Thursday morning we had a lecture about the Mekong Delta and different issues such as damns being built upstream, mainly by other countries, or climate change that may be affecting it. It was also interesting to learn how the requirements for different uses of the delta, such as catfish farming or growing cocoa require differences as specific as weather there’s salt water or freshwater. I thought this was especially interesting as we're going to see the delta on Saturday, and I really had no idea what to expect until now.
Afterwards, we had a Vietnamese culture lesson. I wish we had this one earlier in the week! After understanding the historical context of why the Vietnamese culture is the way it is, I found it a lot easier to understand their actions. I think that over the past few days we've misinterpreted some things people have done, such as the random "hellos!" we hear as we walk down the street, which really are supposed to be friendly! I also learned that in Vietnam, it's usual to be asked questions about your age, whether or not you have a boyfriend, or whether or not you have children. Sometimes I wondered why the students were asking such personal questions, but in their culture they are polite questions to ask.
We spent the afternoon with representatives from US consulate at their second office, discussing economics and US/Vietnamese relations. I thought the topic was interesting, but a lot of it went over my head because it was very business oriented. They talked about the benefits of trade between the US and Vietnam, and how a US company would go about using the consulate to establish relations with companies in Vietnam.
No comments:
Post a Comment