It's Covid time why would you want to bring the shoes in the house
Hi everyone welcome back to my channel my name is van i'm vietnamese and i'm gonna
be your local tour guide who introduces you to vietnamese culture food and travel so if you'd
like to learn more about vietnam don't forget to subscribe to my channel and hit that bell button
so you'll be the first one to be notified for my next videos so recently i did a video called
a vietnamese reacts to seven things not to do in vietnam by Cal Mckinley but today i'm gonna
do 10 things that you should not do in vietnam under a vietnamese person perspectives i think
this video is going to be helpful for those of you who plan on coming to vietnam because it can
help you mitigate the culture shocks and the misunderstandings in terms of communications
due to the cultural differences so yeah without further ado let's get right into the first one
we compare the weather here especially in hanoi to a teenager who is going to her or his puberty
because it is so unpredictable one day it can go up to 40 degrees and then the next day it
can be rainy and cold also just because we have a tropical climate doesn't mean
we don't have snow in Vietnam it can snow in the northern mountainous regions of the country
i personally made a mistake under dressing when going back to hanoi in the winter
last year i was so sure that i could handle the winter in vietnam
because i used to live seven years in one of the coldest states in america but i was wrong
it was freezing in december in hanoi even though it was just like what like 10 degrees in celsius
which is 50 degrees in fahrenheit but it's still so cold guys and i finally know the reason why
is because vietnamese people don't insulate their homes like they have no carpets no fireplaces
no heat in the house you know they just use the legendary floral blanket that every asian knows
so yeah it might get very hot in vietnam and it might get very cold in vietnam so
don't underestimate the weather bring your four seasons clothes because you never know
one of my favorite things when i came to the u.s to study was that i could drink tap water
the water from the faucet but when you come to vietnam keep in mind that vietnam is still
a developing country we still need to work on our water contamination water pollution so the tap
water in vietnam is not safe to drink if you want to drink water in vietnam i suggest you to buy
water dispensers or water bottles from any convenience stores or supermarkets
or if you want to drink tap water just remember to boil the tap water first before drinking it
even though you can't drink tap water in Vietnam it's totally safe for you to take a shower
brush your teeth or like wash your fruits and everything with tap water
if you accidentally drink tap water while taking a shower you won't die
all right number three is gonna be a sensitive matter and i always don't
like to talk about politics on my channel but i think you guys should know this one because
i have seen a lot of incidents that foreigners are being arrested for not knowing this rule
i know in america it's okay for you to make fun of your presidents like
you can make memes out of them or you can make them rap
but in vietnam making fun of the presidents or the vietnamese national heroes is highly
prohibited so yeah making fun of the government or taking pictures of any military installations
and equipment is considered a breach of national security and you could end up in
jail so you need to know this vietnamese culture to understand why vietnam takes it so seriously
for most of the time in the past vietnamese people have fought many foreign troops to
protect our freedom and that's why vietnamese people are very proud of the national heroes like
ho chi minh or vo nguyen giap that's the reason why when you make fun of them
in public it's gonna get very offensive so please be careful with any political topics in public
maybe keep those conversation in your room because i don't want you to spend your vacations in jail
alright so let's say that you are in vietnam and a vietnamese person invites you to his or
her house to have a dinner because that's how friendly vietnamese people are right one of the
unspoken rules in many asian countries especially in vietnam
is that you should take off your shoes before entering their house
when you enter someone's house taking off your shoes show that you care enough about them
and the cleanliness of their home to go an extra mile and remove your shoes in fact
vietnamese people are more family oriented and we tend to have less personal space
than westerners, so there will be a lot of family gatherings and many activities happen
on the floor like having hot pot on the floor playing cards or chit chatting on the floor so
yeah we don't want you to bring germs from the outside to our floor where we're gonna sit on it
or like sleep on it you know and it's covet time why would you want to bring the shoes in the house
alright so you get into the house without your shoes on congratulations you did a
great job and now the hosts invite you to sit down and ready to have a dinner
you should not play with your chopsticks i did a whole video about vietnamese dining etiquette
and i'm gonna leave the link up here so you guys can check it out but for the sake of this video
i'm just gonna quickly explain why you shouldn't play with your chopsticks you shouldn't knock
your chopsticks to the bowl because it's like inviting ghosts or wandering spirits
from the outside to the house and they might bring bad luck to the family also you shouldn't stick
your chopsticks straight into the rice because it reminds vietnamese people of funerals people
usually stick burning incense into rice to honor the dead people these customs are heavily applied
in the northern part of vietnam so if you're from the central region or the southern part of vietnam
uh don't hesitate to comment down below to let me know if you guys apply these customs too
vietnamese traffic can be tricky or chaotic for you if this is your first time visiting vietnam
but no worry let me show you how to cross the road properly alright guys so today i'm going
to teach you guys how to cross the road in vietnam step number one put out your hand like this if you
are too scared so you can give the people signal that you're about to cross the road
step two go with a steady speed and try not to stop suddenly
step three pray yup just pray that you can survive all right so let me demonstrate you okay let's go
mission complete
pickpocketing and bag snatching can be common problems in many tourist attractions in many
countries including vietnam although vietnam remains a safe destination for tourists
bag snatching can be a serious problem in the southern part of vietnam especially in ho chi
minh city so if you don't want to be a victim of bag snatching you should hold your purse
in front of you or you can wrap it around your shoulder never have your phone in public like this
or your camera or any of your valuable belongings and remove any unnecessary
jewelries i keep separate sums of money in different bags or pockets
any locations that you feel safe so you can have back up once it's lost
temples and pagodas are considered as religious places that are very sacred
so you should show your respect and you shouldn't wear any inappropriate clothes
in appropriate clothes mean no shorts no skirts no bare shoulders anything that reveals a lot of
your skin vietnamese generally have conservative dress codes so if you don't pay attention to
what you wear before visiting those religious places it's considered rude and disrespectful
when you speak vietnamese to local people and they laugh at your broken vietnamese
it doesn't mean that they're making fun of you in fact they think that you are cool or cute
it's just a vietnamese thing a vietnamese culture thing you know we vietnamese get very excited when
we see a foreigner tries to speak our language and we really like foreigners who attempt to speak our
language because our language is pretty damn hard you know we have six different tones and if you
don't make like a perfect pitch or vowels uh one word can means another remember when i first came
to the us i didn't know how to pronounce the word coke instead i pronounced c*ck would you laugh
at me if i mispronounced that word you know like and i didn't even know that i mispronounced that
word so yeah just don't get offended uh because it's normal laughing at somebody's embarrassment
in vietnam is a way of helping them make a light of that situation it is not intended
to offend you or to make fun of you so yeah don't take it personally everyone makes mistake
keep asking the local how to pronounce vietnamese words and i bet they will be happy to help you
keep in mind that vietnam is not a perfect country
no country is perfect even when i stay in one of the best countries in the world it still has flaws
but isn't it a beauty of the world where we can see different places different people different
languages different cultures and we can all learn from each other when you travel to vietnam don't
get too shocked when you can't drink tap water or the weather here it's just so fluctuated or
vietnam has so many trash and it's not as clean as singapore and the u.s is still a developing
country and why i'm making youtube video to raise awareness so yeah just travel with an
open mind and a warm heart and i bet your best experience will come from unexpected moments when
you travel to vietnam so yeah those are the 10 things that you should not do in vietnam
and if you find this video helpful don't forget to give me a thumbs up and don't forget to share
this video to your friends so they know too alright i'll see you guys in the next one bye