Cultural Immerison Project 2 Vietnamese

1Things learnt about Vietnamese culture through reading scholarly sources

a) Political history

About 2000 years ago, people started growing rise in North Vietnam in the Red River Valley. They built dug canals and dykes in order to irrigate their crops. They were working together leading to the emergence of a kingdom called Van Lang. Vietnam became a French colony in the late 19th century building various infrastructures such as railways, roads and bridges. The Vietnamese however, wanted independence and therefore formed Vietnamese Community party in 1930 which was a revolutionary movement. After Germany defeated France in 1940, Japan took advantage of the weak French and her troops occupied the French Indochina (Vietnam was part of this colonial region) but later in 1945, France regained its control over Vietnam and the war broke up between French and Vietnamese until 1954 when French troops surrendered. The Vietnam became independence in 1956 and became a communist society (Malesky, 2018).

b) Language

The Vietnamese language is believed to be in existence for over 3,000 years and it is made up of two subfamilies; Mon-Khmer and Munda. The language has been influenced by other foreign languages such as Chinese and French due many years they ruled the region. In fact, written Vietnamese is a modified form of Chinese alphabets. With French invasion later in the 19th century, Vietnamese was beefed up with more French words. Vietnamese is however the language used in education, administration etc. as t is the national language and is spoken by over 70million people around the globe (Thomson, 2016).

c) Economy

Today, Vietnamese are slightly over 100 million, 90% of them being in Vietnam. Majority of the remaining 10% are in the neighbouring countries such as Cambodia and Southern China. Although the government introduced communism at independence, various market reforms have been done leading to a rapid economic growth. Various industries have started doing well after the country recognized the role of the private sector in the economy (Malesky, 2018). The country has now become open to foreigners and regulations on its citizens and allowing them to move around the world taking their culture everywhere they move to.

1. Things learnt about Vietnamese culture through interacting with internet

a) Religion

Regarding religion, Buddhism, Taoism or Confucianism are the most common religions among the Vietnamese and they are integrated in their culture. They however owe considerable belief systems to traditional folk tales. Vietnamese mostly worship ancestors, gods, and goddesses for guidance. Among the three mentioned religions above, Buddhism dominates the other religions and for this reason, Vietnamese culture has a lot of Buddha teachings. For example, the four trues which teach that liberation is only achieved through knowing the four truths which the truth are of the; (1) suffering (involves realizing that life is made of suffering), (2) what cause of the suffering, (3) end of suffering, and lastly (4) path that liberates people from suffering. Nevertheless, the Vietnamese worship many gods such as the moon, the sun, the forest, the earth the mountain the river and many more. Foreign religion such as Muslim, Catholics, and Protestantism are the minority but recognised religions (Williams & Koina, 2015).

b) Beliefs

Vietnamese believes in superstition. For instance, many of the years in their twelfth-lunar calendar are considered incompatible, that is, a man cannot marry a woman born in a different year as this would lead to breaking his ties with the family and the relatives. Another superstition is that duck foetus eggs bring good luck only when an odd number is not eaten (Williams & Koina, 2015). Otherwise the bad luck previously kept at bay comes back.

c) Values

The Vietnamese society also has highly ranked values and ethics, the four basic pillars are; good name, learning, respect, and family. Every member of the society is expected to observe these values wherever they are. Being more of a communist society, allegiance to the family is the most important value as any form of individual misconduct is blamed on the family too. They believe that a good name is far much better than worldly possession.

2. Surprises I have found out about Vietnamese culture

From the research, the Vietnamese culture has really surprised me. The most surprising aspect of this culture is how rich it is in terms of history that is stretching back to over 2,000 years. I believe that its long history has really contributed to its culture. Another surprising issue is how the Vietnamese are adaptive and adoptive. This is proven by the fact this culture can accommodate more than seven religions without conflicts. Most of their religious teaching, values and ethics are universally accepted where no one would question the reasoning behind them, thus making it easier for a psychologist to attend to a client who believes in Vietnamese cultural practices.

3. How the research has impacted my expectations as I plan my immersion activities

The search above through the literature and internet has really changed my expectations as I plan my immersion activities. First, before the search I thought of Vietnamese as a very complicated culture that would really make it difficult for me as I carry out my immersion activities. I also viewed it a cultural that has no any relationship with my own culture. These two reasons made me expect disagreements, misunderstanding and spending a lot of time to learn Vietnamese culture. However, now that I now know that my African-American culture is more similar to the Vietnamese culture than it is dissimilar, I have totally different expectations. I expect to integrate very fast due to the fact that most of the values that apply to me apply to Vietnamese too. However, I will have to prepare myself in two areas; the first is the language. Since Vietnamese do not learn English as their first or even second language, I am now expecting some sort of communication challenges, unless luck will be on my side for me to have a Vietnamese proficient enough in English. The second issue is religion. I have realized that a very small fraction of Vietnamese are Christians like me, and therefore I would be very lucky to have one. However, I will try to keep religion as aside as possible in order to avoid conflicts which may arise due to religious beliefs differences.

4. Bible scripture supporting diversity

1 Corinthians 12:12-14 New International Version (NIV) Unity and Diversity in the Body