We have our bicycles now so have joined the crazy traffic. It is less crazy here than in the city but left turns are still pretty nervewracking. The rules of the road are generally followed, as in most people drive on the correct side if the road and travel in the correct direction. There are a couple traffic lights which are obeyed. The bikes are pretty old school with no gears and a handy basket in the front but they do the job. The land is so flat here so biking is pretty leisurely and a bit cooler than walking as you get a breeze.
As we continue further with our interviews we are definitely seeing the cultural differences in work patterns come out. Vietnamese people generally break for a siesta in the afternoon and schools and businesses generally accomodate this. As Canadians we have a bit more of the go go go attitude, so it has been a learning process working out agreeable schedules with everyone. My group has now done three interviews with parents and they have been really interesting. They are conducted in Vietnamese but one if our partners writes down the answers in English for us to follow along. I have started to notice a few recurring themes in our responses and am interested to see if the patterns continue. Parents have a lot of influence on their children in Vietnamese cultures do I understand how their perceptions of the labour market affect their children's educational path and where they work.
One of the issues I have heard from community members as well as in some if the literature is the large number of students that enrol in business and social sciences even when the demand for these jobs is not high. Vocational training and technical sciences are in higher demand but these programs are more expensive to develop and don't seem to be promoted as much. Gender issues are interesting too as they are not as blatant here as other countries I have been. Several of the students we work with say there are no problems, but they are there if you dig. Women are expected to get married and run a household making it harder to obtain advanced degrees which seem pretty necessary for management jobs here. They are also less likely to move up as they are (and are expected to be) shyer and less assertive. As a result they are often limited to administrative roles. Upon graduation most students, but especially women, are expected to stay close to home even though job opportunities are more numerous in other areas.
Besides working on the project I have had lots of time to eat, explore, and shop. Yesterday a few of us girls had dresses ordered from the tailor and ordering food without vietnamese students us always a risky adventure. I know the word for both chicken and beef so at the very least I know what animal I am eating...although not always which part. The cow stomach on my plate at one meal was not eaten, but instead became an anatomy lecture for the other students there. Fifty cent beers do make everything better and most of the food is pretty delicious.
Monday, June 27, 2011
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Another day, another town
Today we left Ho Chi Minh city for Tra Vinh which is a smaller town farther south on the Mekong delta. It was several hours of driving and we took a ferry across the Mekong River. I will be based out of here along with half of our original group of 40 for the next five weeks or so although we will be visiting an island for a bit of a relaxation trip and I will be spending several days at the home of one of the Vietnamese students. Our Vietnamese friends have been able to find bicycles we can borrow for transportation here and I can't wait to start exploring. According to wikipedia there are over 100 000 people living here but it feels like a bustling country town. It is refreshing to be out of the city and everything is so much cheaper here. It is the hometown of the students we are working with so we have 10 guides to show us the great places to eat and hangout.
The last couple days in HCMC were a lot of fun. After our last day of training at the university the students there held a celebration night for us. We were told to prepare a cultural presentation as per usual but other than that we did not know what to expect. Turns out that it was hosted by a guy who could have been running a game show who started us and about 150 students off with the chicken dance and a game of simon says. It was a bit odd but fun. Then we split into teams to do a relay race of sorts. Finally we did the Canadian line up of bilingual O Canada, the moose campfire song, and degeneration - a Québécois song followed by tons if dancing. We were all sweaty, tired, bug happy at the end.
Yesterday we went sightseeing. First we watched a documentary about the girl in the famous picture after a napalm bomb attack in Vietnam. She is the young girl running down the street after her clothes had been burned off along with much of her skin. Over half her body suffered third degree burns and after over a dozen surgeries she was left with painful scars. She be became a spokesperson for Vietnam and was even forced to quit school (she wanted to be a doctor) in order to serve the government as a public speaker. She now lives in Canada and amazingly she personally forgave one of the Ken responsible for the bombing. She sounds like a remarkable woman.
Next we visited a Cao Dai temple which is a unique Vietnamese religion that combines Christianity, Buddhism, and Confucionism. The temple was brightly colored withstatues carved into all of the columns and the ceiling was Harry Potteresque with stars and clouds on a blue background. We also watched a ceremony. Everyone was in white cloaks and positioned in some sort of age hierarchy and went through what looked like a series of prayers with chanting and bowing. It was really interesting and I had never heard of this religion before.
The last thing we visited were the Cu Chi tunnels which is a series of tunnels over 250km long. There are three levels and the first level is 3m below the surface. There were used by the communist Vietnamese first against the French and then again against the Americans. People lived in the tunnels and attached annexes, coming out for surprise attacks. Ventilation holes and entrances were well hidden and American troops did not discover most of them and as a result this area was heavily bombed as they tried to destroy the hidden bunkers. We went through about 100m of tunnel and the are tiny (and had even been widened fir tourists)! I had to crouch and eventually crawls to get through with not much space beside my shoulders. They were hot and stuffy too so it was not hard to believe that mist people living down there for over a year died.
Sorry for the long post and thanks if you made it through!
The last couple days in HCMC were a lot of fun. After our last day of training at the university the students there held a celebration night for us. We were told to prepare a cultural presentation as per usual but other than that we did not know what to expect. Turns out that it was hosted by a guy who could have been running a game show who started us and about 150 students off with the chicken dance and a game of simon says. It was a bit odd but fun. Then we split into teams to do a relay race of sorts. Finally we did the Canadian line up of bilingual O Canada, the moose campfire song, and degeneration - a Québécois song followed by tons if dancing. We were all sweaty, tired, bug happy at the end.
Yesterday we went sightseeing. First we watched a documentary about the girl in the famous picture after a napalm bomb attack in Vietnam. She is the young girl running down the street after her clothes had been burned off along with much of her skin. Over half her body suffered third degree burns and after over a dozen surgeries she was left with painful scars. She be became a spokesperson for Vietnam and was even forced to quit school (she wanted to be a doctor) in order to serve the government as a public speaker. She now lives in Canada and amazingly she personally forgave one of the Ken responsible for the bombing. She sounds like a remarkable woman.
Next we visited a Cao Dai temple which is a unique Vietnamese religion that combines Christianity, Buddhism, and Confucionism. The temple was brightly colored withstatues carved into all of the columns and the ceiling was Harry Potteresque with stars and clouds on a blue background. We also watched a ceremony. Everyone was in white cloaks and positioned in some sort of age hierarchy and went through what looked like a series of prayers with chanting and bowing. It was really interesting and I had never heard of this religion before.
The last thing we visited were the Cu Chi tunnels which is a series of tunnels over 250km long. There are three levels and the first level is 3m below the surface. There were used by the communist Vietnamese first against the French and then again against the Americans. People lived in the tunnels and attached annexes, coming out for surprise attacks. Ventilation holes and entrances were well hidden and American troops did not discover most of them and as a result this area was heavily bombed as they tried to destroy the hidden bunkers. We went through about 100m of tunnel and the are tiny (and had even been widened fir tourists)! I had to crouch and eventually crawls to get through with not much space beside my shoulders. They were hot and stuffy too so it was not hard to believe that mist people living down there for over a year died.
Sorry for the long post and thanks if you made it through!
Sunday, June 19, 2011
From street food to the symphony
Last week we started to work on the research portion of this trip including a couple days of research methodology classes to help us prepare our research question and surveys. As we only have about 4 weeks to survey about 30 parents, it will be pretty basic but I am still looking forward to the information we will get. So far it seems like the major shortcoming of universities here is the complete lack of any sort of practical experience so learning things like communication and interview skills has to be done bythe student, often from the Internet. This morning we had a practice interview with a recent graduate that went well.
Last night some of us went out with some Vietnamese students for dinner and they took us to a street vendor. It was one of the most delicious meals I have had thus far - rice with sweet and sour beef for a buck. The food here is generally good and I have eaten a lot of pho which is a soup with rice noodles and some sort of beef. I am trying to work on my Vietnamese pronunciation so I can order for myself but it is a tonal language meaning the same word means five different things depending on the pitch of the vowels.
Today I did lots if shopping. Things are do cheap here and my haggling skills are improving but still poor. I am probably still paying twice ad much as I should be for things but I can't be too upset as it usually means paying $4 instead of $2. I will get it down by the end of the trip. Tonight I went to a symphony and ballet performance at the nearby opera hall. The symphony and accompanying choir was really good but I don't think Ho Chi Minh City will be known for its ballet any time soon.
Last night some of us went out with some Vietnamese students for dinner and they took us to a street vendor. It was one of the most delicious meals I have had thus far - rice with sweet and sour beef for a buck. The food here is generally good and I have eaten a lot of pho which is a soup with rice noodles and some sort of beef. I am trying to work on my Vietnamese pronunciation so I can order for myself but it is a tonal language meaning the same word means five different things depending on the pitch of the vowels.
Today I did lots if shopping. Things are do cheap here and my haggling skills are improving but still poor. I am probably still paying twice ad much as I should be for things but I can't be too upset as it usually means paying $4 instead of $2. I will get it down by the end of the trip. Tonight I went to a symphony and ballet performance at the nearby opera hall. The symphony and accompanying choir was really good but I don't think Ho Chi Minh City will be known for its ballet any time soon.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
This being my third trip to Asia, there are certain things I have become desensitized to. I am fairly confident crossing the hectic intersections (and they still can't compare to Dhaka), the heat is somewhat more tolerable and I no longer gasp at the sight of an entire family on one motorcycle carrying a ridiculous load of goods. There are some things that I just can't get a handle on any better than I could that first day in Bangladesh. Working through language barriers is one of those things. It is still incredibly difficult, exhausting, and sometimes frustrating to try to work with and get to know someone through broken English. The Vietnamese students we are working with have no doubt been equally frustrated, but hopefully after 6 weeks together we will have found some common ground and formed friendships through both the language and cultural barriers we face.
Ho Chi Minh City is a fairly metropolitan city with all of the organized chaos and charm of you typical Asian city. Traffic laws are actually somewhat followed and there are many western brands mixed among local shops. We are staying here for about a week for training before heading to Tra Vinh which is a smaller agriculture based city of about 100 000 people. Today we learned some background info about the educational system in Vietnam. It is competitive to get into post-secondary institutes but the univesity programs are very structured and there is not a lot of flexibility within the programs in terms of electives, etc. The relationship between teachers and students is based on confucionism and teachers are the rule with no room for discussion or collaboration. Many students choose majors based on the Bility to get a good paying job, hopefully with a foreign organization. So business and technology related majors along with English are most popular despite the shortage of engineers and nurses. The problem with these jobs is often there is additional training needed out of country which delays the time to a paying job and it is difficult to convince people to return to Vietnam (especially rural) to work for the government. I am excited to continue to learn more and I am developing questions I would like to ask as I am in a group surveying parents of current and past students about job training and entering the labour market.
The communist government here has blocked Facebook and we have been trying to hack in. Today I had some success with a site that scrambles your IP address so it is like you are not in Vietnam but by the evening they were on to me and it was not working anymore. Our local techie is working on it.
Ho Chi Minh City is a fairly metropolitan city with all of the organized chaos and charm of you typical Asian city. Traffic laws are actually somewhat followed and there are many western brands mixed among local shops. We are staying here for about a week for training before heading to Tra Vinh which is a smaller agriculture based city of about 100 000 people. Today we learned some background info about the educational system in Vietnam. It is competitive to get into post-secondary institutes but the univesity programs are very structured and there is not a lot of flexibility within the programs in terms of electives, etc. The relationship between teachers and students is based on confucionism and teachers are the rule with no room for discussion or collaboration. Many students choose majors based on the Bility to get a good paying job, hopefully with a foreign organization. So business and technology related majors along with English are most popular despite the shortage of engineers and nurses. The problem with these jobs is often there is additional training needed out of country which delays the time to a paying job and it is difficult to convince people to return to Vietnam (especially rural) to work for the government. I am excited to continue to learn more and I am developing questions I would like to ask as I am in a group surveying parents of current and past students about job training and entering the labour market.
The communist government here has blocked Facebook and we have been trying to hack in. Today I had some success with a site that scrambles your IP address so it is like you are not in Vietnam but by the evening they were on to me and it was not working anymore. Our local techie is working on it.
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Some more information...
I realize that I didn't provide much information on what I am doing in Vietnam, and what my training has been about. This is partly because I don't really know what I am doing yet and partly because I suck at introductions and explaining myself - my apologies.
So I have been in Ottawa since Thursday doing training which involved logistics such as safety while in Vietnam, as well as a number of discussions and activities to help explore international development and multicultural interactions. We are a very diverse group of students from different provinces, backgrounds, and faculties so it made for some interesting perspectives and conversation. Everyone also gets along well so it should make for great learning experiences and good times overseas, especially once we double in size with the addition of 20 Vietnamese students. I love Ottawa and had a chance to walk around downtown and visit the Museum of Civilization which was awesome! I highly recommend checking it out if you are here, and it's free on Thursdays! I also took in game 5 (thanks goodness Vancouver pulled it together) where I made friends with some Ottawanians (?) in the busy bar. We also have already celebrated a birthday with one of the seminarists and have 3 more occurring over the next 6 weeks! It's been fun, but we are all antsy to take off tomorrow morning.
Once I am in Vietnam I will share more about what I am doing, as we will learn more about our research projects once we arrive. We will be in two different provinces (one focusses on tourism and the other on agriculture) doing interviews in the regions with businesses, colleges, youth, etc. in an attempt to guide programming and job training in order to help young adults be more competitive and better equipped to enter the workforce.
So I have been in Ottawa since Thursday doing training which involved logistics such as safety while in Vietnam, as well as a number of discussions and activities to help explore international development and multicultural interactions. We are a very diverse group of students from different provinces, backgrounds, and faculties so it made for some interesting perspectives and conversation. Everyone also gets along well so it should make for great learning experiences and good times overseas, especially once we double in size with the addition of 20 Vietnamese students. I love Ottawa and had a chance to walk around downtown and visit the Museum of Civilization which was awesome! I highly recommend checking it out if you are here, and it's free on Thursdays! I also took in game 5 (thanks goodness Vancouver pulled it together) where I made friends with some Ottawanians (?) in the busy bar. We also have already celebrated a birthday with one of the seminarists and have 3 more occurring over the next 6 weeks! It's been fun, but we are all antsy to take off tomorrow morning.
Once I am in Vietnam I will share more about what I am doing, as we will learn more about our research projects once we arrive. We will be in two different provinces (one focusses on tourism and the other on agriculture) doing interviews in the regions with businesses, colleges, youth, etc. in an attempt to guide programming and job training in order to help young adults be more competitive and better equipped to enter the workforce.
Friday, June 10, 2011
Ottawa!
I am currently in Ottawa with 19 other fantastic and energetic university students for our pre-departure training with WUSC and Uniterra for the International Seminar in Vietnam! On Monday we leave on our 24 hour journey to Ho Chi Minh City and then on to Tra Vinh - the province I will be working in. Finicky internet allowing, I am hoping to update this blog once a week and I look forward to any comments or questions from anyone reading. Also, feel free to share my blog with anyone who may find it interesting.
If you are wondering more about Uniterra or WUSC, here are the links to their sites. They do great work and have excellent opportunities for students to get involved internationally.
http://wusc.ca/
http://www.uniterra.ca/
Go Canucks Go!
(and go jets go!)
If you are wondering more about Uniterra or WUSC, here are the links to their sites. They do great work and have excellent opportunities for students to get involved internationally.
http://wusc.ca/
http://www.uniterra.ca/
Go Canucks Go!
(and go jets go!)
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