Day Ten

Today started with another Vietnamese culture class at UEF. We learned about some more abstract parts of Vietnamese culture including the balance between Yin and Yang. They are quite concerned about things such as even and odd numbers and the direction that a house faces. Some of these beliefs are hard to understand and seem illogical to me. We had language class again today. I learned how to give more information about myself. A few things I learned to say in Vietnamese include the following: I go to the University of Pittsburgh, I am an engineering student, my university is in Pennsylvania. Tuan also taught me how to say something that I guess is practical however I don’t plan on using it ever. I also can’t see the Vietnamese using this choice phrase, given how happy and upbeat they seem to be. We ate lunch at the canteen again today. I will never complain about the selection at Market Central again. For lunch at UEF, 95% of the food is the same every day. However, the quality of the food at UEF is definitely better. Today our company visit was to CB Richard Ellis which is a real estate company. I know for sure I have heard this name before and I’m almost positive there is a branch not far from my house. When we arrived on site, we were told that our conference room was occupied by an important meeting which was running past its scheduled time. We relocated to a local coffee shop which was a few minutes’ walk away. The presenter Patti is an expat who moved to Vietnam in 1995. Her viewpoint on the country as a whole was much different than any of the others we had encountered. We had previously heard a positive business outlook and that Vietnam is the place to be if you are industrious and looking to be successful. She told us a much different story highlighted by a U.S. newspaper article detailing a major government-backed Vietnamese company which had defaulted on its loans. The government removed support for this company. This story has major implications for foreign investment in Vietnam and it may scare away companies looking to invest in the region. She also explained how money tends to disappear when dealing with the Vietnamese government. Patti also told us that education in Vietnam is very expensive.