Running head: A LOOK INTO THE VIETNAMESE CULTURE

A Look into the Vietnamese Culture

Harpreet Kaur
California State University, Stanislaus

A LOOK INTO THE VIETNAMESE CULTURE

A Look into the Vietnamese Culture

This paper describes an interview with VH, a Vietnamese software engineer and husband
of TN, my fellow nursing student. TH and I have been friends from the beginning of nursing
school, but she introduced me to VH recently. She stated that he is more knowledgeable about
their culture than herself; therefore, he seemed an ideal candidate for gaining an insight into
Vietnamese culture (T. Nguyen, personal communication, October 7, 2013). The verbal
permission of this interview was obtained through an explanation of the assignments purpose
and sample questions. The interview took place on the evening of October 10, 2013 at VHs
home in San Jose, California. Thus, all the information presented is the outcome of this personal
communication (V. Hua, personal communication, October 10, 2013). The 12 domains by
Purnell served as a template to construct the questions asked during the interview (Purnell 2005).
This paper consists of 12 culture domains, nursing interventions, and communication experience.
Overview and Heritage
VHs country of origin is Vietnam. In November 1994, he arrived in the United States of
America along with family, including his parents, his younger sister, and his maternal
grandmother. In Vietnam, he finished his high school and received acceptance into an Architect
University in 1992. He and his family passed the interview and acquired the U.S. visa; therefore,
they left Vietnam and came to U.S. on November 1994. In U.S., he received an Associate of
Science degree in 2000 and Bachelor of Science degree in Software Engineering in 2004. He
has been working as a software engineer since 2004. Prior to that, he worked as a part-time math
tutor in Vietnam.
Communication
VHs dominant language is Vietnamese. However, there are three different dialects:
Southern Vietnamese, Northern Vietnamese, and Central Vietnamese. VH is Southern
Vietnamese and his wife is Northern Vietnamese. He speaks slowly and clearly in a soft tone.

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Mostly, Vietnamese men dont share thoughts and feelings unless they have to. Even with his
wife, he only shares his feelings when asked. In addition, he prefers intermittent eye contact
while talking with someone else, even TN. Maintaining a constant eye contact and raising voice
is intimidating and uncomforting, especially when talking to elders. Touch is only appropriate
for close friends and same sex siblings. Hand shaking, smiling, and nodding head are acceptable
gestures. For VH, comfortable spatial distance is an arm-length as he feels uncomfortable and
backs up if someone comes closer than that. It depends on the age group as well. He is futureoriented and hardworking. Also, education is very important for him and his wife. Living in the
U.S., he has adapted the American perception of time. In general, Vietnamese are not strict on
time management. That is why they accept being late as a norm in Vietnam. They usually put
the name in order with last name first then middle name, and lastly first name: for example, Hua
Uy Cuong. Normally, the middle name containing Thi is for females. The first name Cuong
means strong, as he was born in a tiger year. He stated that an animal and its characteristics
represent each year. Furthermore, the last name is a paternal name that VH follows, but he
mentioned that it doesnt really mean anything.
Family Roles and Organization
VH is the head of his family as many other Vietnamese are. He is the breadwinner who
works and supports the family. TN manages all the chores and cares for their daughter. She also
goes to school to pursue education rather than staying at home like most Vietnamese women.
His family includes himself, his wife, his daughter, Tiffany, and his father. His father helps them
take care of their daughter while VH works and TH goes to school. His mother, who lives with
his sister, helps her and her husband take care of their son. The reasons why Vietnamese prefer
extended family style include financial issue and traditional norm, which only trusts family
members to take care of children. His routine during weekdays consists of waking up at 7 a.m.,

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eating breakfast, and leaving for work at 8:30 a.m. His daughter goes to school at 8:15 a.m. His
wife rents a room near her school, and she drives back home on Thursday evening and leaves on
Sunday morning. VHs father picks his daughter at 2:30 p.m. and takes care of her until he
reaches home at 6:30 p.m. They usually eat dinner at 7:30 p.m. He makes sure his daughter
finishes her homework and goes to bed at 9 p.m. He stays up until 11 p.m. or 12 a.m. to finish
his work. During weekends, his father leaves on Friday and comes back every Sunday since his
wife goes home on Friday and leaves on Sunday morning. His wife comes home, takes care of
their daughter, and studies. On the weekends, if his wife isnt busy studying, they dine out, shop,
and play with their daughter. He considers strong family relationship, good health, and
education as current three priorities. His parents raised him and his sister very strictly. In
Vietnam, spanking and punishment are common and are not considered child abuse. They
consider them as necessary components of parenting style. However, he has adjusted his
parenting style and avoids using spanking as punishment, but he rather utilizes positive
reinforcement and time out as punishment. Doing things against parents is a big taboo behavior.
He wants his daughter to understand the value of education and acquire a successful career. For
him, children are like blank papers at early age, thus education should be emphasized for they are
fast-learners. However, he still wants his daughter still to play with her friends and her favorite
toys, not just study. He thinks competition is very important in USA, and as a minority group, he
has to work harder to earn better future. Most valuable advices come from the elderly; therefore,
sending them to nursing home is a sign of abandonment and they prefer to take care of elderly at
home, even if they are very sick. Despite Vietnam being more developed than before, majority
of Vietnamese still have negative view toward single parenting, unusual sexual orientation, and
divorce. Single parenting and divorce are considered failure family function and should be

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ashamed. Unusual sexual orientation, such as lesbian, gay, and transgender are big taboos.
Those people are considered as mentally sick and serious shame of the family members. They
often dont get empathy from other people, including their family members. In addition,
childless marriages, most of the time, will receive empathy from others instead of negative
attitudes. He mentioned that not every single Vietnamese hold these thoughts, yet majority of
them do.
Workforce Issues
There are different religions in Vietnam, but the dominant religion is Buddhism. VH did
not work much in Vietnam, but he believes there is any conflict or issue in terms of different
religions probably because Vietnamese is more group-oriented, not individualistic. The most
serious issue in the workplace is corruption from lower rank employees. Since Vietnamese are
not individualistic, they tend to work together as a group. He says that assimilation is important
while working in Vietnam. Up until now, Vietnam is not a democratic country where everyone
has the right to speak. Anyone who does not follow the mainstream norms will be rejected.
Regardless of religions, if one is rich, he or she will catch all attention from health care
providers. It is very common that health care providers in Vietnam to make mistake, kill
patients, and not suffer from serious consequences except accepting mistakes and giving back
some money as compensation. There are many different ethnicities in Vietnam. The minor
ethnicities usually live on mountains in poor living conditions. They speak different languages
and dress differently. Moreover, young children go to school to learn the dominant language, but
they still speak their own native language.
Biology Ecology

A LOOK INTO THE VIETNAMESE CULTURE

In general, Vietnamese have typical Asian looks including black hair, small eyes, short,
skinny, and low nose bridge. However, due to improvement in nutrition, theyre getting much
taller than before. For example, VHs wife is 57. Moreover, people from Northern Vietnam
tend to have lighter skins compared to those from the Southern and Central Vietnam since there
is no winter in Southern Vietnam. The topographical and endemic diseases are Hepatitis A,
malaria, and pinworm, especially in children. Vietnamese tend to abuse the over-the-counter
antibiotics. That is why majority of children growing up with discoloration teeth, including
himself, his wife, and his daughter.
High Risk Behaviors
In Vietnam, especially in Southern Vietnam, alcohol is very common and is a part of the
social norm. They often drink every day. Tobacco is also common in Vietnam. Using
recreational drugs is not very common, but it does happen and is considered a social taboo. VH
does not smoke but drinks occasionally. No one else in his family smokes or drinks. Except his
daughter who is quite active, rest of his family has a sedentary lifestyle. However, he
understands the importance of physical activity. On the other hand, the awareness of Vietnamese
regarding safety is very low. They dont wear seatbelts or helmets, although the law requires
Vietnamese citizens to wear helmets when driving motorcycles, but people try to avoid wearing
them. Vietnamese wear them because they have to, not because they understand the rationale
behind it. Besides, no one in the car wears seatbelt except drivers. According to Vincent,
Vietnamese are very conservative; therefore, high risk of sexual practice is not an issue for his
family specifically, and to all Vietnamese families in general.
Nutrition
VH has an easy access to supermarket and usually buys enough foods for a week. He
prefers traditional food and enjoys his fathers cooking who prepares fresh food every day.
Though sometimes, he eats out with his family, especially after shopping. For him, healthy

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foods are fresh foods, including vegetables, fruits, fishes, chicken, and pork. They eat beef but
only once a week or once every two weeks. Mostly, they eat rice with fried vegetable, pork, and
chicken or chicken noodle. He considers eating a meaningful opportunity for the family to get
together. When there is a chance to get together, they bring enough food and relish it during
family time. He is not aware of any taboos associated with foods. In Vietnam, it is normal to eat
dog meat, but he does not eat it. Eating dog meat originated in Northern Vietnam but has spread
throughout Vietnam. During illness, he favors eating hot and fresh prepared foods such as
noodle soup. He does not eat anything specific to stay healthy, but he prefers the hot vegetable
soup with chicken and pork and fresh fruits.
Pregnancy and Childbearing Practices
VH loves children but feels very sorry for families who cant have children. He supports
the fertility practice which helps bring hope and happiness for many families with desperate
desires of having biological children. In Vietnam, adopting is not very common and seeking the
medical help to have children becomes more and more common unless people cant afford it.
Raising a child is a hard working full time job, so birth control is definitely necessary. VH
prefers natural birth control and does not want his wife to use birth control pills because it might
affect the ability to have more children later. Pregnancy is significant to him and wants to have
more kids. During the last pregnancy, his parents told his wife not to reach high because it
would cause the umbilical cords to tie around the babys neck. Also, avoid eating anything with
black color or else the baby will have a dark skin. Eating nine goose eggs for female baby and
seven goose eggs for male baby will have a bright beautiful baby. During labor, Asian pregnant
women are usually stoic and quiet. After birth, the women avoid cold as much as possible.
Postpartum Vietnamese women only want hot foods, especially hot noodle soup and rice soup. It
is recommended for women to avoid bathing until a month after giving birth.

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Death
According to Vincent, death is a normal process of life. He stated that it is preferable to
bury the deceased, but recently, cremation is also used because it is more convenient and
cheaper. Grief still lasts until 49 days after death. Furthermore, wedding or attending other's
wedding is forbidden if someone in family was just passed away.
Spirituality
VH does not believe in spirituality, but avoids taboos as instructed by his parents. He
goes to pagodas with parents several times per year not willingly but as an obligation. His
parents go to pagodas more often, at least once per month. His religion is Buddhism because his
parents religion is Buddhism and they strongly believe in it. Personally, he does not have that
strong connection with Buddhism as his parents. At the pagoda, they stand in front of Buddhist
statues, pray while holding special bracelets in their hands and put their hands in front of the
chests. He usually just puts his hands in front of his chest. They pray for a good health and good
luck for all family members. His source of strength is family rather than the religion. He says
that as long as his family maintains a good relationship, good health, and everything going on as
planned, he feels content and strong to continue.
Health Care Practice
To support his immune system, VH takes Vitamin C supplements. For common cold,
stomach pain, or headache, unless they are uncomfortable, he buys over-the-counter medications
to achieve relief from the symptoms. Otherwise, he allows his body to heal naturally. Thus far,
he has not had any serious acute illness. His parents sometime use herbs as alternative medicine.
They take garlic pills every day, avoid eating fast foods as much as possible, and eat white meats
such as chicken and turkey with vegetable and fruits instead of red meats like beefs. Due to his
busy schedule, he finds it hard to be physically active, but he occasionally jogs three to five
miles in the park. Unless there are any required procedures to visit doctor, he considers self-

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medication. But in his daughters case, he takes her to the doctor if she has a cold that lasts more
than three days without any released symptoms. He considers it fortunate to not have any family
member with mental illness, yet he feels sorry for those who have family members with mental
illness. For Vietnamese, illness is one of the four cycles consisting of birth, aging, illness, and
death that everyone has to encounter sooner or later. Moreover, chronically ill children bring
much stress to the family, but for elderly, it is more acceptable. Organ donation is not an ideal
option, as people want to see themselves as a whole when they die. Nevertheless, there are no
contraindications for transplantations. Perhaps, language is still a barrier for achieving an
optimal health care for people are not familiar with medical terminology. In order to deal with
pain, he prefers to stay alone. But for serious illness that requires hospitalization, he hopes that
health care providers will ask for pain medications and explain that addiction to pain medications
is very low.
Health Care Practitioner
In Vietnam, health care providers are considered superior. Everyone respects them
without questioning them, but health care providers, most of the time, look down on people,
unless they are rich. VH and his family only seek help from alternative medicine such as herbals
or acupunctures only if there is no hope from Western medicine. Same sex health care providers
are preferred especially if the exams or procedures to be performed involve the private areas.
However, if no choice is available, then they will adjust accordingly. There is no specific reason
beside the conservative cultural life style.
Culture Interventions
If VH and his family members were in an acute care setting, interventions should be
designed to maintain their cultural dignity, respect, and values. This can be accomplished by
incorporating cultural preservation from Leiningers culture care modes. Cultural preservation

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encourages, supports, and aids a cultures actions or decisions that sustain cultures views and
morals (Wehbe-Alamah, 2008). Nurses can preserve Vietnamese culture by allowing to take
garlic pill if not contraindicated, limiting unnecessary interaction, preventing persistent eye
contact, and lowering voice. Furthermore, caregivers should pay close attention facial
expressions and gestures of Vietnamese people, as they might not be able to communicate pain
verbally since English is rarely their first language. Moreover, they may seek help from
interpreters if needed. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2008), patient
and interpreter will speak same dialect because most Vietnamese living in America are from
South Vietnam. Yet, there might be some challenges while interpreting different dialects.
Standards of care applicable to this situation are Knowledge of Cultures and
Culturally Competent Practice (Douglas et al., 2011). Through knowledge of care, nurses
must gain understanding about ethnic foods, herbs, norms, taboos and body language of the
Vietnamese culture. Although it may seem hard to accomplish with the busy schedule, nurses
can utilize easily accessible sources such as journal article, diversity websites, and cultural case
studies. Using Culturally competent care, nurses may apply this knowledge into their care by
listening actively, exploring clients perception of illness, assessing clients physical and
psychological characteristics, and negotiating and evaluating health outcomes (Douglas et al.,
2011).
Communication Experience
While conducting this interview, I noticed several similarities to my own Indian culture.
Intermittent eye contact and neutral facial expressions were among the obvious commonalities.
Both VH and I spoke softly, nodded our head to indicate understanding, and smiled slightly
throughout the interview. There was sense of discomfort while talking about death and
contraception. Death, in general, is a challenging topic as it brings several emotions into the
context, but contraception was challenging due to our modest personalities. Likewise, it was a

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difficult topic for us because of the age difference since youngsters are supposed to respect their
elders. But, before beginning this subject, I explained to him it might be an awkward topic, yet it
is significant. During this conversation, we maintained more eye contact to eliminate any
embarrassment and hesitancy.
During this interview, I learned that all cultures have common themes and thoughts but
different ways of expressing them. VH and I come from different cultures, yet we have the same
goals, ambitions, values, and beliefs. Our cultures teach us to respect elders, pursue education,
work hard, and build a better future. We strive to remain truthful to our culture, as it is not just a
part of our life, but our identity.
References
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2008). Promoting cultural sensitivity: a practical
guide for tuberculosis programs that provide services to persons from Vietnam. Atlanta,
GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Purnell, L. (2005). The Purnell Model for Cultural Competence. Journal of Multicultural
Nursing & Health (JMCNH), 11(2), 7-15.
Douglas, M. J., Pierce, J. U., Rosenkoetter, M., Pacquiao, D., Callister, L. C., Hattar-Pollara, M.,
Purnell, L. (2011). Standards of practice for culturally competent nursing care: 2011
update. Journal of Transcultural Nursing, 22, 317-333. doi:10.1177/1043659611412965
Wehbe-Alamah, H. (2008). Bridging generic and professional care practices for Muslim patients
through use of Leiningers cultural care modes. Contemporary Nurse: A Journal For The
Australian Nursing Profession, 28(1-2), 83-97. doi:10.5172/conu.673.28.1-2.83.

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