|
Global
Summit of Women 2008
DOING BUSINESS IN ASIA: AVOIDING CULTURAL
CHASMS
2008 Global Summit of Women
Melia Hotel – Hanoi, Vietnam
Saturday, June 7, 2008- 3:00 – 4:30 pm
HOW TO AVOID
CULTURE CHASMS IN VIETNAM.
Presentation
By: Dao Thi Lien Huong
Quoc Anh IEC company Vietnam – Managing director
FELCA- Federation of Education and Languages Consultants Association –
Secretary for Asia Pacific
Asia is a continent of diversity.
I once attended an international training course for Asian
Youth Leaders. During our free time, we found out that people from Indonesia,
Malaysia, Brunei, and Singapore could understand each other very well, as they
can all speak Malay. Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, Singaporeans, people
from Hong Kong and Taiwanese could more easily share their feelings and the way
they do things as we all come from the same root - Mongolian China.
On one of the evenings, we asked the Chinese group to come up
the stage to sing a song. One person from Hong Kong started to sing, but the
Chinese and Taiwanese could not join him – it turned out that they spoke
different languages, although they all come from China! So, the two girls from
China and Taiwan just stood still. They got 10 marks for their cooperation and
courage, while the man from Hong Kong only 5 marks for not continuing to sing
and not cooperating with the girls..
Vietnam, is a country in Southeast Asia. Yet, it is influenced
by China –its big neighbor in the north; and by France and America as we were a
colony of France for about a century and for many years, Americans were here.
These special pages of history give Vietnam a mixture of cultures.
Let me talk a bit about daily life. For example, I often
receive phone calls for appointments from our European business partners; they
want to visit my office at noontime. This is not an easy suggestion to agree to.
Most Vietnamese have a short nap from 11.30 to 1.30, no one works during that
time. In many offices, people even sleep on their desks. If there were a
visitor, it would interfere with the whole office.
When I visited Spain and Southern France I found out that we
might have borrowed this habit from them.
In Vietnam, we respect old people, usually, the bosses in the
offices are more than 50 years old and if the boss says “yes”, rarely anyone
dares to say “no”. In fact, if someone wants to say something different, he has
to “beat around the bush” before mentioning the real point.
However, Western people, especially Americans often talk in a
very direct way and say what the point is very quickly and directly. This may
easily offend their Vietnamese business partners.
Last year, I took a group of high ranking government officials
from Vietnam to Europe, and my daughter flew from Canada to Europe to tour with
me and the group. Many times, I felt so ashamed and shocked by the way my
daughter addressed the problems. We rarely criticize the old generation,
particularly, when they are also our bosses. Yet, the young generation is
different; they dare to show their opinion..
Recently, Korean films flooded television broadcasts in Asia.
Many young people follow the Korean movie stars’ life style and fashion. I
decided to visit Korea to see the real culture there. Our group of Chinese and
Vietnamese was invited to a Korean restaurant to enjoy a traditional meal. It
was a wonderful dinner except for one thing. While we tasted kimchi, they put on
a culture show. I must admit that I could not enjoy the show at all: the dancers
wore white hats with strings and long white gowns and carried bamboo sticks. The
music sounded very similar to the tunes we use during our funerals. We were all
very surprised and could not understand how similar the dancers looked and the
music sounded like as if we were attending a funeral back home; but in fact, we
were in a traditional Korean restaurant.
Usually, all nationalities have their own taboos. We
Vietnamese rarely mention directly the male and female reproduction organs – we
say: bird and butterfly. In one company, the boss is a foreigner. One day, she
bought two-paper birds and butterfly to hang over her head in the office. All
the local officers who came in the morning to greet her could not help falling
in laughter. She did not know why they were laughing. Finally when she knew the
real reason, she was embarrassed, and kept saying, “they do not look like that
at all! How can you compare men’s genitals to a bird, although a butterfly look
a little bit like that.”
If you come to Vietnam and give Vietnamese a gift – it is
welcome, however, if you give them a knife it will be a problem. I once
organized a seminar with our Swiss partner. Their guests were all very high
ranking government officials from Vietnam. Our Swiss partner gave each
participant one of their famous Swiss army knives. The participants were
suddenly asking me to collect money to return to the Swiss organizer. They said
they dare not take the knives for free, as given as a gift; it will kill the
relationship between the giver and the receiver. So, we collected a small amount
of money and gave it to our hosts in exchange for the knives.
I myself had another shock. When my Australian friend came to
Vietnam, she bought some birthday gift for her friend’s baby back home. What she
bought were some very colorful flags and decorations that we used for the
funerals! These would not be the most wonderful gift for a newborn child in
Vietnam!!.
One more story, I was once invited to a very big party by an Australian
diplomat. His wife was very happy and proud to greet us and smiled “I did all
the preparation for the party! Please come in”. She had decorated her house with lilies which we call “hue” and which are specially used during
funerals, and only then. . This kind of flower has a special scent that reminds
us of death. Enjoying the party that evening was not at all easy for the
Vietnamese guests!
In Vietnam, there is a small town – Hoi An – a world heritage
for its culture diversity, as it was set up by Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese and
many other international traders in the 15th century who came and did business
with Vietnam.
Once I took my friend from Japan there and showed him the
Japanese bridge (which was built by the Japanese traders). He did not believe me
that this was built by the Japanese, saying it looked more Chinese than
Japanese! Then he added that that during that 15th century, the culture of Japan
was so similar to that of China and Now he knew why!.
My friend from China came to Hanoi, he was amazed by the many
temples and pagodas here. What was most interesting for him was that he could
read the carvings in the temples and this he was not able to find such carvings
in China anymore, but in Vietnam.
One image of culture comes to life as one stone is thrown into
water. After a while the place where the stone touched the water stands still,
but the waves continue going further. This is also true for culture.
You can see that the biggest groups of Tourists that come back
to Vietnam are from: China, USA, France, Japan, and Korea. They come back as
they were here before during different wars. However Vietnamese warmly welcome
them back and forgive them all. Vietnamese people are full of tolerance and
caring, following the Buddhist-belief system. They will forgive you for all the
mistakes you make and advise you to act properly next time. You will feel at
home in Vietnam. So, .if you want to do business in Vietnam and want to act
properly in this society, just act as you are, but add some modesty, plus some
humor, plus some respect for old people, mothers at home, plus some honesty and
sincerity, then you are sure to be a success.
Culture clashes may occur from the differences in culture and
belief systems, due to generational gaps or just because of the time or venue of
the action. To avoid cultural blunders and shocks, one has to do research and
study well the culture that one is going to do business with. The best way is to
make friends with a local partner. This friend will tell you exactly what you
have to do and avoid, and you cannot avoid blunders without testing them at all.
So, you just have to plunge yourself into that culture ocean, then you swim and
see if you get any help in getting out of the water safely. As a foreigner, you
must be beware that your mistakes will be the ‘food’ for lunch for your friends
here and they will compare every new mistake with the old ones to see if you’re
making progress. So, in a new culture I just smile, enjoy and be happy knowing
that many mistakes await me.
|
