Vice!
(Baonghean) - For about ten years now, when life has a bit of a taste of hedonistic culture, a group of people have started to go abroad. If they have the means, they go to America, Europe, Australia, Japan, or even Thailand, Singapore... It's good to go, to broaden one's horizons, to learn, and it's also an opportunity to contribute to "strengthening" the tourism industry. In short, vote in support.
The common point that is easily recognized in some people who have just returned from abroad is that they like to show off, like to compare and like to criticize. And especially criticize, criticize relentlessly! After a few days of leaving the border, they start to criticize professionally. The most common, most gleeful, most critical is to slander the bad habits of Vietnamese people. They judge like a saint! They speak as if they are no longer Vietnamese!
“Oh my god, go over there and see, they write warnings about greed in Vietnamese. When you see a buffet dish, you just take it and stuff it, as if you have never eaten it in your life, there is too much. It is so ugly, so embarrassing”. Another person took the opportunity to sing along, “Oh my god, so what, in Japan, the warning about petty theft is only in Vietnamese”. And then, “Oh my god, I see that in many countries, at the airport, there is a separate lane for Vietnamese people to do immigration procedures because they are afraid of being cut in line. How miserable!”. After the “Oh my god” scene, there is comparison. Whenever something is touched, they immediately refer to foreign countries, “We are like this… but over there…”. Even a man who went to have breakfast complained, “Our sticky rice is so boring, the sticky rice in Laos is so sticky”. The other man was so excited that he “bragged”, pho in Taiwan is better than pho in Hanoi. There are really no words to say!
Are Vietnamese really ugly? Just because a few “bad apples” have not yet escaped from the petty peasant culture, to destroy the reputation of ninety million Vietnamese people is really one-sided, if not irresponsible. I, the author of this article, have also been abroad, I do not waste food, I do not litter on the street, I do not steal… millions of Vietnamese who have lived and are living all over this planet are the same. There are “ugly” Vietnamese people, but they are certainly few, very few, and increasingly few! We must change, we do not tolerate ugliness. But if someone is digesting their free time by putting themselves on the sidelines to criticize, berate, and then laugh at them, they are only good at making the situation worse at a slow pace. Debate about this, a conservative character said, “If you have teeth, say they have teeth, if you don’t have teeth, say they are missing teeth!”. Well, if you have teeth, say they have teeth! Have those “old people” who are showing off their overseas trips by saying “toothless” ever heard foreign tourists living in their country comment on the Vietnamese people? The qualities of diligence, hard work, intelligence, affection, love of learning, solidarity, patriotism, mutual love, especially the spirit of national pride still exist, right? I think that spitting on the bad is not a smart choice for the effort to change. Along with condemning the bad, encourage and popularize the good. Foreigners do the same thing!
Let's listen to the 32-year-old Japanese photographer, Nishizawa Tomoko, who commented "with teeth and teeth" here: "Vietnamese people are friendly and Vietnamese food is delicious! Every place is beautiful in photos! I already like France, but when I come to Vietnam, I can feel the natural French flavor in many places. I think this advantage is something that other countries in Asia cannot have. Perhaps the good thing is that Vietnamese people are friendly, whenever they see someone in trouble, they will help. The bad thing is littering the environment." A comment that is not hasty at all.
On the weekend, while hanging out with some old friends, a guy who had just returned from Singapore kept shouting, “I was humiliated! At restaurants, people eat and drink quietly and politely, while Vietnamese people keep toasting and shouting loudly.” As soon as he finished speaking, he raised his foaming beer glass to touch the people around him and loudly declared, “If you don’t get drunk today, we won’t go home. Come on, one two three, let’s go! Two three, let’s go! Two three, drink!” So, please allow me to “shun” these people for their bad habit of saying one thing and doing another.
Nguyen Khac An
