Final Journal Entry

I think that traveling to Vietnam was an invaluable experience, and one of the best decisions I've made. Not only did I have the opportunity to make new friendships that can flourish when I get back to Pittsburgh in the fall, we also had the opportunity to form some amazing bonds with the Vietnamese students. Vietnam is, I believe, the only developing country visited by the Plus 3 program, which I think made it very unique.

Vietnam is often used for countries in the global economy who are looking to implement the "China plus one" model, that is, to have capital and production invested in China, but also another foreign country, as to not put all your eggs in one basket. Vietnam is a country with a good location, cheap labor, and a very large workforce. While visiting production plants, I was interested in seeing that many jobs which would likely require protective gear as simple as goggles in the US, required nothing to protect the eyes in Vietnam. Companies though, appeared to be very invested in the well being of their employees and providing competitive wages. I think that in order to make use of a plant in another country, you need to be sensitive to their culture, and that the companies who were successful in Vietnam quickly learned this fact.

Based on my experiences in Vietnam, I have a new understanding on what aspects build upon each other to create a global economy. Though Vietnam is becoming more of an open market economy with privately owned businesses, tradition still affects much of their business interactions. I was surprised to learn that even within the country, the north and south still had very different customs. The north had stayed very conservative in business practices, where as the south had opened itself up to more outside influences. There is definitely an amount of social and political awareness a person should have before attempting to do business in Vietnam. I think that American students need to expand their experiences to include knowledge of other cultures. Either by learning about them in school, or by traveling abroad, it will be very important for Americans to not only know the customs of another country, but also to really understand how important they are to the people who live there. Going to Vietnam has resulted in my renewed interest in speaking somewhat proficiently in a language other than English. If all students spoke a foreign language and were required to classes on world cultures, I think that the American student would be much better prepared to do business abroad.

When visiting companies, we had the opportunity to see people with many different backgrounds. We saw people in the US foreign service, Vietnamese who had fled the country and then decided to go back to reestablish businesses, and expats who were in the country to start satellite locations of foreign countries, with the hope that eventually their job would be done by a Vietnamese individual. Most of the people that we met had a background in a field such as business or engineering, and then found ways to apply their knowledge to the Vietnamese market, rather than tailoring their studies around Vietnam. With a strong foundation, I felt that many were still continuing their education on a day-to-day basis, as they interacted with new people and learned new things. At Intel, we learned that they had planned to build the plant within months, but actually needed to train crews on safety, and even provide safe attire to people who showed up barefoot to work on the construction site. Not only are foreigners and foreign companies always learning to things to make their integration into the community better, I think that they are sharing some of the technical and other knowledge they have acquired with the Vietnamese as well.

In Vietnam, people's jobs are considered to be like a second family, whether you work in a family business or for a large overseas company. There was a much stronger connection between home life and work life than I feel is present in the US. Part of this is because of the history of having closed villages, and part is likely because so many people leave their families to find jobs, that when they have one the company truly is their second family. The Vietnamese seemed to be more socially accepting than Americans, but I also felt that on the whole their society is a much more conservative one than ours. I was very surprised though, that the Vietnamese knew so much about America. Many students asked us questions about or made references to American History that I didn't know the answer to, even though I've been in the American school system all my life. They seemed surprised at our attitude towards going to work though-that businesses were not storefronts connected to our homes and that our attitude about working was very disconnected from our attitudes about other aspects of our life.

In addition to learning about how business is done in Vietnam, our group also learned how to work together as a team, both socially and professionally. Though I think it is very unrealistic too keep ten young adults together for two weeks and never expect any conflicts to arise, I think that our group did a very good job of ensuring that they never got in the way of our site visits. In the engineering school, we learn how to work with different engineering students to solve problems, but I found that working with students of a different background required a different approach. It was important for us to realize that we had different backgrounds, and likely different perspectives on things, but also that there weren’t usually going to be one right answer. We quickly learned that it was okay not to understand all the information presented to us, and worked together asking and answering questions to ensure everyone felt like we they were getting something out of the visits. I really enjoyed working with a cross disciplinary team, and sharing experiences that we had all had during freshman year. Similar to the experience we had with the Vietnamese students, it was most important for us to realize all the things that made us the same before we tried to find all the differences between the two disciplines.

Day Twelve: Friday

Friday morning we all decided to try traditional Vietnamese Pho for breakfast. Its a noodle/soup dish thats actually really good. We had our culture class, where we learned a little more about modern Vietnam and the traditional dress, which is the most fashionable out of any of the Asian countries. Then we had our quiz, which I got a 100 on almost all by myself! I was pretty impressed with it. Afterwards we took pictures with the UEF students and headed to the canteen for our last UEF lunch. :( Instead of the usual bananas we had a different fruit, but it tasted SO good! I'm really going to miss some of the fruits we got to try, they were all so different from the ones we have in America, probably because of the differences in climate.

For our last free afternoon, the girls decided to go back to the market. We thought it was going to be a quick trip, but then it turned into a major event. Having been there so long, we pretty much knew how much things were worth and really good negotiators, except for a few times when we did't feel like bargaining and just paid their price. After the market, we met a few of the UEF kids for frozen yogurt, but I left early because I know how hard it is for me to pack. That night, we had our farwell dinner at a place called tourist village, which was an outdoor resort type area and really pretty! It was similar to our opening dinner in menu, and included a pho dish as well.

When we got back from dinner, we had to settle our bills with the hotel which turned into a huge ordeal. The UEF students wanted to have a party for us with "singing and dancing", and most of the guys had gone earlier. Right as we were about to leave, one of the Vietnamese girls came to the Hotel with gifts and cards for us. It was a perfectly timed surprise. As soon as she left, and we were all outside, a blackout hit! I was so thankful I wasn't stuck in an elevator or something.

We decided to walk to the Karaoke place, which ended up being a bad idea. Everyone had warned us about muggers on the motorbikes, and sadly we had a first hand experience. There was a motorbike with two guys on it sitting on the sidewalk almost waiting for us, and they drove by and snagged Elizabeth's purse. It was horrible, but thankfully she didn't have her passport or anything with her. Saigon is very different than an American city in that you rarely need to fear for your life, but need to be extra cautious about material possessions-as small as what necklace you may decide to wear.

Day Eleven: Thursday

Thursday morning, we woke up a little early so we could go the French bakery again before the soccer match. Its kinda funny we all get so excited about the pastries, since we mostly eat eggs and bread for breakfast anyways. We ended up going to breakfast at the hotel too, since we all wanted to fill up on water before the "big game".

When we got to UEF, we had activities with the English Club. They had games planned so it was pretty fun, and we met a few more UEF students. The soccer field was a bus ride away, so we all loaded up and got ready to win. It felt like 107 degrees outside, but since we were in the sun, many of the Vietnamese were still covered from head to toe, which makes sense culturally, though I was shocked they weren't getting overheated. I was definitely the MVP of the game, even though some of the guys might try to tell you otherwise.

After the game we all had time to take much needed showers and grab lunch before we went to the War Remnants Museum. I've never been particularly interested in history, and have to admit that I don't know much about the war, so I was really confused by the way they displayed some of the information. I knew it was going to be propaganda and out of context, but it was hard for me to know what was real and what wasn't going in with no background. I felt as if they were falsely portraying some aspects, but was truly amazed when I saw pictures of devastated areas next to the way the country looks today, they had truly been able to rebuild themselves. One one of the upper floors was an exhibit on reporters and photographers from the war, and I thought that one was really interesting since I spent a few years doing photography myself. That exhibit surprised me though, because they would say that a photograph was taken on the run or from far away, yet still know the story of all the people in them, so I wondered how much of that information was fabricated.

Day Ten: Wednesday

On Wednesday, we headed to UEF for culture class and language class! The culture class talked a lot about the yin and yang aspects of the society, such as houses facing east vs. west and how many gates are customary to have out front. It was interesting to me that the direction a house faces could influence it's value, since that doesn't happen in American real estate. I think a large difference between our culture and their culture is that the Vietnamese have so much history, whereas the United States was founded as a “melting pot” and really has very few distinctly American traditions.

Then we had language classes where we worked on learning numbers and phrases, though our favorite is "Mot Hai Ba Yo!" which is the Vietnamese version of a "1, 2, 3 cheers!" type saying. Even though Vietnam is a more sheltered or conservative country, we’ve learned that there is still a lot we have in common with the UEF students.

After lunch, we walked to the UEF administrative building, which was around the corner from the hotel. When we got there, we met with Mark Oakley, who worked for the law firm Duane Morris Viet Nam LLC. He talked about new companies coming to Vietnam and how they go about getting different permits and permissions they would need. It was interesting to me that he wouldn't comment on anything political, even in our non-public setting, as the government in the country was communist and so it's not acceptable to speak your opinion regarding politics. His talk was interesting because he is a foreigner working in Vietnam, so he had to learn a whole new culture for his job. Though he wanted to be considered a southeast Asia expert rather that a Vietnam expert, he was still very knowledgeable about both how the government in Vietnam works and how cultures of different countries can strongly affect business practices.

Day Nine: Tuesday

Before we went to our site visit, we had breakfast at this French bakery we found last week. It’s great because we can get 3 or 4 pastries for 2 dollars! Tuesday morning we went to the Vietnam version of the stock market. They were very busy since the morning was their busiest time, so our visit was very short. It seemed to me as if they had modeled their stock market after the New York Stock Exchange, though I'm not sure if we modeled ours off another country's or not. It was a lot of people on phones sitting in front of tickers watching stock prices go up and down, what I imagine our stock market was when it first started, but more hi-tech. Since we finished so quickly, we were able to spend the rest of the morning shopping and hanging out with some of the Vietnamese students who had come with us.

For the afternoon, we went to a company called Ascenx. It was and engineering company currently being run by expats who also shared their stories of getting out of Vietnam, and then going back to set up a business. Their company was contracted to update electronic parts that were outdated but needed to be repaired, such as replacing an old TV monitor with a new flat screen, though there would be electronic rewiring and such required. I thought it was a great experience, even though the logistics of the company were a little over my head. But I really enjoyed hearing about their stories, since I’ve never heard much about the life of Vietnamese refuges after the war. After the session, the CEO invited us all to coffee, in classic Vietnamese fashion. So we all went down to the coffee shop in the lobby of the building and chatted more. We ended up talking about everything from places to go at night to where to find a good burger in Vietnam. I think it was one of the better company visits because they were very personable and informal, so we really got to understand a different perspective on the relaxed atmosphere of doing Business in Vietnam.

Day Eight: Monday

On Monday we woke up and went to UEF for the culture and language classes. This culture class was about the history of the Vietnamese people, and history has never been a subject I've never been really good at. I found it interesting, because I was spending time in the country and was interested in its past, but the lesson did seem to drag on for a while. After that we had a language class, and I have to admit I wasn't picking it up very quickly. The Vietnamese students help though, so it's not horrible. Im starting to be able to remember sentences, but whenever I get a paper to read I end up even more confused since the letters are all pronounced differently.

For the afternoon, we went to the University of Agriculture and Forestry for lectures on catfish farming. This university was much more of a campus than UEF, but I saw a lot less students around as well. We had three separate presentations from faculty members, but with all the overlap I felt like it all could have been one presentation. The information was interesting, but I didn't know much about fish farming so it was kind of lost on me. We had read about the Catfish Wars as a case study, but I was really interested in hearing all of the work they put into perfecting the catfish production and really getting the best profit margin. After the presentations we went to see some of their research facilities, but there wasn't much research going on so it wasn't as interesting to see. The university was pretty far from the hotel, and a lot of us were dehydrated for some reason, so we stopped for waters on the way back. Some of the guys got cookies and other snacks, so it was a nice bus ride home.

For dinner, Elizabeth, Rayna and I went to Pizza Hut. I was shocked to see that it was a sit down restaurant that even had escargot on the menu! It was very different than the Pizza Hut's in America. I think I was starting to realize that American food chains had really adapted to the Vietnamese culture of socializing during meals, and that "take-out" didn't really exist in the country.

Day Seven: Sunday

On Sunday we took a “day off” and went to the beach! We took a boat--a hydrofoil—to get there and it was about an hour and a half ride. I was expecting something flat and with no roof for some reason, but it was arranged kind of like an airplane, with assigned seats and everything. We got to the province where the beach was; we stopped for a short break before hiking up this hugeeeeeee hill to see a Jesus statue. I actually wasn't very impressed with the statue up close, but the view from the top was AMAZING. The hike was full of benches donated by different states, so it was great to find ones from Philadelphia, New Jersey, & other places I have friends from.

After that we went to a lunch that had really good seafood, and then to the beach. The actual beach wasn't too impressive, and lot dirtier than I expected. The water was greenish and murky, and we kept finding random things like plastic bags floating in it. Nonetheless it was really fun, and after laying out for a while we had a pretty exciting game of catch in the water which was fun and refreshing.

I was surprised to see that even at the beach the Vietnamese stayed in long sleeves, and paid more for chairs that were under tents and blocked for the sun. But when they were in the water they suits that were very cute, but quite conservative compared to what I’m used to seeing.

On the way back, our hydrofoil got a bamboo root stuck in the engine. We were going upstream so it was already a longer trip, and then we had to stop so they could dive and get it out, so the ride seemed to take forever.