Vietnamese Culture
Running Head: Vietnamese Culture
Vietnamese Culture:
A Comparative View of Vietnamese and U.S American Values
Intercultural communication and differences among cultures is something that I have been interested in since I began in my communications major. I had never been directly affected by intercultural boundaries until I began working at an after school program in Elk Grove. Many of the families that I work with are Vietnamese and it has been difficult for me to communicate with them due to our language/culture boundary. My lack of understanding and apprehension has made it so that I do not communicate with the parents at all but rather use the children (who speak English) to communicate with them. It is important to develop a relationship with the parents at my job and this particular cultural boundary had not allowed me to do so. I plan on studying this topic further in order to give myself an understanding of their culture and values so I am better able to communicate not only at work but in other aspects of my life. I find it fascinating how different the attitudes, beliefs and norms are among cultures and I believe that it is important to recognize these differences in order for any two cultures to get along. Although it is a challenge, there are steps that can be taken to improve the way we interact with cultures around the world and to help us to better understand how to successfully communicate with other cultures in different situations. In this paper I will focus on the Vietnamese culture and values in comparison with that of the United States. I will discuss their values/orientation and explain how these cultural values affect the way they communicate with one another. U.S. Americans value their time. Unlike the Vietnamese, time is money and their goal is to get as much accomplished in as little time as possible and still make the biggest profit. In regards to the value of time, efficiency and progress are often in expense of
Vietnamese Culture:
A Comparative View of Vietnamese and U.S American Values
Intercultural communication and differences among cultures is something that I have been interested in since I began in my communications major. I had never been directly affected by intercultural boundaries until I began working at an after school program in Elk Grove. Many of the families that I work with are Vietnamese and it has been difficult for me to communicate with them due to our language/culture boundary. My lack of understanding and apprehension has made it so that I do not communicate with the parents at all but rather use the children (who speak English) to communicate with them. It is important to develop a relationship with the parents at my job and this particular cultural boundary had not allowed me to do so. I plan on studying this topic further in order to give myself an understanding of their culture and values so I am better able to communicate not only at work but in other aspects of my life. I find it fascinating how different the attitudes, beliefs and norms are among cultures and I believe that it is important to recognize these differences in order for any two cultures to get along. Although it is a challenge, there are steps that can be taken to improve the way we interact with cultures around the world and to help us to better understand how to successfully communicate with other cultures in different situations. In this paper I will focus on the Vietnamese culture and values in comparison with that of the United States. I will discuss their values/orientation and explain how these cultural values affect the way they communicate with one another. U.S. Americans value their time. Unlike the Vietnamese, time is money and their goal is to get as much accomplished in as little time as possible and still make the biggest profit. In regards to the value of time, efficiency and progress are often in expense of
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