Faced with the reality that this country is no longer predominately Euro-centric, in its numbers, although the thought continues to prevail, you owe it to yourselves to dialogue with each other and to find commonalties that exist among you. You want to know about fresh ideas and share in cultural riches from all over the world. You want to exchange that which makes you an individual and that which makes you one in the larger group. If you are to expend your energies figuring out differences among yourselves, it would be helpful to know about others' cultures.
A culture develops for specific reasons. Customs arise because of certain specifications. Here are findings about the cultures of the United States and that of Vietnam. They are based on a compilation of research efforts at Brigham Young University. Additional information can be found in Culturegrams '98 (teacher bibliography)
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The following information is given for your consideration as you discuss the similarities and differences among you. The information which appears here is related to the cultures portrayed in the unit's core story, but is useful to you as you consider persons from other ethnic groups, during the course of your study.
In the United States, English is the official language. However many ethnic groups speak their native tongue in the home. You speak what is commonly known as American English with great flexibility, but writing is much more standardized. The same holds true in Vietnam. The official language of the country is Vietnamese, although ethnic minorities speak their own languages at home.
When it comes to religion, America does not have a national religion. More than half the population who professes some kind of religion practice the Christian faith. There is equal freedom to practice for a percentage of Jews, Buddhists and Muslims. Religion is generally a personal matter but, some share in discussion of the subject. For the Vietnamese, the largest practicing percentage is Buddhists, with a small percentage of Christian and Taoist. Most believe, whatever their faith, that ancestors are accessible to hinder or help the living.
While claiming no national dish, Americans rather enjoy a variety of foods adopted from the national cuisine of immigrants. The daily national diet of Vietnamese consists of white rice, a salty fish soup vegetable and fruits. Eating habits may differ, but only to a small degree. Your eating utensils are spoon, knife and fork, theirs are chopsticks and spoon. You use plates which rest on the table, they use bowls which are not allowed to remain on the table; that's considered the lazy man's way. The last bit of the family dish is never taken at the time of the meal, it is left there in case someone else wants it, but food is never left in an individual's bowl, according to Vietnamese customs.
Customs of dating and marriage differ only slightly between the two cultures. Americans begin group dating in their early teens and are allowed to legally marry as early as eighteen years of age, although some opt for other living arrangements before marrying. Vietnamese teens begin dating when they are in their late teen years and encouraged to wait until they are twenty three to twenty-five before marrying. Holding hands and showing affection in public is allowed in America between males and females. The same is not acceptable in the Vietnamese culture, although it is acceptable for Vietnamese males to hold hands.
As for family lifestyles, a difference may be in the structure of the basic family unit. Americans basic unit is a nuclear family which consists of parents and their unmarried children. Over the years, the basic unit has been extended to include other family members. Wherein men were traditional breadwinners, women and children now hold regular jobs. The elderly sometimes remain in an individual home or is placed in a retirement community or home.
Vietnamese families enjoy the basic structure of the extended family which also includes the elderly. When the older sons marry they may move into their own homes and start their families. When the youngest son marries, he is given the family home and the elderly remain in the home with his new family and his remaining siblings and/or other relatives.
The two cultures dress differently, greet each other differently are educated differently, communicate differently with each other and with strangers, but have we discovered any basic human differences between the two cultures?
