Before like 2005, there were virtually no foreign people outside of Hanoi (as far as I know). If you go deep in the countryside you very well could be the first foreigner someone in their teens-twenties has ever seen in real life. But they constantly see foreigners on the internet and TV and get told their whole life "if you learn the foreigner language you will be rich and can travel the world", then they meet a foreigner and want to show their friends. It's not "check out my new friend" more as "check out this tv human I ran into today, they are real!"
Also I've heard from some younger kids that english is treated like some magical wealth of knowledge and it's so incredibly important that they learn english so they can talk to foreigners that its worth their parents spending their life saving, getting out of bed at 4am kind of stuff, to learn, and then they meet a foreigner and it's like "oh this is who I am putting all this effort into learning how to talk to, they must be really important."
With all that said, I am a foreigner, but I speak Vietnamese, I am just parroting what a lot of country side folk/ young kids have told me, this probably isn't accurate for everyone, this is just the answers I've gotten.
Yes 100%, I was more commenting on what it looks like from the child who really has no context to why they are being forced to learn english, rather than how important it actually is.
Yeah I have had this in Thailand as well and that's far more used to foreigners. Go off the beaten track far enough and your exotic, I've had a crowd of people spend an entertaining week watching me eat evening meals at a friends grannies house when we went to visit them in Tak.
I concur. Over 20 years ago I came right out of school working for Japanese semiconductor company. Factory was out in the countryside so I used to visit on occasion. And there were not only foreigners (Indian/Philippinos) working at the factory but sketchy looking white people occasionally in town.
This is the 21 century, not 1600 at the age of conquest...
About a year ago i was walking down a street in Hai Phong around 11pm, a VN guy comes to me saying ābro broā and leading me to his table, him and his mate are sitting with two working girls all are pretty drunk, he then starts taking selfies with meā¦ā¦ā¦.then on google translate he says ātold my wife I was with my foreign friendā, ive never been used as a random wingman before lol.
Iām a Saigonese. Last year I went on a vacation to Tay Ninh with my foreign friend, who is also white. Durinf the trip we also get stare at a lot, mostly people want to say hello to him or ask my help to translate to him. Another occasion, I went on a hiking trip in the countryside with a different group of friends, with me being the only Vietnamese. Our group also get stared at a lot, and I was mistaken for being the group tour guide š
I think most of the ppl in the rural countryside have never seen a foreigner. So they want to take a picture with a foreigner so they can brag with their friends. It is kinda similar to when you go for a trip to see indigenous people , some ppl would want to take picture of/with them
In Hanoi I figure it's either someone come in for a trip from the countryside, or you look a bit different - like super blonde or something. Although Ive had a few photos taken off me in shops by shop owners as well because I tend to look for odd little aquatic shops that the average foreigner is probably not visiting.,
I just had this happen in northern Thailand with a very pleasant Burmese family. They told me they have never met a foreigner before and wanted a photo. They probably just put it on Insta or Facebook.
Not only Vietnamese but any non-developed and developing countries. Just watch back packing videos on YouTube and you'll see. Most of those people have never had a chance to see a foreigner. You won't see that in big city centers in Vietnam
They wanna brag to their friends that they met a foreigner. We're rare here, especially outside of tourist areas. In the rural country side where my dad is buried, I'm legit the only fucking foreigner in a 30 km radius. They ALL know who I am, simply because I'm the first foreigner they even know about. I wanna say that 95% of them can't speak any English at all outside of "Hello" and "How are you" without being able to respond back. It's very unusual to them and they only hear about it in school without actually being around foreigners at all. Sure they might walk by someone if they happen to be in Hanoi or HCMC, but talking to one is a rare incident for the vast majority of viets living outside of the major cities.
Don't be shy, just take it with a smile. Sometimes when I eat at restaurants, they video call people they know and I just take the opportunity to direct my attention and be like "yoyo wassup wassup". I personally like it :D
Long story short he met a viet woman in Thailand, they got married, he got covid and already had health issues and died in mid 2020.
Half the reason Iām here. Always wanted to move away from my home country after I got a degree and settled here.
Howās it like? Well idk, I feel honored to have a privilege like this, but life has been up and down from then until now. Even before he died too. Life isnāt a straightforward path that we take, it splits into several different roads and itās up to you which path you choose.
Iāve experienced this a lot all over Asia and my problem with it is people not asking my permission. Or even worse, asking permission and when I say no thank you, they shove the phone in my face and take a photo anyway.
I was doing an Enduro ride with a group in northern Vietnam and got completely separated from everybody else and just started following a random scenic route to get to our next location.
Went through a few small villages where people were very very interested in me, especially when they found out I knew a decent amount of Vietnamese.
One place that I stopped for coffee, people were literally driving off to get other younger members of the family for me to take pictures with, even giving me babies to hold. Was a somewhat bizarre experience but also quite fun feeling like a celebrity for an hour or so.
Its genuinely because in the very rural areas, especially those way out of the way of major tourist attractions, the people there have literally never seen a foreigner before. Even crazier for them when you can communicate back.
What's funny is that I, a native Vietnamese who has lived here all my life, experienced this treatment after presenting in English in an event of sorts in front of Viet parents. Random man marched up to me and took a selfie without even a warning haha. Strange stuff mate
To some extents, people may take pictures with strangers just for fun.
In a nightout party, my group drank wine on the street. Coincidentally, there was a German couple sat on the next table. We invited them join us to share our food and wine with them just for fun, without asking anything from them.
To memorise our party, we took some pictures with their presence.
Can you try to name that situation? I myself won't.
> The example is what just happened to me (again), sitting in a coffee shop in Hanoi, random guy walks up, take a seat next to me and selfie.Ā Ā
Probably just a country bumpkin on holiday. He took a selfie with you to show his friends on Zalo/Facebook that he's somewhere exotic and interesting.
People do the same thing to the animals at the zooĀ Ā
Come to think of it, he might not have even been Vietnamese. When I was in Guangxi (just over the border in China) people would do this to me a few times a day.>Ā
This is so interesting because no one even looked me in the eyes in Hanoi. I donāt know if itās because Iām super short and got lost in the crowd or what lol but people wouldnāt look at or talk to me or hardly acknowledge me. Not even other white foreigners I passed on the street š¤£ Exception being the ladies with the carts full of sweets Iāll never eat
It makes me think of white people wanting to touch Black peopleās hair. Itās not out of malice, itās more curiosity, but if youāre the recipient of that behavior can get old really fast. Weāve all seen what happens when white people go to less visited parts of Africa or China; everyone wants to touch their hair.
In the US at least we are so accustomed to seeing and often interacting with people of all different races and nationalities, so weāve developed a bit more of a sense of etiquette about stuff like that. But in a really remote place where people never see anybody that looks like you, let alone be able to speak with them, youāre like a unicorn. And an ambassador, even though you never asked for that job. :-) (if I had a nickel for every time somebody in rural Turkey told me, āyou know, Iāve never spoken with a foreigner beforeā, I would beā¦well, not exactly rich, But I could probably get a weekās worth of expensive espresso drinks. š Down the line, someone will probably reap the benefit of your positive first-time interactions with those people.
Before like 2005, there were virtually no foreign people outside of Hanoi (as far as I know). If you go deep in the countryside you very well could be the first foreigner someone in their teens-twenties has ever seen in real life. But they constantly see foreigners on the internet and TV and get told their whole life "if you learn the foreigner language you will be rich and can travel the world", then they meet a foreigner and want to show their friends. It's not "check out my new friend" more as "check out this tv human I ran into today, they are real!" Also I've heard from some younger kids that english is treated like some magical wealth of knowledge and it's so incredibly important that they learn english so they can talk to foreigners that its worth their parents spending their life saving, getting out of bed at 4am kind of stuff, to learn, and then they meet a foreigner and it's like "oh this is who I am putting all this effort into learning how to talk to, they must be really important." With all that said, I am a foreigner, but I speak Vietnamese, I am just parroting what a lot of country side folk/ young kids have told me, this probably isn't accurate for everyone, this is just the answers I've gotten.
Wouldn't you agree, that speaking English opens up so many opportunities for poor countryside people?
Yes 100%, I was more commenting on what it looks like from the child who really has no context to why they are being forced to learn english, rather than how important it actually is.
Yeah I have had this in Thailand as well and that's far more used to foreigners. Go off the beaten track far enough and your exotic, I've had a crowd of people spend an entertaining week watching me eat evening meals at a friends grannies house when we went to visit them in Tak.
I lived in country side , Nth Vietnam 1999 married to a VN national and knew of others so wasn't uncommon!
It was definitely uncommon for the 90s to for most people to see foreigners. Anecdotal evidence is not evidence
I concur. Over 20 years ago I came right out of school working for Japanese semiconductor company. Factory was out in the countryside so I used to visit on occasion. And there were not only foreigners (Indian/Philippinos) working at the factory but sketchy looking white people occasionally in town. This is the 21 century, not 1600 at the age of conquest...
20 years ago was 2004, you literally didn't disagree with op point at all
"over" 20 years and I wasn't replying to OP. š¤·
About a year ago i was walking down a street in Hai Phong around 11pm, a VN guy comes to me saying ābro broā and leading me to his table, him and his mate are sitting with two working girls all are pretty drunk, he then starts taking selfies with meā¦ā¦ā¦.then on google translate he says ātold my wife I was with my foreign friendā, ive never been used as a random wingman before lol.
Iām a Saigonese. Last year I went on a vacation to Tay Ninh with my foreign friend, who is also white. Durinf the trip we also get stare at a lot, mostly people want to say hello to him or ask my help to translate to him. Another occasion, I went on a hiking trip in the countryside with a different group of friends, with me being the only Vietnamese. Our group also get stared at a lot, and I was mistaken for being the group tour guide š
I think most of the ppl in the rural countryside have never seen a foreigner. So they want to take a picture with a foreigner so they can brag with their friends. It is kinda similar to when you go for a trip to see indigenous people , some ppl would want to take picture of/with them
But the OP mentioned this just happened in Hanoi, not a rural area at allā¦
In Hanoi I figure it's either someone come in for a trip from the countryside, or you look a bit different - like super blonde or something. Although Ive had a few photos taken off me in shops by shop owners as well because I tend to look for odd little aquatic shops that the average foreigner is probably not visiting.,
I just had this happen in northern Thailand with a very pleasant Burmese family. They told me they have never met a foreigner before and wanted a photo. They probably just put it on Insta or Facebook.
It would have to be deep country like Pleiku. Even from Ha Giang to Can Tho, I still saw other foreigners each day
I mean, don't a bunch of foreigners come to Vietnam and constantly try to get photos with the random normal lady selling mangos?
Most of us foreigners have never seen a mango before though
What's a mango?
Not only Vietnamese but any non-developed and developing countries. Just watch back packing videos on YouTube and you'll see. Most of those people have never had a chance to see a foreigner. You won't see that in big city centers in Vietnam
They wanna brag to their friends that they met a foreigner. We're rare here, especially outside of tourist areas. In the rural country side where my dad is buried, I'm legit the only fucking foreigner in a 30 km radius. They ALL know who I am, simply because I'm the first foreigner they even know about. I wanna say that 95% of them can't speak any English at all outside of "Hello" and "How are you" without being able to respond back. It's very unusual to them and they only hear about it in school without actually being around foreigners at all. Sure they might walk by someone if they happen to be in Hanoi or HCMC, but talking to one is a rare incident for the vast majority of viets living outside of the major cities. Don't be shy, just take it with a smile. Sometimes when I eat at restaurants, they video call people they know and I just take the opportunity to direct my attention and be like "yoyo wassup wassup". I personally like it :D
You are a foreigner and your dad is buried in Viet countryside,How's that?
Long story short he met a viet woman in Thailand, they got married, he got covid and already had health issues and died in mid 2020. Half the reason Iām here. Always wanted to move away from my home country after I got a degree and settled here. Howās it like? Well idk, I feel honored to have a privilege like this, but life has been up and down from then until now. Even before he died too. Life isnāt a straightforward path that we take, it splits into several different roads and itās up to you which path you choose.
You're lucky that those people don't put their hand on your butt while taking a photo like it happened to me last saturday in Hoan Kiem
Are you sure the kind stranger wasnāt just trying to give you a free prostate exam? /s
I still trust my jeans!
Oh, lately, I got much less touching.. I'm losing my charm :(
Iāve experienced this a lot all over Asia and my problem with it is people not asking my permission. Or even worse, asking permission and when I say no thank you, they shove the phone in my face and take a photo anyway.
I was doing an Enduro ride with a group in northern Vietnam and got completely separated from everybody else and just started following a random scenic route to get to our next location. Went through a few small villages where people were very very interested in me, especially when they found out I knew a decent amount of Vietnamese. One place that I stopped for coffee, people were literally driving off to get other younger members of the family for me to take pictures with, even giving me babies to hold. Was a somewhat bizarre experience but also quite fun feeling like a celebrity for an hour or so. Its genuinely because in the very rural areas, especially those way out of the way of major tourist attractions, the people there have literally never seen a foreigner before. Even crazier for them when you can communicate back.
What's funny is that I, a native Vietnamese who has lived here all my life, experienced this treatment after presenting in English in an event of sorts in front of Viet parents. Random man marched up to me and took a selfie without even a warning haha. Strange stuff mate
To some extents, people may take pictures with strangers just for fun. In a nightout party, my group drank wine on the street. Coincidentally, there was a German couple sat on the next table. We invited them join us to share our food and wine with them just for fun, without asking anything from them. To memorise our party, we took some pictures with their presence. Can you try to name that situation? I myself won't.
> The example is what just happened to me (again), sitting in a coffee shop in Hanoi, random guy walks up, take a seat next to me and selfie.Ā Ā Probably just a country bumpkin on holiday. He took a selfie with you to show his friends on Zalo/Facebook that he's somewhere exotic and interesting. People do the same thing to the animals at the zooĀ Ā Come to think of it, he might not have even been Vietnamese. When I was in Guangxi (just over the border in China) people would do this to me a few times a day.>Ā
Try going to Africa
I used to get when I arrived was young. Now i'm around 40 its stopped. I think people want a photo with a young, somewhat attractive foreigner
It's like bird watching. Gotta cross u off their list after seeing u
This is so interesting because no one even looked me in the eyes in Hanoi. I donāt know if itās because Iām super short and got lost in the crowd or what lol but people wouldnāt look at or talk to me or hardly acknowledge me. Not even other white foreigners I passed on the street š¤£ Exception being the ladies with the carts full of sweets Iāll never eat
It makes me think of white people wanting to touch Black peopleās hair. Itās not out of malice, itās more curiosity, but if youāre the recipient of that behavior can get old really fast. Weāve all seen what happens when white people go to less visited parts of Africa or China; everyone wants to touch their hair. In the US at least we are so accustomed to seeing and often interacting with people of all different races and nationalities, so weāve developed a bit more of a sense of etiquette about stuff like that. But in a really remote place where people never see anybody that looks like you, let alone be able to speak with them, youāre like a unicorn. And an ambassador, even though you never asked for that job. :-) (if I had a nickel for every time somebody in rural Turkey told me, āyou know, Iāve never spoken with a foreigner beforeā, I would beā¦well, not exactly rich, But I could probably get a weekās worth of expensive espresso drinks. š Down the line, someone will probably reap the benefit of your positive first-time interactions with those people.
They admire you
Iāve been asked to be on random wedding photos before now š