Vietnamese Strength and Weekness

Psychology 100
May 5, 2013
Name of my culture: Vietnamese
STRENGTHS
1. Vietnamese values are based on allegiance to the family that believes responsibilities, rights and commitments of a group or a family are important (Pamela, 1996). Example: in my family, my mom always gave a thoughtful care to my grandma. My mom said my grandma took care of my mom the whole life already, and that was the time my mom had to take the responsible to my grandma. This shows me the traditional moral idea for Vietnamese as well as Asian family. 2. Greeting is very important in Vietnamese culture. We have to use the respect word to the one older and the one who have higher position than us. There are a lot of Vietnamese words which use to address people of different relationships, can’t translate to English. Also my parents always teach me I cannot joke on the adults because it is very rule. As we see “Insults to elders or ancestors are very serious and often lead to severed social ties” (Pamela, 1996).
WEAKNESSES
1. The gender gap still exists in Vietnamese family. The man who always have a highest position in the family, go out to work; while the woman has to stay home to take care for their children and do the housework (Trinh). The woman has no right, she must always listen to what the husband says whether it is wrong or no. I think this is not fair for woman. I found this has appeared in my family. 2. “Vietnamese is ruled by the monarchism for thousands of years, Vietnamese people gradually became submissive or tacit in their thinking, for in centuries there was always a person telling people what to do” (Toroto, 2011). In the society, the government makes the laws without the vote of rights of Vietnamese citizen. In my family, my dad is the one decides everything without telling my mom; moreover, my mom does not complain anything about that.

References
Pamela LaBorde, MD. (1996, July).Vietnamese Cultural Profile. Retrieved from: http://ethnomed.org/culture/vietnamese/vietnamese-cultural-profile
Toroto. (2011, April 17). American culture vs Vietnamese culture [Web log post]. Retrieved from: http://totoro-animeforever.blogspot.com/2011/04/american-culture-vs-vietnamese-culture.html
Trinh, T. (n.d.) Vietnamese traditional family values. Retrieved from: http://www.vietspring.org/values/traditionalval.html