Day 5

We had our second culture class this morning. We learned a little bit more about the Vietnamese culture and some of their different beliefs customs. One thing we had learned was the yin and the yang which is a very important concept in Vietnamese culture. They represent two opposite forces that must work together to form harmony. For example, the woman (yin) and man (yang) come together to create harmony. Numbers are also significant and they each hold their own meaning. The odd numbers are preferable but only up to ten. For example, giving someone 9 roses is good because 9 represents forever. But 10 is not acceptable because it is a yin number and those are not good. I found this pretty strange actually. I can’t really understand how important a number can be, but it’s been their tradition for ages. There were a lot of interesting facts about our culture that I never knew about.

We then had our language class. Today we learned how to ask someone how they’re doing which is “ban co khoe khong” and how to reply. We also learned a few adjectives such as delicious (ngon), beautiful (dep), sleepy (buon ngu) and a few others. It was pretty interesting watching everyone try to pronounce the “ng” sound. The sound comes from the back of your throat so it’s pretty difficult to get the right sound. I’m actually surprised that I can pronounce many of these words correctly. It’s been a while since I’ve spoken a lot of Vietnamese, but it’s coming back quickly.

After our lunch at the canteen, we went over to ASCENX to meet with Tuan Bach who founded the company back in 2004. I was very excited to be able to meet with a CEO who had created their own company from the ground up. He was originally born in Vietnam then fled the country during the war to America. He grew up in America, but then decided to do business in Vietnam after he graduated. He gave us a little introduction about what they do, how he started the company and also about his own life. He told us about his childhood as well as his journey to America. His family was originally from Hanoi but fled to the south after communism arrived. Though his family was one of the most prominent and wealthy in Vietnam, communism stripped away their fortune and left them in poverty. He fled to America on a boat when he was around 9 years old and grew up in the US. I thought his story was very interesting. My family also fled during the war so his story was very similar to what my parents went through. Even after all the stories I’ve heard from my family about the war, it’s still hard to imagine what they all went through. I really admire how he was able to take his unfortunate past and create an amazing success story out of it. He was also very nice to us. He invited us to coffee at Highland’s which was a very generous offer. He seemed very enthused to be able to talk to us, and I really appreciated how hospitable he was towards us.

We went out to Dominos today with the Vietnamese students. After a few days of Vietnamese food, we all got to have some of the greasy and unhealthy American food we all are used to.

It’s the weekend already. These past few days went by so quickly. I’m looking forward to our tour of the city tomorrow and we’re also visiting a market where we all get to put our haggling skills to use. I’m pretty excited. Most importantly, we get to sleep in for another hour. Finally.