Vietnam - Are foreigners and Vietnamese treated equally?

Dear readers,

Welcome to the first day of October.

We’re now officially in the middle of autumn. Do you feel a little of the cold breeze when you drive to work early morning?

Remember a couple weeks ago, we discussed how difficult it was to be an expat due to differences in culture, language, and ideologies?

However, as a local, Nguyen Pham finds foreigners in Vietnam have more advantages. She recalls being served after a group of foreigners in a food court even though she ordered first or being neglected by hotel staff who later greeted and behaved nicely to foreign tourists.

Besides, Nguyen Pham said that being with a foreigner, she is always thought to be his and her subordinate although she is actually their boss.

Agreeing with Nguyen Pham, reader C.Blank wrote: “In once case I was shopping at Vincom with my wife the other day. I had just gotten off work and was still in my business attire. A sales staff eventually approached us and asked my Vietnamese wife if she was my secretary. Although, I saw the humor in it; I could find were some of the more self conscious individuals may have been less amused.”

“One of the biggest problems plaguing Vietnam is lack of customer service training. As a parent, you teach your children how to act and how to behave even before enrolling them in schools. In business, you need to train your employees to treat customers the way they need to be treated: equally,” M. Nguyen tried to explain the issue.

In contrast, a reader called Bob said he had been treated the same way as his Vietnamese wife and moreover, charged double the normal price.

How about you, what do you think about this? Are Vietnamese and locals treated the same way in Vietnam?

We also have an article that reader Hoang Pham sent us about an interesting experience on the street: drivers giving signals to each other when there are cops ahead so they can avoid being seized and paying crazy fines. Not only telling his experience, the reader also questioned himself the legality of this action and he thought it is a yes.

“Personally I think the acts are legal since they are good citizens telling others to obey the law. Others may say that aiding and abetting a crime is a crime but please remember road rule violations just pertain to the administrative domain. But could the grudging cops do something about it? I guess no. the best they can is to stalk the Samaritans and try to find out where and when they commit traffic wrongdoings to get due payback,” wrote Hoang Pham.

Earlier this week, we had some words from Jamie Henn, co-founder and communications director at environmental organization 350.Org. He mentioned the change to greener fuel like solar power to prevent climate change and protect the planet.

“The fact that more and more people are becoming concerned about the effects of climate change is already a success. Where there is awareness, there is action. I am honored to work with you in the anti-climate change campaign,” said Henn.

Riding bicycle to travel around the world, the couple Thuy Anh and Guim have arrived in Peloponnese, a Greek island in the Mediterranean. Guim feels like going back to his home Costa Brava in Spain due to the same color, same flora and fauna, same smell, same salt-carrying wind at the island.

“The Mediterranean Sea has all the ingredients that my person contains. Once its breeze touches my skin, it starts to get smooth, shiny, alive; my eyes change according to the light, as now there’s still daylight until 8 or 9 o’clock in the evening,” wrote Guim.

It seems that being around the Mediterranean Sea has made Guim become more emotional. We are looking forward to seeing the couple back in Spain and hearing more stories from our Spaniard cyclist.

If you have any comments or submission for City Diary, remember to send them to expat@tuoitre.com.vn.

Have a nice weekend!

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