. In contrast, Yemeni EFL learners favored being direct in the use of the speech act of invitation, with the highest percentage of imperative strategy followed by Yes/ No questions strategy. This might show a portion of the effect of their first language on their answers. They also know that direct invitations are mostly accepted in their culture. Besides, the findings of the study revealed that Indonesian and Yemeni EFL learners translated the utterances in their mother tongue into the target language without considering the variations between the two languages in patterns of sentences and the order of words. Implications of the study are supplied too.

Theory and Practice in Language Studies

Nguyen Thanh Nhan

aisha wafda

This study aimed at finding impoliteness in making inviting strategy in the target language (Englis) by Indonesian EFL learners regarding social status, power, and rank of imposition. The method was by employing written DCT with nine scenarios adopted from Blum-Kulka (2000). The participants of this study were 66 students of Senior High School. The findings show that the proficiency of mastering English grammar does not guarantee the successful communication in terms of inviting others based on social status and familiarity. Impoliteness was found in the use of impolite (neutral) inviting strategies in terms of imperative forms and asking for willingness using neutral (impolite) strategies toward higher invetees as they only employ words grammatically ordered without considering context of situation. Brown-Levinson super strategies of politeness in the form of BR which was direct was also found in the interaction to higher invetees as well. A. Introduction Learning a language means learning the culture. This never takes into consideration. Teachers or instructors sometimes only pay attention to the constructing linguistic patterns rather than introducing culture beyond the language we learn. Culture differs one and another. What we act and speak reflect the culture of our language. Talking about culture means talking about sociopragmatics. It is about language in context situation where we adjust our linguistic behavior in where we make interaction and communicate. The area of pragmatic competence is studied in terms of sociolinguistic competence and discourse competence. Whereas, pragmatic competence in foreign language contexts is defined as the knowledge of communicative action or speech acts, how to perform it, and the ability to utilize the language in proper ways based on the context or contextual factors (Kasper: 1997). Since speech act broadly drew attention of many linguists to do the research, pragmatics seems to be one aspect not to be neglected. As pragmatics differs from one culture to other second or foreign language, learners should acquire the sociopragmatics and pragmalinguistic rules of the foreign or second language to enable them to make communication effectively with native speakers. Miscommunication often occurs due to incident that people make use of the rules of their native pragmatics to express intention in other culture without realizing the difference between these two. Error in grammar could be tolerable but inappropriateness will affect the communication outcomes. The conversation may lead to an awkward situation which is not realized by the learners of the language. " the appropriate usage and selection of language in accordance with context and the ability to understand the social conventions that govern communication " (Xiaole, 2009). However, the learning process tends to exclude socio pragmatic knowledge. In addition, the Indonesian students in Semarang Regency are not accustomed to the use of English politeness expression. They even are not aware whether the target language they learn has the norms of politeness in their daily basis communication or not. Pragmalinguistics is the way a learner generates utterances to maintain communication by using linguistic units in an appropriate way based on the social context and value of politeness related to the degree of power, rank, and imposition. It can be said that pragmatic competence is the core of communication, how to maintain feasible and accepted communication especially involving interactants from different cultural background, in terms of using appropriate linguistic units, strategies and real context of situation base where the language is used and developed. Therefore,

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Junko Hondo , Bridget Goodman

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Sheila Agustina

The language and the society in which it is used are closely related. One can affect the other. In Asia with its Eastern cultures, the use of language becomes very considered in social life. Asian people are stereotyped as supremely polite, especially in verbal communication. This generalization is preserved from the habits of Asians for not speaking directly to their interlocutors. It is believed that Asians tend to generate indirect expressions to avoid conflicts with other people. Practically, this kind of courtesy is expected to be seen in the use of foreign languages, for example in English. English origins from Western cultures which is known for its directness. Although Asians have a different culture regarding the directness and indirectness in conversation, it is certainly good to show that Asians are valuing and exalting human relationships by managing their interaction. It is important to take the indirectness not as a weakness but a language variety. Looking at this issue, English teachers in Asia as the facilitators of second language learning need to teach how the choice of words can affect the whole interaction. If the teachers are required to teach the cross-cultural values of Western and Asian society behind the use of polite language, how do the students themselves view this phenomenon? This paper presents the students' perception on the teacher's language in the classroom and the uniformity on the use of polite language. Several ways for English teachers to teach polite language by integrating it into the teaching materials are also proposed. This paper aims at raising the awareness of the English teachers in Asia to preserve the Asian identity by introducing mannered English during the classroom interaction and to create effective communication using global language to take a hand in globalization.

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Course: US history   >   Unit 8

• John F. Kennedy as president
• Bay of Pigs Invasion
• Cuban Missile Crisis
• The Cuban Missile Crisis
• Lyndon Johnson as president
• Vietnam War

The Vietnam War

• The student movement and the antiwar movement
• Second-wave feminism
• The election of 1968
• 1960s America

• The Vietnam War was a prolonged military conflict that started as an anticolonial war against the French and evolved into a Cold War confrontation between international communism and free-market democracy.
• The Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) in the north was supported by the Soviet Union, China, and other communist countries, while the United States and its anticommunist allies backed the Republic of Vietnam (ROV) in the south.
• President Lyndon Johnson dramatically escalated US involvement in the conflict, authorizing a series of intense bombing campaigns and committing hundreds of thousands of US ground troops to the fight.
• After the United States withdrew from the conflict, North Vietnam invaded the South and united the country under a communist government.

Origins of the war in Vietnam

Lyndon johnson and the war in vietnam, richard nixon and vietnam, what do you think.

• For more on the origins of US involvement, see Mark Atwood Lawrence, Assuming the Burden: Europe and the American Commitment to War in Vietnam (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005) and Mark Atwood Lawrence, The Vietnam War: A Concise International History (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008).
• See William S. Turley, The Second Indochina War: A Concise Political and Military History (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2009); Lawrence, The Vietnam War , 71-73.
• The exact circumstances of the Gulf of Tonkin incident, and the extent to which US officials may have misrepresented the incident, remain in dispute. Tonkin Gulf Resolution; Public Law 88-408, 88th Congress, August 7, 1964; General Records of the United States Government; Record Group 11; National Archives.
• For more on Lyndon Johnson and the Vietnam War, see Michael H. Hunt, Lyndon Johnson’s War: America’s Cold War Crusade in Vietnam, 1945-1968 (New York: Hill and Wang, 1997).
• Paul S. Boyer, Promises to Keep: The United States since World War II (Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1999), 283-284.
• Lawrence, The Vietnam War , 143.

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Essays on Vietnamese

Vietnam War

Vietnam war essay questions, vietnam to world war ii.

1. Describe the politics, economics, social structures and culture of medieval Vietnam. How did ordinary Vietnamese people live prior to the arrival of Europeans?

2. Discuss Vietnam’s contact and relationship with the West, up to 1850. How did this contact shape or affect Vietnamese society?

3. Explain how the French assumed control of Vietnam in a relatively short space of time. What methods and justifications did they use to increase their power?

4. How did the Nguyen emperors attempt to rid their country of foreign influence, particularly religion, in the 19th century?

5. “French colonialism in Indochina was motivated by a desire to civilise and develop the local population.” To what extent is this statement true?

6. Explain how the French colonial regime maintained its political, economic and social control over Vietnam. What role was played by Francophile Vietnamese?

7. What was life like for Vietnamese peasants and workers during the French colonial period? What problems and conditions did they face?

8. Referring to at least three movements or leaders, explain how some Vietnamese resisted the French colonial regime. How successful was this resistance?

9. Why did Vietnamese nationalists like Ho Chi Minh turn to communism after World War I?

10. Why did the Japanese invade Vietnam in 1940? What methods did they use to assert and expand their control?

The struggle for control: 1945 to 1954

1. Investigate the growth of the Viet Minh in the mid-1940s. How was this group formed? Who provided its leadership and its membership?

2. When the Japanese surrendered in August 1945, what arrangements were made for the transition of power in Vietnam?

3. Explain why Ho Chi Minh declared Vietnamese independence in September 1945. In doing so, why did he refer to the United States Declaration of Independence?

4. During World War II the United States provided material support to Ho Chi Minh and the Viet Minh. Why did the American position change after 1945?

5. Discuss how the communist victory in China in October 1949 affected Western policies and attitudes to south-east Asia.

6. Explain the metaphor of “the elephant and the tiger” and how it shaped the outcomes of the First Indochina War.

7. How did Vo Nguyen Giap and the Viet Minh engineer a victory over French forces at Dien Bien Phu?

8. What were the terms of the Geneva Accords pertaining to Vietnam? What were they intended to achieve?

9. Many historians trace the origins of the Vietnam War to the failure of the Geneva Accords. Did the Accords have any chance or success or were they destined to fail?

10. Discussing similarities and differences, compare the development of Korea and Vietnam in the decade following World War II.

The two Vietnams: 1954 to 1963

1. Describe the political evolution of North Vietnam during the mid-1950s. Who ruled the North and what were their objectives?

2. Evaluate North Vietnam’s policy of land reform during the mid to late 1950s. Did these reforms make life better for the majority of people?

3. Investigate the background and political views of Ngo Dinh Diem. How did he become the leader of South Vietnam in 1954?

4. Western nations described Ngo Dinh Diem as the “Asian Churchill” and “our man in Saigon”. Was Diem a Western puppet, an Asian nationalist or a loose cannon?

5. Discuss the ‘Agroville’ and ‘Strategic Hamlets’ programs, initiated by Ngo Dinh Diem with Western backing. What were these programs intended to achieve and why did they fail?

6. Explain why the government of Ngo Dinh Diem failed to gain popular support in South Vietnam.

7. Investigate the role of Ngo Dinh Nhu and his wife Tran Le Xuan in the Ngo Dinh Diem regime.

8. Evaluate the Kennedy administration’s policy with regard to Vietnam, between January 1961 and November 1963.

9. Why did Ngo Dinh Diem and his followers target South Vietnam’s Buddhists? What effects did this persecution have on Diem’s own regime?

10. Evaluate the origins, structure and ideology of the National Liberation Front (NLF). Why was this group formed and what methods did it employ?

The Vietnam War: 1964-75

1. Why did Lyndon Johnson decide to commit American forces to the conflict in Vietnam? What people, advice and factors influenced Johnson’s decision?

2. Explain why Thailand, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand contributed military forces to the war in Vietnam.

3. The Gulf of Tonkin incident provided a pretext for American military involvement in Vietnam. To what extent was this justified?

4. Evaluate the leadership of General William Westmoreland between 1964 and 1968. What was Westmoreland’s strategy for protecting South Vietnam? How successful was this?

5. Describe the challenges faced by American combat soldiers in Vietnam. What conditions and factors blunted the effectiveness of the American military?

6. Consider the causes and effects of the My Lai massacre of March 1968. What did this incident reveal about America’s military involvement in Vietnam?

7. Explain why the Tet Offensive was a victory and a defeat for both the Americans and the NVA-Viet Cong.

8. Discuss the objectives of Richard Nixon’s policy of Vietnamisation. How successful was this policy in achieving its goals?

9. Investigate American media coverage of the war in Vietnam. How was the war reported between 1964 and 1975 and how did this shape public attitudes and opinions?

10. Referring to data like opinion polls, evaluate American attitudes to the Vietnam War between 1964 and 1975. Which policies, developments or events caused significant shifts in public opinion?

11. What ideas, tactics and methods were used by individuals and groups opposed to Western involvement in Vietnam?

12. Evaluate the role of art, music and literature in the anti-Vietnam War movement.

Effects and aftermath

1. Compare and contrast the policies of presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon with regard to Vietnam. Which of these leaders was most responsible for entangling the United States in the Vietnam War?

2. Evaluate the development of Vietnam in the two years after the fall of Saigon in April 1975. How did the communist victory affect the lives of ordinary Vietnamese?

3. Describe the difficulties faced by Vietnam veterans as they returned to civilian life in the United States or Australia.

4. Evaluate the claim made by some leaders, including General William Westmoreland, that the United States did not lose the Vietnam War.

5. Was the Domino Theory validated or refuted by the progress and outcomes of the Vietnam War?

6. Position the Vietnam conflict in the broader Cold War. How did the Vietnam War shape or affect the relationship between the United States, the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China?

7. What effects did the Vietnam War have on American government and society between 1965 and 1975? Consider changes to political, social and cultural attitudes.

8. What effect did American military intervention have on nearby Cambodia between 1969 and 1975?

9. Discuss how events in Vietnam shaped the development of neighbouring Laos from 1957 onwards.

10. Who were the Khmer Rouge and what was their vision for Cambodia? How did they go about implementing this vision?

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Making sense of vietnamese cuisine.

“Tell me what you eat, and I shall tell you who you are.” (Brillat-Savarine, a French gastronome)

We live in an exciting culinary era. Food is not only extremely abundant in the West, but also more varied than ever before. Any Western metropolis features a huge array of ethnic restaurants from all corners of the earth, while the presence of Italian, Greek, Mexican, Chinese, Japanese, or Thai restaurants in most American towns is almost taken for granted. Chinese food is so common in America that members of other ethnic groups, New York Jews for example, conceive of it as part of their own culinary heritage. (note 1)

Yet how familiar are we with foods from other ethnic groups? Are we genuinely flexible, open minded, and experienced when it comes to the food we eat? Sociologists Alan Warde and Lydia Martens, who studied “eating out” in the UK, found that “only 20 percent of the people had experience of three or more different cuisines, while 48 percent had never eaten in an ethnic restaurant in the last twelve months.” (note 2) And when Britons do opt for ethnic restaurants, almost half of them (47 percent) order only dishes with which they are already familiar. (note 3) While Americans are more accustomed to ethnic fare, it seems that beyond a narrow echelon of highly educated cosmopolitans, many are only vaguely acquainted with ethnic foods.

The most demeaning way to refer to the food of others is to argue that “they eat everything,” implying a lack of moral, cultural, and esthetic standards and, that they, therefore, are not fully human.

In my own research on tourism in East and Southeast Asia, I found that most visiting Westerners were reluctant to eat at local restaurants and would only eat in tourist-oriented establishments where the setting was familiar, the menu comprehensible, hygiene was up to their standards, and the food itself resembled the ethnic foods with which they were familiar from ethnic restaurants back home.4 Thus, despite the extreme popularity of Asian restaurants in the West, Westerners often find themselves at odds when facing the food actually eaten in Asia.

However, during almost two decades of leading tourists and training tour guides in East and Southeast Asia, I have learned that eating the local food is one of the most effective and powerful ways to overcome the gap between tourists and the culture they visit. Gobbling dumplings at a Beijing street stand with the Chinese hordes or having a fish in a clay pot in a Saigon sidewalk restaurant surrounded by feasting Vietnamese families are moments that allow for the sense of “really being there” so much cherished by tourists.

I learned that the most effective way to achieve this moment of glory is by responding to the most common question asked by tourists and students when facing unfamiliar food: “What is this?”

In this article, I share categories I developed precisely to deal with this question and familiarize students in my classes with the Vietnamese cuisine and its meanings. The categories are “Basic Ingredients,” “Cooking Techniques,” “Meal Structures,” “Strange Foods,” and “Foreign Influences,” which together allow for a comprehensive analysis. While I refer mainly to Vietnamese food, the categories are intended as analytical tools to help make sense of most Asian cuisines. Once the culinary rationale of a cuisine is clear, fear and suspicion fade away, and a sense of confidence and control emerges. Yet before turning to Vietnamese food, let us examine the dual nature of food as a physiological necessity and as a cultural artifact.

Food as Nature and Culture

Food, like the air we breathe, is essential for our survival as biological beings. It is also the most perfect cultural artifact, the outcome of a detailed differentiation process whereby wheat grains are transformed into French baguettes, Chinese dumplings, or Italian pasta that encompasses personal, social, and cultural identities.5 Brillat-Savarine’s famous aphorism, “Tell me what you eat, and I shall tell you who you are,” suggests that when we eat, we become perfect consumers of our culture, physically internalizing its principles and values, swallowing and digesting them into our bodies. Thus, when American cowboys bite into their bleeding steaks, they reaffirm the masculine and violent vitality that distinguishes their way of living, while devout Southeast Asian Buddhists express their commitment to non-violence and the sanctity of life by opting for a vegetarian diet.

Human beings are the most flexible omnivores in nature. No other species consumes such a wide range of edibles. From abundant tropical forests to scarce deserts, from the warmest regions to the coldest parts of earth, we always manage to find “something nice to eat,” whether forest insects, desert lizards, or the fresh blood of arctic marine mammals. It is even argued that our culinary versatility and our willingness to eat virtually anything explains human domination over all other creatures. We are not the fastest, strongest, or fiercest, but we manage to inhabit all corners of the earth because we can always find food.

Humans are the only living beings that cook, and virtually all human cultures process their food to some extent. Cooking sets humans apart from the rest of the animal kingdom and defines us. To cook is to be human. Cooking, however, is what also sets people and cultures apart from each other. As we roam the earth, consume a huge variety of foodstuffs, and cook them in so many different ways, food has become one of the strongest markers of cultural difference and a common source for mostly negative stereotypes: the French are “froggies,” the Germans are “krauts” (after sauerkraut), while the Koreans (and many other East Asians) are “dog eaters.” Most food stereotypes are based on scant and inflated evidence that is removed from its original context.

Yet the most demeaning way to refer to the food of others is to argue that “they eat everything,” implying a lack of moral, cultural, and esthetic standards and, that they, therefore, are not fully human. Research shows, however, that no human group eats everything. In fact, members of most cultures consume roughly 20 percent of the edibles available in their environment, while other edible foodstuffs are shunned due to moral, religious, or esthetic considerations. This is an important point. Members of certain cultures may eat things that others find strange and repulsive, but the fact that they eat differently doesn’t mean that they eat everything. Indeed, they probably find our food as strange as we find theirs.

The Basic ingredients of the Vietnamese Cuisine

Anthropologists suggest that when studying cultural systems, a distinction should be made between culture and practical reason.6 In order to understand the cuisine of a given culture, we must distinguish between the practical aspects—nutritional demands, ecology, and locally available ingredients—and cultural traits—cooking modes, eating arrangements, and the dishes themselves—shaped by social and historical processes. I therefore begin with a discussion of the main ingredients of the Vietnamese diet and then turn to their cultural transformation into dishes.

The Vietnamese cuisine evolved within a tropical ecology of warm weather, plenty of rainfall, and profuse rivers that allowed for intensive agriculture. The other dominant natural element was the sea, which provided fish and seafood. The third influence was hardworking people who settled in densely populated river deltas, valleys, and lowlands.

Under these conditions, growing rice as the staple was an ecologically sound practical choice.7 Irrigated, transplanted, labor-intensive paddy rice grown in the major river valleys and deltas was the most effective crop under the conditions of limited soil, plenty of water, high temperatures, perennial humidity, and a large number of available working hands.

Yet, while rice provides most of Việt Nam’s carbohydrates and energy, polished white rice is nutritionally unwholesome and lacks fat, protein, vitamins, minerals, and fiber. Nutritionally speaking, the Vietnamese cuisine is all about balancing these shortcomings with local edibles. Fish and seafood provide protein; aromatics and leafy greens (and some other fruits and vegetables) supply vitamins, minerals, and fiber; and ground nuts and coconuts supply fats. Raw greens and aromatics in great variety (basils, mints, corianders, lettuces) are essential components of any Vietnamese meal. Mixed with other foods, they are the elements that provide exceptional variation in taste and texture.

While fresh and dried fish and seafood are essential meal components, the most common way to consume them is in the form of nuoc mam (fish sauce), which is produced by fermenting fish in brine. This is actually a preservation technique, and the outcome is nutritionally rich. While many of my students found the smell of raw fish sauce hard to cope with, once cooked or diluted with lime juice and spices, the sharp smell is transformed into a rich and appealing aroma that is the main marker of Vietnamese food.

The most common spices—chili, lime, ginger, garlic, shallot, and pep- per—are all important sources of vitamins and minerals. There is a preference for sour tastes (for instance, the pulp of unripe tamarind), which are considered cooling and appropriate for the warm weather. Vietnamese food is not as hot as Thai food, and diners determine the level of spiciness by adding shredded fresh chili into their dishes or biting into one while eating.

Altogether, the Vietnamese cuisine is shaped by specific ecological conditions and is clearly devised to supply human nutritional demands. Presenting Vietnamese cuisine as ecologically and biologically sound may demystify it when studying its cultural characteristics.

Cooking Techniques

Despite the sophisticated dishes they produce, Vietnamese kitchens are surprisingly simple when compared to Western kitchens. The most important kitchen utensil is a large oval iron pan ( chao , Chinese wok), which distributes heat evenly for fast cooking (stir-frying), saves expensive fuel, and maintains crispiness as well as nutritional value. Another crucial utensil is a heavy cleaver, which—along with a wood block—facilitates slicing ingredients for stir-frying. Pestle and mortar come third, mainly to process the spices. These utensils do most of the work, with ladles, large chopsticks, and strainers doing much of the rest. Gas stoves are gradually replacing the traditional wood-fed hearth, and rice is cooked in electric rice cookers, but other modern cooking utensils such as ovens or microwaves are rarely used.

The kitchen is usually located at the back of the house or in a separate structure behind the house and is often low-lying, dark, sooty, and wet. Most of the processing is done squatting on the floor, while the hearth itself is low- lying and requires squatting too. Elevated cooking surfaces are modern and relatively rare additions.

Women do most of the cooking, and the kitchen is considered an exclusively feminine sphere. Hence, it may be argued that the kitchen setting reflects the low status of women in Vietnamese society, embodied by their squatting position. However, the status of Vietnamese women is relatively higher than that of women in neighboring Confucian societies. Vietnamese society is more bilateral than patriarchal, with women holding a complex social status, being charged with transforming nature into culture, ingredients into food, and babies into members of society.

Meal Structure

Vietnamese-style eating is all about food sharing, and mealtime is when the communal character of this society is most evident. Tables and trays are round, defining a sense of equality between the diners, and there is no “head of the table.” Food is served in common dishes, and morsels are picked with chop- sticks into personal bowls. The diners are attentive to each other, avoiding glut- tony and doing their best to ensure that the food is shared equally.

In the countryside, meals are usually taken on the floor or on a mat with the food served on a large tray. In more urban settings, people use tables and chairs. While most other Southeast Asians use forks, spoons, or the right hand to eat, the Vietnamese use chopsticks and eat out of bowls.

This combination of rice and four side dishes adheres to the important Chinese-derived cosmological principles of am and duong (yin and yang) and ngu hanh (the five elements).

Although the Vietnamese cuisine features hundreds and even thousands of dishes, daily meals eaten at home are surprisingly uniform. Lunch and dinner are similar—dinner often consists of leftovers—and composed of a large quantity of steamed rice with a set of side dishes that flavor and color it. These usu- ally include a mild soup, a bowl of mixed raw greens, a dish of cooked protein (small quantities of fish, meat, or tofu) with vegetables, and a bowl of fish sauce. This combination of rice and four side dishes adheres to the important

Chinese-derived cosmological principles of am and duong (yin and yang) and ngu hanh (the five elements). Yin-yang is an all-encompassing Daoist principle that champions a dynamic balance between the obscure, dark, wet, cold, feminine energy of yin and the hot, powerful, shining, violent male energy of yang.8 White, bland, neutral rice is compatible with am, while the colorful, savory, varied side dishes are considered duong. Within the culinary realm, the am and duong principle is translated into the cold-hot paradigm, within which some ingredients (such as ginger, beef), cooking modes (frying), and dishes (fried beef with ginger) are heating, while other tastes (sour, bitter), cooking modes (steaming), and dishes (fish in tamarind sauce) are cooling. The dishes themselves are not necessarily hot or cold, but their physical effect is of heating or cooling. Thus, sour fish soup is eaten hot but has a cooling influence.

The five elements theory suggests that the world and everything in it are composed of water, fire, wood, metal, and earth. The elements are interrelated in cycles of production, destruction (e.g., water produces wood and extinguishes fire), and their relations and transformations generate the movement that is life. The culinary realm is also structured by this paradigm, with rice standing for earth (and center), soup for water, greens for wood, fish sauce for fire, and the dry dish for metal. This scheme also informs the five basic cooking modes: raw, steamed, boiled, fried/grilled, and fermented; the five tastes: spicy, sour, bitter, salty, and sweet; and the five textures: crispy, crunchy, chewy, soft, and silky.

Insect-eating was an important source of protein for humans before the development of farming, and it is still common among hunter-gatherers and subsistence farmers in many parts of the world.

Street foods are extremely popular, and cooked food is sold from millions of stands that dot urban and rural streets. Some vendor stands offer a variety of dishes served over rice, while others feature elaborate cooking. A new urban and increasingly popular kind of stand offers “take away,” a variety of cooked dishes purchased to be consumed at home. However, most stands specialize in a single “whole-meal dish” that includes all the ingredients necessary for proper nutrition. There are several kinds of whole-meal dishes (pancakes, porridge, stuffed baguettes, and different kinds of fried rice and noodles), but the most prominent and popular is a bowl of noodles. There are dozens of kinds of noodles and thousands of variations regarding ingredients and seasoning. Most Vietnamese would argue that their own town or village has at least one unique noodle dish. Yet the basic nutritional logic is common—fresh or dry noodles made of rice, wheat, and other starches provide carbohydrates; bones, meat, and seafood broth provide water; a small amount of meat or other animal protein such as fish-balls or wontons provide protein and fat; leafy greens, aromatic herbs, and fish sauce contribute more protein, minerals, and vitamins; and chili and lime supply vita- mins and flavor. As such, a bowl of noodles is a complete meal, nutritionally and psychologically, and it includes all the ingredients of a proper meal.

Strange Food

Part of Việt Nam’s mystery and exoticism has to do with specific ingredients and dishes that are perceived by non-Vietnamese as exotic, strange, and even repulsive. These food items can be grouped into three categories: insects, jungle beasts, and dogs.

Insect-eating was an important source of protein for humans before the development of farming, and it is still common among hunter-gatherers and subsistence farmers in many parts of the world. However, it is a powerful taboo in Western cultures. Insect-eating is still practiced in Việt Nam among the poorer subsistence farmers and among some of the ethnic minorities.

Two points are important. First, insects are cheap and abundant, require minimal resources, exert little ecological pressure, and thus make for accessible “green” protein. Second, insect-eating is always selective. Only certain kinds of insects or larva are consumed—particularly those that are farmed. For ex- ample, silk producers often consume silkworms. Other popular insects include grasshoppers, crickets, water beetles, scorpions, and spiders. Despite common myth, cockroaches are inedible and are not eaten anywhere.

The meat of jungle beasts is a rare, expensive, and sought-after delicacy. Dishes made of monkey, bear, tiger, elephant, snake, and lizard are sold in restaurants that specialize in “forest meat.” It is a cross-cultural convention that, when eating the flesh of specific animals, the eater absorbs their power.9 In Western culture, red meat, and especially beef, is considered highly nutritious and power enhancing. Thus, the British Royal Guards are called “beefeaters.” In Việt Nam, the flesh of wild animals known for their prowess is considered both physically and sexually invigorating. Forest food is therefore a man’s affair and is often associated with heavy alcohol consumption and prostitution.

If there is one kind of flesh that scares most visitors to Việt Nam, it is dog meat. Being “man’s best friend,” the dog is perceived in Western culture as almost human, and eating it is considered repulsive. In Việt Nam, dogs live next to men but are not considered pets—with the exception of the educated urban elite—or quasi-humans but, rather, working animals like the buffalo. Most Vietnamese avoid dog meat, mainly due to religious and moral reasons, while Buddhists consider dogs polluting, possibly because dogs eat their own excrements and are highly incestuous. Vietnamese farmers avoid both dog and buffalo meat, as they work shoulder to shoulder with these animals. Most Vietnamese find dog meat as repulsive as do Westerners, though for different reasons.

Dog meat, however, is popular among northern Vietnamese men as an aphrodisiac. While this is probably the outcome of Chinese influence, southern Vietnamese argue that as Buddhists, they avoid dog meat, but the northerners, who “converted” to Communism, eat it avidly. While Communism may not be the best explanation for dog meat popularity in the north, Chinese influence and its political impact are an important factor. In southern Việt Nam, Catholic immigrants from the north are the main consumers of dog meat. Paradoxically, then, Christianity, imported from the West, is related to the consumption of dog meat. However, it is mainly popular because of its nourishing, warming, and libido-enhancing qualities.

It is important to note that jungle meat and dog meat are relatively rare and usually quite expensive. Insects, though cheap and abundant, are rarely eaten in Việt Nam. Therefore, they are never offered to uninterested or oblivious guests but rather are only served to those who actively ask for them and are ready to pay their high price.

Foreign influence

Like all cuisines, Vietnamese cuisine was deeply shaped by contact with external cultures. Most prominent were China and France—and to a lesser extent India, and recently, contemporary global cuisine appeared. Yet foreign influence was always adjusted to the local ecological conditions, nutritional demands, cultural norms, and local tastes. Some foreign culinary aspects are evident in Vietnamese food, while others are deeply transformed and hard to observe.

China ruled Việt Nam for over a millennium and has always exerted political and cultural influence. Its culinary legacy in Việt Nam is therefore substantial. The Chinese cosmological theories of yin and yang and the five elements directly affect Vietnamese cooking and eating. Noodles, a Chinese invention, are probably the most popular food in the country, with many other dishes and cooking techniques adopted into the culinary framework. Rice was domesticated in Southeast Asia and later introduced to China, but the culinary influence was never unilateral.

A more recent and direct Chinese culinary effect is the outcome of repeated waves of Chinese immigrants who, in the last few centuries, settled in each and every urban trade center in the country, introducing their respective southeast Chinese cuisines or fusing them with the local foodways into unique local cuisines.

It should be noted, however, that Vietnamese cuisine had an impact on Chinese foodways as well. Rice was probably domesticated in Việt Nam and incorporated into the Chinese cuisine only after their conquest of north Việt Nam during the first century BCE. Seafood sauces from the southern part of Việt Nam are another culinary contribution to southern Chinese cuisines, especially Cantonese and Fujienese.

Indian culinary influence arrived in Việt Nam infused with Malay, Khmer, and Thai cooking, which had absorbed Indian spices such as cumin, coriander, ginger, and turmeric; in ingredients such as coconut milk; in cooking methods such as spice-pastes; and in dishes such as cary , the Vietnamese version of Indian curry.

Western merchants, notably the Portuguese, Dutch, and French, introduced staples such as maize and sweet potatoes, as well as European vegetables and herbs such as carrots, cauliflower, onions, potatoes, string beans, and dill. The French left a powerful culinary legacy. Baguettes with pork pate, yogurt, ice cream, and coffee are essential elements of contemporary Vietnamese cuisine. Formal dining, including wedding and death anniversary banquets, fol- low French structure and etiquette and include some French dishes, such as lagu or ragu , the Vietnamese version of beef-onion-carrot-potato ragout, served with a sliced baguette. This, however, is a great example of the deep culinary modification of foreign dishes. It is cooked in a wok and seasoned with fish sauce, coconut milk, turmeric, and coriander, which creates a distinct taste and aroma very different from the French original, itself a modification of the original Irish stew. Here again, Vietnamese culinary elements were incorporated into French cuisine and especially into the “nouvelle cuisine,” which emphasizes aromatic herbs, freshly cooked ingredients, and light cooking processes.

Finally, “world cuisine” or, more accurately, Western dishes and foodways, have made headway into the country with pasta, pizza, salads, and steaks featured in expensive restaurants catering mostly to tourists and local elites. Global chains such as KFC and local McDonalized food venues such as Pho 24 , a noodle franchise, attract the newly emerging Vietnamese middle class. Here again, local cultural norms, cooking techniques, and culinary preferences shape these imported dishes and foodways to such an extent that they hardly resemble the foreign originals.

Vietnamese cuisine is based on fresh ingredients, minimal cooking, lots of leafy greens and fish, very limited amounts of animal protein and fat, and moderate use of sugar.

Conclusion: Vietnamese Food as a healthy, “green” option

While my categories are intended to make sense of Vietnamese food by exposing its nutritional and cultural logic, they also emphasize its positive qualities as healthy and green. In a world that is increasingly alarmed by the hazards of modern nutrition and the negative effects of industrialized, meat-oriented agriculture, Vietnamese food is an appealing option that can successfully compete with the currently popular “Mediterranean diet.”

Vietnamese cuisine is based on fresh ingredients, minimal cooking, lots of leafy greens and fish, very limited amounts of animal protein and fat, and moderate use of sugar. Moreover, consuming less meat means that farming systems oriented toward the Vietnamese culinary system would put less pressure on dwindling ecological resources and result in less pollution. It costs the same to produce one meat calorie as it does to produce seven to ten vegetal calories. Presenting Vietnamese cuisine in particular, and Asian cuisines in general, to our students as a viable tool in our arsenal of “green cuisines,” may increase their appeal.

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NOTES                      

• Gary Tuchman and Harry Gene Levine, “New York Jews and Chinese Food: The Social Construction of an Ethnic Pattern,” Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 22 3 (1993): 382–407.
• Alan Warde and Lydia Martens, Eating Out: Social Differentiation, Consumption and Pleasure (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000).
• Erik Cohen and Nir Avieli, “Food in Tourism: Attraction and Impediment,” Annals of Tourism Research 31 4 (2004): 755–778.
• Claude Fischler, “Food, Self and Identity,” Social Science Information 27 2 (1988): 275.
• Marshal Sahlins, Culture and Practical Reason (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976).
• Pierre Huard and Maurice Durand, Vu Thien Kim, Viet-Nam: Civilization and Culture (Hanoi: Ecole Francaise d’Etreme-Orient, 1998); Samuel Popkin, The Rational Peasant: The Political Economy of Rural Society in Vietnam (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979).
• Kristofer Schipper, The Taoist Body , Karen C. Duval (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993).
• Nick Fiddes, Meat: a Natural Symbol (London: Routledge, 1991 ).

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Vietnam War Essay | Essay on Vietnam War for Students and Children in English

February 13, 2024 by Prasanna

Vietnam War Essay:  The Vietnam War is considered to be one of the most memorable and long-standing conflicts that involved the U.S., with a major role to play in it. The Vietnam War was primarily the consequences of the U.S. anti-communist foreign policy in the year 1960.

It was the military conflict between communist North Vietnam and their allies, against South Vietnam and other countries including America, Australia, Britain, France and New Zealand. Australia’s alliance with the USA was the main reason for the commencement of the Vietnam War. The USA had been a part of the war since 1959 and needed Australia’s assistance. It was a long, costly and divisive conflict. The conflict was intensified by the ongoing cold war between the United States and the Soviet Union.

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Long and Short Essays on Vietnam War for Students and Kids in English

We are providing essay samples to students on a long essay of 500 words and a short essay of 150 words on the topic Vietnam War Essay for reference.

Long Essay on Vietnam War 500 Words in English

Long Essay on Vietnam War is usually given to classes 7, 8, 9, and 10.

The Vietnam War is also known as the Second Indo-China War and in Vietnam as the Resistance War Against America. It was the second of the Indo-China Wars that was fought between North Vietnam and South Vietnam. North Vietnam was supported by the Soviet Union, China and other communist allies.

On the other hand, South Vietnam was supported by the United States, South Korea, the Philippines, Australia, Thailand, and the other anti-communist allies were also there for support. The war lasted 19 years and was also called the Cold War by many. The war had direct U.S. involvement, and it ended in 1973.

During World War II, Japanese forces had invaded Vietnam. To fight it off, both Japanese occupiers and French Colonial administration, the political leader Ho Chi Minh formed the Viet Minh, being inspired by the Chinese and Soviet Communism. The Viet Minh was also known as the League for the Independence of Vietnam.

Following its 1945 defeat in World War II, Japan withdrew its forces from Vietnam leaving the French-educated Emperor, Bao Dai in total control. Seeing this opportunity to seize control, Ho’s Viet Minh forces immediately rose to take complete control over the Northern city of Hanoi and declaring it as the Democratic Republic of Vietnam with Ho as the president.

After Ho’s communist forces took control over the North, armed conflicts between the northern and the southern armies continued until a decisive victory of Viet Minh took place in the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in May 1954. The French loss at the battle and almost ended the French rule in Indo-China.

Vietnam was split along the latitude known as the 17th parallel based on a treaty signed in July in the year 1954, with Ho in control in the North and Bao in the South. The Vietnam War with active U.S. involvement in 1954 was due to the ongoing conflicts that dated back several decades.

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The Vietnam War led to outcomes like economic downturn and political isolation for Vietnam, which was only supported by the Soviet Union and its allies located in Eastern Europe. It also led to the fall of the South Vietnamese government in 1975 that resulted in a unified communist government in the country. The war also led to the death of almost 2 million Vietnamese civilians, 1.2 million Northern soldiers and many service members. Emigration of Vietnam soldiers took place around the late 1970s from Vietnam.

North Vietnam was communist, whereas South Vietnam was not. North Vietnamese communists and South Vietnamese communist rebels known as the Viet Cong wanted to overthrow the South Vietnamese government together and reunite the country.

South Vietnamese troops waded through the water to flush out communist rebels in 1962. The cost and casualties of the war were too much for America to face; thus, the U.S. combat units were withdrawn by 1973, and in 1975 South Vietnam was fully invaded by the North.

Short Essay on Vietnam War 150 Words in English

Short Essay on Vietnam War is usually given to classes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.

The Vietnam War (1954-1975) is referred to the period when the United States and other members of the South East Asian Treaty Organization (SEATO) joined forces with the Republic of South Vietnam to contest communist forces that were comprised of South Vietnamese guerrillas and the regular force units called the Viet Cong.

The United States possessed the largest foreign military presence and had directed the war from 1965 to 1968. Thus, for this reason, Vietnam today is known as the American War. It was considered as the direct result of the First Indochina War between France that claimed Vietnam as a colony and the communist forces which were then known as Viet Minh.

The Vietnam War was one of the longest wars in the history of the United States and was extremely divisive U.S., Europe, Australia and elsewhere. The U.S. suffered a casualty of 47000 being killed in action with the addition of 11000 non-combat deaths. Over 150000 were wounded, and 10000 were missing.

10 Lines on Vietnam War Essay in English

1. The Vietnam War was a conflict between the communist and the capitalist countries and was a part of the Cold War. 2. The Vietnam War was a controversial issue in the United States. 3. It was the first war to feature in live television coverage. 4. The war became extremely unpopular in the United States, and President Nixon sent American soldiers home in 1973. 5. Viet Minh waved their flag at Dien Bien Phu in 1954. 6. The French defeat at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu led to the Geneva conference. 7. France began to colonize Vietnam between 1959 and 1962. 8. France also took control over Saigon. 9. Laos was added after the war with Thailand. 10. In 1940 the French Indochina was controlled by Vichy French Government.

FAQ’s on Vietnam War Essay

Question 1. What is the main cause of the Vietnam War?

Answer: Spread of communism during the cold war along with American containment was the main cause of the war.

Question 2. What was the effect of the Vietnam War?

Answer: The most immediate effect was the staggering death toll of almost 3 million people.

Question 3. Why was the Vietnam War fought?

Answer: The USA feared the spread of communism, which led the war to be fought.

Question 4.  When did the military fight occur in the war?

Answer: The fighting occurred between 1957 and 1973.

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• French rule ended, Vietnam divided
• The Diem regime and the Viet Cong
• The U.S. role grows
• The conflict deepens
• The Gulf of Tonkin
• The United States enters the war
• Firepower comes to naught
• Tet brings the war home
• De-escalation, negotiation, and Vietnamization
• The United States negotiates a withdrawal
• The fall of South Vietnam

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The United States had provided funding, armaments, and training to South Vietnam’s government and military since Vietnam’s partition into the communist North and the democratic South in 1954. Tensions escalated into armed conflict between the two sides, and in 1961 U.S. President John F. Kennedy chose to expand the military aid program. The terms of this expansion included yet more funding and arms, but a key alteration was the commitment of U.S. soldiers to the region. Kennedy’s expansion stemmed in part from Cold War -era fears about the “ domino theory ”: if communism took hold in Vietnam, it would topple democracies throughout the whole of Southeast Asia , it was thought.

Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, but his successor, Lyndon B. Johnson , continued the work that Kennedy had started. Johnson raised the number of South Vietnam deployments to 23,000 U.S. soldiers by the end of his first year in office. Political turbulence there and two alleged North Vietnamese attacks on U.S. naval vessels spurred Johnson to demand the passage of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution in 1964. It granted him broad latitude in handling the struggle against communism in Southeast Asia.   

By nearly every metric, the Vietnam War was, in the common sense of the word, a war . The United States committed some 550,000 troops to the Vietnam front at the height of the conflict, suffered more than 58,000 casualties, and engaged in battle after battle with communist forces in the region until its withdrawal in 1973. However, from a constitutional perspective, this conflict did not technically count as a war. The U.S. Constitution grants Congress sole authority to issue declarations of war. Since 1941 Congress has declared war only six times, all during World War II. Congress authorized troop deployment in Vietnam, but, because it did not issue a declaration of war on North Vietnam or the Viet Cong , the Vietnam War is, technically speaking, not considered a war in the United States.

The question of who won the Vietnam War has been a subject of debate, and the answer depends on the definition of victory. Those who argue that the United States won the war point to the fact that the U.S. defeated communist forces during most of Vietnam’s major battles. They also assert that the U.S. overall suffered fewer casualties than its opponents. The U.S. military reported 58,220 American casualties. Although North Vietnamese and Viet Cong casualty counts vary wildly, it is generally understood that they suffered several times the number of American casualties.

Those who argue that the United States’ opponents won the war cite the United States’ overall objectives and outcomes. The United States entered Vietnam with the principal purpose of preventing a communist takeover of the region. In that respect, it failed: the two Vietnams were united under a communist banner in July 1976. Neighbouring Laos and Cambodia similarly fell to communists. Furthermore, domestic unrest and the financial cost of war made peace—and troop withdrawals—a necessity, not a choice.

In 1995 Vietnam released its official estimate of the number of people killed during the Vietnam War : as many as 2,000,000 civilians on both sides and some 1,100,000 North Vietnamese and Viet Cong fighters. The U.S. military has estimated that between 200,000 and 250,000 South Vietnamese soldiers died. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., lists more than 58,300 names of members of the U.S. armed forces who were killed or went missing in action. Among other countries that fought for South Vietnam, South Korea had more than 4,000 dead, Thailand about 350, Australia more than 500, and New Zealand some three dozen.

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Vietnam War , (1954–75), a protracted conflict that pitted the communist government of North Vietnam and its allies in South Vietnam, known as the Viet Cong , against the government of South Vietnam and its principal ally, the United States . Called the “American War” in Vietnam (or, in full, the “War Against the Americans to Save the Nation”), the war was also part of a larger regional conflict ( see Indochina wars ) and a manifestation of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies.

At the heart of the conflict was the desire of North Vietnam, which had defeated the French colonial administration of Vietnam in 1954, to unify the entire country under a single communist regime modeled after those of the Soviet Union and China . The South Vietnamese government, on the other hand, fought to preserve a Vietnam more closely aligned with the West. U.S. military advisers, present in small numbers throughout the 1950s, were introduced on a large scale beginning in 1961, and active combat units were introduced in 1965. By 1969 more than 500,000 U.S. military personnel were stationed in Vietnam. Meanwhile, the Soviet Union and China poured weapons, supplies, and advisers into the North, which in turn provided support, political direction, and regular combat troops for the campaign in the South. The costs and casualties of the growing war proved too much for the United States to bear, and U.S. combat units were withdrawn by 1973. In 1975 South Vietnam fell to a full-scale invasion by the North.

The human costs of the long conflict were harsh for all involved. Not until 1995 did Vietnam release its official estimate of war dead: as many as 2 million civilians on both sides and some 1.1 million North Vietnamese and Viet Cong fighters. The U.S. military has estimated that between 200,000 and 250,000 South Vietnamese soldiers died in the war. In 1982 the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was dedicated in Washington, D.C., inscribed with the names of 57,939 members of U.S. armed forces who had died or were missing as a result of the war. Over the following years, additions to the list have brought the total past 58,200. (At least 100 names on the memorial are those of servicemen who were actually Canadian citizens.) Among other countries that fought for South Vietnam on a smaller scale, South Korea suffered more than 4,000 dead, Thailand about 350, Australia more than 500, and New Zealand some three dozen.

Vietnam emerged from the war as a potent military power within Southeast Asia , but its agriculture, business, and industry were disrupted, large parts of its countryside were scarred by bombs and defoliation and laced with land mines , and its cities and towns were heavily damaged. A mass exodus in 1975 of people loyal to the South Vietnamese cause was followed by another wave in 1978 of “ boat people ,” refugees fleeing the economic restructuring imposed by the communist regime. Meanwhile, the United States, its military demoralized and its civilian electorate deeply divided, began a process of coming to terms with defeat in what had been its longest and most controversial war. The two countries finally resumed formal diplomatic relations in 1995.

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Vietnamese Culture

Vietnamese Culture is one of the oldest culture in the World which has undergone changes almost four thousands of years. Some people said Vietnam culture has influence from Chinese culture but there is a study shows Culture of Vietnam has its own characters and has parallel development to Chinese culture. Along the history of Vietnam from the Dynasty of Trieu, Dinh, Ly, Tran & Le. In the pretty much same time with Chinese dynasty of Han, Duong, Tong, Nguyen.

According to scholarly sources, the culture of Vietnam originated from ancient Nam Viet, an ancient kingdom of Giao Chi people which shared characteristics of Han Chinese cultures and the ancient Dong Son Culture, considered one of the most important progenitors of its indigenous culture, during the Bronze Age. Nam Viet was occupied by Northern evaders in 111 BC, leading to the first Chinese domination of Vietnam lasting over thousand years that propelled Chinese influences onto Vietnamese culture in terms of Confucian philosophy governance, and the arts.

Following independence from Chinese in the 10th century; successive Vietnamese imperial dynasties flourished as the country embarked on a southward expansion that annexed territories of the Champa and Khmer civilizations; which resulted in regional variances of modern-day culture of Vietnam. During the French colonial period in the mid-19th century; Vietnamese culture absorbed European influences including architecture; Catholicism, and the adoption of the Latin alphabet, which created the new official writing system that replaced the previous Chinese characters and Nom scripts.

After French left, Vietnamese culture was characterized by government-controlled propaganda, which emphasized the importance of cultural exchanges with fellow communist nations such as the Soviet Union, China, and Cuba. Following the reform in 1986, Vietnam has continuously absorbed various influences from Asian, European, and American cultures.

Vietnamese culture, with its roots intertwined with Chinese traditions, holds the family unit in high esteem. It’s a society where nurturing the young and honoring the elderly are seen as inherent duties. Multi-generational households are a common sight, symbolizing the deep-seated value placed on familial bonds.

Respect for elders, a reverence for food as a cultural cornerstone, and maintaining a serene composure are pillars of Vietnamese values. Loyalty and respect within the family are paramount. Influenced by Confucianism, many in Vietnam adopt its principles, shaping a way of life that emphasizes harmony, community, and moral conduct.

Important cultural symbols include 4 holy animals: Dragons, Turtles, Phoenix, Unicorn. The national flower is lotuses and the most popular plant in Vietnam is bamboo.

Here are some interesting facts about Vietnamese culture: Vietnamese culture values emphasize respect for family, harmony in community relationships, and humility in personal conduct. These values are rooted in Confucianism and permeate daily life, influencing everything from social interactions to business practices in Vietnam. Viet Nam’s culture blends traditions influenced by Chinese and Western cultures, alongside a mix of Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism , collectively known as Tam Giao in Vietnamese. Language : The official language is Vietnamese, which has six different tones, making it a tonal language. Writing System : The Vietnamese writing system uses the Latin alphabet with additional diacritics. Family Structure : Family is the cornerstone of Vietnamese society. Extended families often live together, and respect for elders is paramount. Ancestor Worship : Many Vietnamese people practice ancestor worship, believing that deceased family members continue to influence the living. Pho : A famous Vietnamese dish, Pho is a noodle soup consisting of broth, rice noodles, herbs, and meat, usually beef or chicken. Diverse Ingredients : Vietnamese cuisine is known for its use of fresh herbs and vegetables, minimal use of dairy and oil, and reliance on rice and noodles as staples. Ao Dai : The Ao Dai is the traditional Vietnamese dress, known for its elegance. It is worn by both men and women, especially on formal occasions. Tet Nguyen Dan : The Vietnamese New Year, or Tet, is the most important festival in Vietnam. It marks the arrival of spring and is celebrated with various customs, such as cleaning the house, paying off debts, and cooking special foods. Mid-Autumn Festival : Celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month, this festival involves mooncakes and lantern processions, especially popular with children. Buddhism : The dominant religion in Vietnam is Buddhism, but there are also significant numbers of Catholics, Protestants, and followers of Cao Dai and Hoa Hao. Folk Religion : Many Vietnamese practice a form of folk religion that includes elements of animism, ancestor worship, and the worship of deities and natural phenomena. Water Puppetry : A traditional Vietnamese art form, water puppetry dates back to the 11th century. It involves wooden puppets performing on water, depicting rural life and folklore. Literature : Vietnamese literature has a rich history, with notable contributions in both poetry and prose. Classic works often reflect themes of love, nature, and patriotism. Traditional Music : Vietnamese traditional music includes various forms such as Ca Tru, Cheo, and Quan Ho. Each region of Vietnam has its own distinct musical styles. Dance : Traditional Vietnamese dance often depicts historical events, myths, and daily life. The Lion Dance is particularly popular during the Tet festival. Pagodas and Temples : Vietnam is home to many ancient pagodas and temples, which are architectural marvels. These structures often have curved roofs, intricate carvings, and statues of deities. French Colonial Influence : French colonial architecture is also prominent in Vietnam, especially in cities like Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Vovinam : Vovinam is a traditional Vietnamese martial art that combines self-defense techniques with the philosophy of striving to achieve harmony between hard and soft elements. Silk Production : Vietnam is known for its high-quality silk and traditional silk weaving techniques. Handicrafts : Vietnamese handicrafts, such as lacquerware, ceramics, and bamboo products, are highly valued both domestically and internationally.

Table of Contents

Ethnic groups in Vietnam

Traditions in vietnam, vietnamese cuisine, traditional costumes of vietnam, religion and philosophy of vietnam, vietnamese music & dance, vietnamese arts & literature, martial arts in vietnam, festivals of vietnam, holidays and other important days.

Vietnam is a multiethnic country with over fifty distinct groups (54 Totally). Each of them has its own language, lifestyle, and cultural heritage. Many of the local ethnic groups residing in mountain areas are known collectively in the West as Montagnard or Degar.

The largest ethnic groups are: Kinh (Viet) 85.7%, Tay 1.9%, Tai Ethnic 1.8%, Mường 1.5%, Khmer Krom 1.5%, Hmong 1.2%, Nung 1.1%, Hoa 1%, with all others comprising the remaining 4.3% (2009 census). The Vietnamese has term for ethnic group (literally “minority people”). One distinctive feature of highland ethnic minority groups in Vietnam is that they are colorfully attired whether at home, in the farm, traveling or in their home town.

Many ethnic groups elsewhere such as southern part of Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, China, Papua New Guinea, and many other countries do not wear attractive clothes while engaged in their day-to-day activities. The clothing of one group is quite different from that of other groups and adds color to the social landscape. When you travel in Vietnam, you will meet and even talk to many of them. In the trip to Sapa, you may see dozens of them or some province as Lai Chau has 20 ethnic groups ( more than 3 hundreds thousand habitats). Dak Lak province has most in Vietnam with 47 ethnic groups.

Vietnam boasts a stunning diversity of ethnicities, creating a rich cultural tapestry. Over 54 ethnic groups are officially recognized in Vietnam, each with its own unique traditions, languages, and customs. The Kinh (Viet) ethnic group makes up about 86% of the population. But venture beyond the Kinh majority, and you’ll discover a mosaic of fascinating ethnic minorities. Here are some of the major ethnic groups in Vietnam: Kinh (Viet) : The dominant ethnic group, also known as Vietnamese. Tay : Renowned for their distinctive stilt houses, a must-see for any visitor to Northern Vietnam. Thai : Celebrated for their vibrant textiles and beautiful clothing. Hmong : Masters of embroidery and silversmithing, their handicrafts are a treasured souvenir. Dao : Skilled artisans, famous for their indigo-dyed fabrics. This is just a glimpse into the rich ethnic landscape of Vietnam. Each group has its own story to tell, adding another layer of fascination to this captivating country. So, explore Vietnam’s ethnic tapestry and discover the cultural gems hidden within its diverse communities!

Social Beliefs & Customs in Vietnam

Family is very strong in Vietnam. Family and clan (dòng họ) are valued over individualism. Clan is the most important social unit in the country and each clan features a patriarch heading the clan and a clan altar. Even today, in some parts of the country, the tradition of clan members living together in longhouses is quite prevalent. It is also not uncommon to see three to four generations of a family living together in the same house. Members of a clan are related by blood and often name their villages based on their clan names. Death commemorations of clan members are usually attended by all members of the clan and villagers.

Weddings in Vietnam earlier was arranged mainly by parents and people were married very young. However, things have changed so much in recent years since Vietnam Open the door to the World and tourism pick up in early of 90. Vietnamese youth enjoy greater freedom of choosing the time of their marriage and their partner. Weddings are still mostly held in the traditional manner with elaborate rituals and ceremonies . The date for Wedding was carefully selected by Feng Shui master or most respected man in the Clan.

The traditional funeral ceremony in Vietnam is also quite elaborate and long-stretched. The body of the dead person is cleaned with fragrant water and dressed carefully in the special clothes. A lot of mourning following and depends on each tribe and location, they have the slightly different ceremony. Later the body will be burying, the most popular method. Recently, some area, people choose cremation instead of burying. Only 1 case of remains in frozen condition and several cases of Monks body was kept inside the statues…

According to Confucian, men and women can not touch hand unless they are husband and wife so Vietnamese people don’t hug when meeting. They say ” Xin Chao” or handshake between men. People in the city talk gently and quietly and people come from the countryside or from the sea talk pretty loud. They work on the farm or ocean and they got to talk even louder than the wind or the waves.

Understanding social etiquette is important when visiting Vietnam. You can learn more about Vietnamese customs and etiquette in our Essential Guide to Customs and Etiquette in Vietnam .

Vietnam’s rich cultural tapestry is woven with traditions that reflect its vibrant history and diverse heritage. At the heart of Vietnamese life is the Lunar New Year, or Tết Nguyên Đán, a time when families reunite to honor ancestors and celebrate new beginnings. This reverence for forebears extends beyond the holiday, with many homes featuring altars for regular ancestral offerings. Another cherished tradition is the Mid-Autumn Festival, where children’s laughter mingles with the glow of lanterns and the sweetness of mooncakes.

Vietnam’s sartorial heritage shines through in the elegant áo dài, often donned for special occasions. The country’s artistic spirit comes alive in unique water puppetry performances, while traditional music and dance add rhythm to cultural expressions. Vietnamese cuisine, a delightful balance of flavors and fresh ingredients, is more than sustenance—it’s a proud cultural ambassador. From the aromatic phở to the crusty bánh mì, each dish tells a story of Vietnam’s culinary traditions.

These customs, along with tea ceremonies and martial arts, underscore the nation’s deep-rooted respect for family, heritage, and cultural identity, inviting both locals and visitors to experience the warmth and richness of Vietnamese traditions.

Vietnamese traditions are a vibrant blend of ancient customs, communal values, and unique celebrations that reflect the country’s rich history and diverse cultural heritage. Here are some of the most notable traditions in Vietnam:

• Tết (Vietnamese Lunar New Year) : Tết marks the arrival of spring and is the most important holiday in Vietnam. Families gather to clean their homes, prepare special foods, and honor their ancestors with offerings and prayers.
• Veneration of the Dead (Ancestor Worship): Honoring ancestors is a core aspect of Vietnamese culture. This deep-seated tradition involves maintaining home altars where they offer incense, food, and prayers and performing rituals to honor deceased family members, showcasing the respect for family and lineage.
• Mid-Autumn Festival ( Tết Trung Thu ) : Celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month, this festival is for children. It features lantern processions, lion dances, and mooncakes to celebrate the harvest and the full moon.
• God of Wealth (Thần Tài) : On the 10th day of the lunar year, businesses and households worship the God of Wealth to attract prosperity and good fortune for the year ahead.
• Communal dining: Food is a big part of Vietnamese culture, and meals are often seen as a time to bond with family and friends. Sharing dishes from a communal plate in the center of the table is a common practice.
• Respect for elders: Age is highly respected in Vietnamese society, and younger people are expected to show deference to their elders. This is reflected in greetings, conversation, and decision-making.
• Tea culture : Tea is a beloved beverage in Vietnam, and drinking tea is seen as a way to relax, socialize, and bond with others.
• Visiting Pagodas : Regularly visiting pagodas and temples is a common practice in Vietnam, reflecting the strong influence of Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism in Vietnamese spirituality.
• Vietnamese People Are Relentlessly Optimistic : Despite hardships, Vietnamese people are known for their unwavering optimism and resilience, which is reflected in their cultural expressions and daily life.
• Hùng Kings’ Festival : This festival commemorates the legendary Hùng Kings, the traditional founders of Vietnam. It includes ceremonies, traditional games, and performances to honor these ancient rulers.
• Khau Vai Love Market : An annual event where ethnic minority groups gather in Khau Vai village to celebrate love and reunite with past lovers, reflecting the unique social customs of the region.
• Perfume Pagoda Festival : Taking place from the first to the third lunar month, this pilgrimage involves a journey to the Perfume Pagoda, where devotees pray for health, prosperity, and happiness.

Vietnamese traditions are a beautiful mosaic of rituals, festivals, and social customs that bind the community together and celebrate life’s significant moments. These traditions offer a window into the soul of Vietnam, where the past and present harmoniously coexist.

Vietnamese food is fresh and healthy and getting more and more popular all over the World. It exhibits great diversity but can be classified into three primary categories by locations: the north, south, and central regions of the country. Many types of noodles and noodle soups and all type of spring rolls are popular here. Less use of oil and greater use of fresh vegetables is preferred. Soy sauce, fish sauce, mint, and basil are popular ingredients. Rice is the main food and eaten in 3 meals a day. The flavors of Vietnamese food range from spicy and sour to sweet. The Noodle Soup originating in North Vietnam is a noted Vietnamese dish and features rice noodles with beef, chicken, fish, sea food…. soup and scallions or bean sprouts as accompaniments. There is vegetarian noodle soup too.

Vietnamese cuisine is an explosion of fresh flavors and vibrant textures, a delightful dance on your taste buds. Imagine fragrant bowls of pho, steaming hot and brimming with rice noodles, succulent meats, and a rich, aromatic broth. Or picture crusty banh mi sandwiches, filled with savory meats, pickled vegetables, and a touch of creamy pate. Vietnamese cooking boasts a beautiful regional diversity. In the north, dishes lean towards lighter broths and fresh herbs. Central Vietnam cranks up the heat with chilies and spices, while the south features a touch of sweetness and bolder flavors. Here’s a taste of what awaits you: Pho: The national treasure, pho is a fragrant noodle soup with a rich beef broth, rice noodles, thinly sliced meat (often beef), and a vibrant array of fresh herbs and vegetables. Banh Mi: The quintessential Vietnamese street food, banh mi is a crusty baguette stuffed with savory fillings like pate, grilled meats, pickled vegetables, fresh herbs, and a touch of chili sauce for a flavor explosion. Bún Chả: This dish features grilled, marinated pork served with vermicelli noodles, fresh herbs, and dipping sauce for a refreshing and flavorful experience. Gỏi Cuốn (Spring Rolls): Fresh and light, these spring rolls are packed with rice noodles, herbs, vegetables, and sometimes shrimp or pork, all wrapped in a thin rice paper sheet and dipped in a flavorful peanut sauce.

54 tribes in Vietnam has their own traditional costumes. The traditional dress of the Vietnamese people changed significantly from time to time and depended largely on the whims and fancies of the region’s rulers. The common people of the country had greater freedom to choose their clothing prior to the Nguyen dynasty. During Nguyen Dynasty, several restrictions were placed on the type and colors of clothes that could be worn by the common people of Vietnam.

Some of the examples of traditional Vietnamese costumes are the Áo Giao Lĩnh, the Áo Tứ Thân, Áo Cánh, and the Áo Bà Ba. The first one refers to a cross-collared robe worn by the Vietnamese men while the second is a four-part dress worn by the women.

The last two dresses were worn by the peasants in the north and south, respectively and appeared like silk-pajama-type costumes. The color code of the dresses also varied from time to time and during Nguyen dynasty, only the monarchs enjoyed the exclusive rights of wearing golden clothes while purple and red were popular among the nobles and aristocrats. The headgear worn in Vietnam changed over the years with the conical hat or Non La being the most popular among the community.

Beautiful Vietnamese girls in Ao Dai ( long dress) at Hue Citadel

Traditional Vietnamese costumes reflect the rich cultural heritage and diversity of Vietnam’s various ethnic groups. The most iconic is the “ao dai,” a graceful, long tunic worn over trousers, often made from silk and adorned with intricate embroidery. The ao dai is typically worn during special occasions, weddings, and festivals, symbolizing elegance and femininity. For men, the “ao gam” is a traditional robe, usually worn with loose pants, featuring bold, symmetrical patterns. In the northern regions, the “quan ho” singers wear “ao tu than,” a four-piece dress, showcasing the rustic charm of the countryside. Meanwhile, the Hmong people in the highlands sport vibrant, hand-embroidered garments with intricate motifs, reflecting their close-knit community and traditions. Vietnam’s traditional costumes not only enhance the beauty of the wearer but also tell stories of the country’s rich history and cultural diversity.

Most of Vietnamese people worshiping their ancestors and believe in animism. In the ID most of Vietnamese (about 90%), the line: Religion: None.

In reality, religion in Vietnam has historically been largely defined by a mix of Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism, known in Vietnamese as the Tam Giao (“triple religion”). Catholicism is also practiced in modern Vietnam.

Ancestor worship is common in Vietnamese culture. Most Vietnamese, regardless of religious denomination, practice ancestor worship and have an ancestor altar at their home or business, a testament to the emphasis Vietnamese culture places on filial piety

Vietnam is associated with a rich tradition of dance and music. Vietnamese music also exhibits variance in each part of Vietnam. It is older and more formal in the north while Champa culture exerts considerable influence on Central classical music and music in the southern part of the country is a livelier affair. The country has nearly 50 national music instruments. The Imperial Court music and the Ca Tru are important traditional forms of Vietnamese music.

The great ethnic diversity of Vietnam has gifted the country with diverse dance forms. These dances are usually performed at the cultural programs and festivals held in the country. The Lion dance, platter dance, fan dance, imperial lantern dance is some of the traditional dance forms of Vietnam. The dances that developed in the imperial courts of Vietnam are quite complex in nature and require great skills to be mastered.

Water Puppetry

Literature in Vietnam has greatly evolved over the years from romanticism to realism. Two aspects of the literature in the country are the folk literature and the written literature both of which developed almost at the same time. Folk literature features fairytales, folk legends, humorous stories, and epic poems. Written literature was previously written in the Cham and Nom characters and focused on poetry and prose. Now, it is mostly written in the National Language and includes short stories, dramas, novels, etc.

Vietnamese art is mainly influenced by Buddhism , Taoism , and Confucianism . However, more recently, the Cham and French influence have also been reflected in the art presentations. Silk painting is popular in Vietnam and involves the liberal use of colors. Calligraphy is also a much-respected art form and often, during festivals like the Lunar New Year. On the third day of new year people would visit a village teacher or an erudite scholar to obtain calligraphy hangings for their homes. Vietnamese wood-block prints are also quite popular. Water puppetry and several forms of theaters represent other performing art forms in Vietnam.

Vovinam ( Viet Vo Dao) is Vietnam traditional martial art. Vietnam has a very well-developed tradition of martial arts that has some similarity to Chinese martial arts. Vietnamese Vovinam martial arts philosophy guides the martial arts practice in the country. It is associated with intense spirituality because of its close association with Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism. The scissor kick is a famous movement of this form of martial arts.

Although Vietnamese martial arts is less popular in other parts of the world than its Chinese or Japanese counterparts, there is no doubt that it is gradually and steadily gaining greater popularity worldwide with the establishment of schools teaching this martial art form in many parts of the world.

Vietnamese martial arts, known as “Võ thuật Việt Nam,” offer a rich tapestry of history, culture, and diverse techniques. Rooted in ancient traditions and the country’s turbulent history, these martial arts emphasize both physical prowess and mental discipline. Styles such as Vovinam, Bình Định, and Võ Cổ Truyền are prominent, each with unique characteristics. Vovinam, for instance, incorporates a mix of hard and soft techniques, including grappling and weaponry, while Bình Định is famed for its dynamic footwork and powerful strikes. Vietnamese martial arts not only teach self-defense but also promote physical fitness, self-confidence, and respect. Whether practiced for sport, self-defense, or personal growth, they offer a holistic approach to martial arts, blending strength, agility, and a deep cultural heritage.

Vietnam has many festivals. In Vietnamese Festival is Le Hoi. It includes 2 parts Le: Ceremony +  Hoi: Game & fun. Festivals including both traditional ones and those adopted from other cultures are celebrated in the country with great pomp and glory. Here is the top 10 festivals in Vietnam :

• 1 -TET Nguyen Dan – TET holidays all over the country
• 2- Hung King Holidays in March 10th ( lunar calendar)- Phu Tho province
• 3- Saint Giong Festival – In March outside Hanoi in Soc Son district
• 4- Ka Te Festival – In Champa community in Ninh Thuan Province
• 5- Perfume pagoda festival – Outside Hanoi
• 6- Dong Da Festival in Hanoi
• 7- Cau Ngu Festival in Hue in December
• 8- Hội đua voi – Elephant racing in Don village – Dak Lak province
• 9- Ba Chua Xu Festival – In Chau Doc city, An Giang province in April
• 10- Cam Muong Festival in Lai Chau province.

Vietnam’s charm goes beyond its postcard-worthy landscapes. Dive into the heart of Vietnamese culture through its captivating holidays and celebrations!

• Tết Nguyên Đán (Lunar New Year): Imagine a week-long extravaganza welcoming spring! Tet, the most important Vietnamese holiday, explodes with vibrant flower markets, firecracker displays that banish bad luck, and ancestor veneration ceremonies. Think delicious feasts featuring bánh chưng (sticky rice cakes) and lucky red envelopes bursting with wishes for prosperity.
• Hung Kings Commemoration Day (Mar 10th Lunar Calendar): Honoring the legendary founders of Vietnam with elaborate ceremonies.
• Liberation Day and Reunification Day: April 30th and May 1st are days that commemorate the reunification of North and South Vietnam in 1975. These holidays are marked with parades, cultural performances, and fireworks, reflecting Vietnam’s journey towards unity and independence. It’s a time to reflect on the country’s history and celebrate its resilience and progress.
• National Day (September 2nd): Step back in time and witness the national spirit soar! Every September 2nd, Vietnam commemorates its Declaration of Independence with parades, flag raisings, and cultural performances. It’s a powerful reminder of the country’s resilience and a chance to witness the national pride in full swing.
• Beyond Public Holidays: Vietnam’s calendar is sprinkled with other cultural gems. Celebrate the harvest moon with the Mid-Autumn Festival, where streets come alive with colorful lanterns and children carry lion dances. Or, delve into the spiritual realm during the Đền Hùng Festival, honoring the legendary Hùng Kings, the ancestors of the Vietnamese people.

Vietnam’s holidays offer a unique glimpse into its soul. Remember, some holidays (like Tet) can cause business closures and transportation snags. When planning your trip to Vietnam , consider timing your visit to coincide with these vibrant holidays and festivals. Whether you’re exploring bustling city streets, tranquil countryside, or scenic coastlines, experiencing these celebrations firsthand will immerse you in the heart and soul of Vietnam.

Vietnam holidays are a blend of ancient customs and modern celebrations, offering travelers a profound cultural experience. From the iconic Tet celebrations to the festive lantern-lit streets during Mid-Autumn Festival, each holiday paints a colorful picture of Vietnam’s rich heritage. Plan your journey to Vietnam, and let these vibrant holidays become cherished memories of your travels in Southeast Asia.

Experience the magic of Vietnam—where every holiday is a celebration of culture, community, and the spirit of a nation. Start planning your Vietnam holiday today and discover why this country’s festivities are truly unforgettable.

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It is amazing

Wonderful research. However, in topic 3, Vietnamese Cuisine, in line 3 sentence 3 word 10 (TYPE in “…noodle soups and all TYPE of spring rolls are…”), I think is supposed to be types, as in “…noodle soups and all types of spring rolls are…”.

Detailed article but there are still some grammar and spelling mistakes. Great job on the research though

Really awesome

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FOR STUDENTS : ALL THE INGREDIENTS OF A GOOD ESSAY

Essay: The Vietnam War

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Introduction The topic we choose for this assignment is the Vietnam War, because this war has been one of the most influential ones in American history. The war, which lasted from 1955 until 1975, had and still has a great impact on American society. Hundreds of thousands of both soldiers and civilians were killed it a, what later turned out to be, a useless interference in a civil war by the United States. The media had reported on big parts of the war. For the first time, due to the introduction of the television, every American citizen could see the horrible effects of the war live from their living room. Vietnam War Summarized overview The Vietnam War was a proxy war during the Cold War-era that took place between 1955 and 1975. The war was fought between the communist North Vietnam, the South Vietnamese communist force Viet Cong on one end and the non-communist South Vietnam on the other. The Vietnam War followed up the First Indochina War, partially, due to the interference of the United States and the Soviet Union, among other forces. The United States and its allies supported South Vietnam, while the USSR its allies supported North Vietnam. This made the Vietnam War known as one of the few ‘hot’ conflicts of the Cold War. The war represented a successful attempt of the North Vietnamese government, led by Ho Chi Minh, to unite the country under communist flag, since it had been split up by the decolonization. Elections for unification of the country were held in 1956, but South Vietnam ignored them. From this year up until the end of the war the Viet Cong carried out attacks in South Vietnam. The amount of US armed forces in Vietnam had been growing since 1955 but the real interference did not take place until after the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, august 2nd, 1964. This incident, in which two US navy vessels had been torpedoed, led to the Tonkin Resolution. This resolution made it possible for the president of the United States to assist any South East Asian country in a war against communism. Between 1964 and 1968 the US president, Lyndon B Johnson, send over 500.000 troops to Vietnam. The US Army general William Westmoreland was in command during that period, he believed large scale aerial attacks to be the best option for defeating the Viet Cong. On March 28th 1968 the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces began to launch a series of guerrilla-attacks on South Vietnamese cities, the Tet Offensive. Even though the US Army troops were better equipped and larger in number, they could not withstand these attacks. The Tet Offensive later became known as the turning point of the war, as the public opinion on the righteousness of the war shifted. This was due to broad media coverage of all the events and attacks in the Vietnam War. President Johnson was not re-elected and succeeded by Richard Nixon. The Nixon administration was responsible for something called the Vietnamization. This basically meant that, because public opinion about the war had shifted, American troops must be withdrawn and the war handed back to the Vietnamese again. Also, Nixon ‘expanded’ the war into neutral countries such as Cambodia and Laos. This led to big protests in the United States, especially amongst students. In 1973, after peace negotiations in Paris, the last US Army troops leave Vietnam. In the following two years North Vietnamese forces took over large cities in South Vietnam resulting in the surrendering of South Vietnam after the Fall of Saigon on April 30th, 1975. Reception of the Vietnam War The Vietnam War was the first war that was broadly documented and reported on by the media. Almost every day, news about Vietnam was broadcasted on American television. At first the general opinion was positive, but as the war escalated and more American soldiers died, the opinion shifted. This was greatly fuelled by the negative and sometimes inaccurate news reports during the Tet Offensive. The gruesome images of warfare broadcasted by the media caused distrust towards to government felt by the American society. One of the most famous events is the death of a Buddhist monk, who burned himself to death protesting the suppression of Buddhists by Ng”nh Di’m’s administration. Quang Duc, a Buddhist monk, burns himself to death on a Saigon street June 11, 1963 to protest alleged persecution of Buddhists by the South Vietnamese government. (AP Photo/Malcolm Browne) Between 1967 and 1971 the percentage of young men who refused to serve in the US army rose from 8% to 43%. The opposition pointed out that the civilians of both North and South Vietnam became the main victims and that the US were actually supporting a corrupt government in the South. Because the United States lost the Tet Offensive, contrarily to public expectations and the insurances of the White House that victory was near, a big Anti War movement and counterculture was founded. Woodstock Music and Art Festival is the most famous example of this counterculture. The combination of new morals such as free love, recreational drug use and rock music made Woodstock a symbol of the antiwar movement. The anti war movements organized huge demonstrations. Among the demonstrators were a lot of students, clergy’s and African American. Popular anti war slogans were: ‘Hey hey LBJ, how many kids did you kill today’? – Chanted by the demonstrators in opposition of Lyndon B. Johnson “Hell, no, we won’t go!” Vietnam War and present day US Some of the things that happened during the Vietnam War have had a huge impact on how the Americans and the rest of the world live today. One of the things that had a huge impact on the Vietnam War is that the American media played a large role in this war. For the first time the citizens of America were able to see exactly what was happening overseas and witness the horrors of true war. This is something that was new then but now reports like that are on the news at least every week. Because the media is more involved then it ever was nowadays, the opinions of the people have changed and not everyone is ‘pro war’ anymore. This new source of information during wars and conflict also sparked distrust amongst the people of America towards their government and other authorities. This is something that can still be seen today. According to a survey carried out by Gallup.com(Gallup) 81% of the American people have a hard time trusting their own government. Another thing that changed is that since this war, the President is no longer able to declare war without consulting first. Congress also changed their army draft to an all-volunteer force and changed the voting age to 18. All of this to give more freedom to the people and give them more influence on the government. The Vietnam War resulted in a loss. America the number one country in the world, with the strongest army, had lost its first war. The citizens lost confidence in their country and its government. But what about the countless veterans who came home from this terrible war. Most of the veterans that came back suffered from physical as well as psychological problems. Because of these problems most of these veterans were unable to get back to their regular lives. This was also known as the Vietnam Syndrome. Up until the 1980’s nobody actually talked about the existence of this trauma and because of this there was almost no care for the veterans who had served their country. A lot of the veterans that returned to the USA could not get jobs and so became homeless. The veterans were also now seen as not only heroes or victims, but also as victimizers. This of course after the citizens of the USA had seen the terrible thing their own soldiers had done. The government, which promised health care and education for the veterans that got an honorable discharge, kept to their promise. The only problem for a lot of veterans was that their discharge had not been honorable and so had no right to any of these things. Because of the poor conditions the veterans had (and some still have) to live in took its toll on a lot of them. Statistics show that almost every 80 minutes a US veteran commits suicide, about 18 a day. They also had to cope with the physical harm caused by Agent Orange or the mental harm; PTSD (Post-traumatic Stress Disorder). They still cope with these problems today as Agent Orange can cause birth defects and PTSD is very hard to overcome, especially since the American government does so little to help these people. Conclusion It depends on from what perspective you look at this war and to what it has brought the world and more important America. We think that the consequences of this war are negative for the most part. America took several hits and still has not recovered from them. One of the most obvious things is that the citizens distrust their own government. Another thing is that more and more people are starting to agree on the fact that the Vietnam War might not have been such a great idea. Over the years people have started to doubt whether it was the right thing to do and in the year 2000, approximately 70% of the American people think that it was a mistake (see graph(Gillespie, 2000) below All of this because of the Vietnam war, but why? Why had this not happened in earlier wars? The biggest reason for this is that the media played a major role in this war. For the first time the American people could follow the war right at home with their television. Not only could they watch broadcasts of the war but there were also a lot more reports coming in every day. This made people look at the war from a whole other perspective. No longer was this war about helping people, honor and glory. People got to see the actual battles that took place, horrific images that one would not forget quickly. For the first time people did not think of America as the savior but as the bad guy.

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Home — Essay Samples — Geography & Travel — Asia — Vietnam

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Home / Essay Samples / Culture / Vietnamese / The Significance Of Vietnamese Culture

The Significance Of Vietnamese Culture

• Category: Life , Sociology , Culture
• Topic: Change , Culture and Communication , Vietnamese

Pages: 3 (1393 words)

Views: 2024

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Works cited

• AlbeeNing. “Religion in Vietnam. ” Asia Highlights, 4 May 2018, https://www. asiahighlights. com/vietnam/religion. htm.
• Hays, Jeffrey. “EDUCATION IN VIETNAM. ” Facts and Details, http://factsanddetails. com/southeast-asia/Vietnam/sub5_9f/entry-3457. html.
• Puma. “Regional Differences in Vietnamese Cuisine - North, Central and South. ” The Christina's Blog, 30 Apr. 2019, https://blog. christinas. vn/regional-differences-in-vietnamese-cuisine/.
• TransferWise. “The Vietnamese Education System: An Overview. ” TransferWise, TransferWise, 31 Aug. 2017, https://transferwise. com/gb/blog/vietnamese-education-overview.
• “Vietnam. ” Food in Every Country, http://www. foodbycountry. com/Spain-to-Zimbabwe-Cumulative-Index/Vietnam. html.
• “Vietnamese Lifestyle Overview. ” AloTrip, https://www. alotrip. com/about-vietnam-culture/vietnamese-lifestyle-overview.
• “Vietnamese Religion: Inside Asia Tours. ” Vietnamese Religion | Inside Asia Tours, https://www. insideasiatours. com/southeast-asia/vietnamese-culture/religion/ .

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