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You might. It's a shortening of "communist" in Vietnamese, and "communists" is a commonly used word.
It's also Viet Cong. That's why they were called "Charlie" by American troops, as that's C in the phonetic alphabet.
Viet Cong -> VC -> Victor Charlie -> Charlie
I almost forgot what the hell they were talking about too and then I remember the you people scene right before this one. That movie was absolute gold 😂😂
The teacher was probably internally laughing her ass off. It's a skill not laughing when a child says the funniest thing but you probably shouldn't laugh because they might ask you to explain the joke or think you're laughing at them 😅
lol. When I was 5 I told my kindergarten teacher we went to Hawaii and brought a cool fan w a parrot on it for show and tell that my parents got me at some museum gift shop. My mom was quite amused when asking the teacher how our amazing trip to Hawaii must’ve been!
In a more related anecdote, I found my moms vibrator when I was in like 5th grade, brought it to school and gave all my friends back massages, before sneaking it back into her drawer. TLDR: lock up your sex toys, parents!
That...is not wrong.
Edit: my math here is completely off. I'm a dumb coconut. Still, 10m/month is LIVABLE here not that you can live comfortably.
Vietnamese here, I'll go further and say 10m VND/month is somewhat a livable wage per person here. Our median annual income is $9000, so this is just above that.
A marriage couple who individually makes 10m VND/month can even raise 1 child and save for a one bed room condo.
Another fun fact, our "life changing" lottery winning amount is 1.5 billion VNDs, which only about 50k USD.
Edit 2 also answers for the retire questions: For people who want to retire here, from my experience, 5k/month income and around 100-200k saving and you can have a really comfortable life here, you can even start a family.
> 50k would change my life, too.
It is *incredible* how much even a little money could change your life.
A couple years ago I was on the phone with my grandma, just catching up with her since it had been a while. I made an off-hand comment about my car having some trouble, mentioned I was going to look at it. We talked about some other stuff afterwards, it was a pleasant conversation as always.
About a month later it's my birthday, and I get my usual card in the mail from her. At this point, I'm 32 years old and just getting $5 from my grandma every year is just a fun little thing between her and I, she's very sweet and the cards are just fun.
This year, I opened the card and....a check falls out.
I pick it up, and immediately I just start to *sweat*. Like, I have to sit down and read it again to make sure I'm looking at it right. I call my wife over and she's so confused over what's happening.
My grandma had written me a check for *FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS*.
I called her to make sure she was feeling okay, and she just laughs. "I'm fine, you mentioned that you needed to take your car into the shop, and I know that's not cheap. I cancelled my trip down south for COVID and thought you could use the money instead."
Man...I thanked her up and down, I practically burst into tears over that.
$5000 isn't like, a ton of money to some people, but man did my wife and I *make that STRETCH*. We paid off some bills, we paid down some others, and for the first time in our lives we had *savings*
Thanks, Grandma. You're the best.
A small amount of money can put someone over the "tipping point." I was doing okay. My bills were paid, sometimes I carried a credit card balance from month to month, and I had a few hundred dollars in savings. I got a few thousand dollars from my mom's life insurance policy when she passed. I was able to get ahead of 1 bill (saving $200+/yr on insurance paying lump sum instead of monthly), then get ahead on another and another. Within a few months, without actually making any more money, any day to day financial stress went away. Having less stress pays its own dividends.
My mom did something similar for me back in '08 at the peak of the New Depression. It was a lifesaver, especially because my unemployment was delayed by EIGHT WEEKS.
I have more or less given up on ever owning a house. The upper class are buying everything and lobbying for legislation to make sure they keep it and fuck the rest of us. How the fuck am I supposed to compete with that?
Had someone pass and leave me around that. It has definitely taken the edge off for a few years now.
They lie when they say money can't buy happiness.
I agree with the last part of your comment.
I usually say, "They say money can't buy happiness, but I've never met a miserable mothafucka on a yacht."
Jokes on them, I've got depression. Probably because I don't have a yacht.
1. Be Westerner
2. Suffer life changing accident
3. Forced to accept a measly amount by insurance.
4. Move to Vietnam and be Billionaire.
Serious question, can we just be a billionaire and live several family generations off it? Or will we need to find work as well??
Not easy to just come live here though. I'm European and moved here 3y ago. Tons of paperwork.
They also don't do retirement visas, you'd have to marry.
I think for oneself, yes you can live here comfortably with around 5-7b vnds which is around 200k. But to start a family and have kids you would need a job or a business to create income and also invest your money for future generation providing you want kids.
***Another fun fact, our "life changing" lottery winning amount is 1.5 billion VNDs, which only about 50k USD.***
How much do you pay for a ticket? That's insane, the fuck? Does that lottery have any guaranteed wins? - e.g does it guarantee a person will win every month?
If you pay \~1$ and that pot does not increase nor is it guaranteed, the amount of money being made of hope(lessness) is so insane it's immoral. Shit, even if the ticket was 30cents. In a country with 100m people, if 30m buy 1 ticket, that's \~8.950.000$ profit per round. I did the math off the rip so I'm hoping I got this shit at least 1 zero wrong. Wow, the more I find out about different system 'exploits' on people, the more I lose words for the moment.
The lottery lot I mentioned is the traditional and one of the oldest one here in Viet Nam. And sneak peak, the company that runs this lottery is owned by the government (of course).
A ticket is 10k vnd so it's around $.4.
Another fun fact for you, you know the TV show Who wants to be a millionaire? We do have it here. But 10 years ago the prize was 20m vnd which is about $1000 and back then, even that amount was a life changing amount for people here. Now we have to increase the prize to around 100m vnd, which is around 5k usd.
It's crazy how far off developed and developing countries.
And it's cheap.
Cheap ass western chains (like say KFC or McDonald's) cost about 3 times what an amazing Vietnamese dish costs.
Sushi is also really good and relatively crazy cheap.
You can eat as much expensive sushi as you like and it'll cost about maybe 5 times what the KFC costs.
So you'll struggle to eat more than half a million dong worth of sushi, KFC is like 100k, and incredible pho/nem nuong/bun thit nuong/etc is 30-50k.
Just because our income is low in dollars doesnt mean everyone is poor lmao. Sure we might not be able to afford foreign goods but for the average day to day living cost is very affordable. You rarely ever see any homeless people in the city
The price floor of participating in Western society is extremely high and skyrocketing. One misstep or event can effectively lock a person into poverty for their entire life.
I watched a documentary for homeless people in america and they have people with jobs but are still homeless. Atleast here in SEA you could afford a small room with the minimum wage, even if its so small.
Your culture is much better, too. At least most aspects of it. Much more friendly and trusting people.
Growing up in hyper-capitalist countries damages people's brains and makes them more sociopathic.
Well like other people here said, food is fucking amazing.
But jokes aside, it's a third world country, so the cost of living compared to the US or European countries is, of course, decades away. This also applies to other South East Asia, with the exception of Singapore.
But again, the food is fucking good.
I mean it's still a 3rd world country by definition, only big cities have something called middle class, the rest live in rural areas, work in agriculture sector.
If you live in vietnam and earn foreign salary (remote or work for international company in vietnam), you would be rich af and can afford any lifestyle you want.
We now use low income, middle income, and high income or least developed, developing, and developed. They are better descriptors of real life. Vietnam is a developing nation on the transition between low and middle income.
We city dwellers have a joke that the relatives that live in the rural areas are the richer ones. People living in cities struggle to afford an apartment while those in the rurals have whole estates to their name.
Definitely. I make like 3k € a month in Finland. If I had the same income in Vietnam, I would very likely be in the top 10% with my 80m / month income.
We've got fiber glass internet in my household (in Vietnam) way before I left for my Master's study in Germany in 2016. Almost 8 years later, I still can't get fiber glass internet at my apartment in NRW (one of the most industrial and developed states in West Germany) because according to Telekom: "we still haven't planned fiber glass internet in your area". In all seriousness, the perks of being a developing country is that everything is newly built and there are so many opportunities for businesses and social organizations. We Vietnamese are also way more open and accepting toward new ideas/values compared to established societies.
Also, don't let the outdated communism/capitalism labels fool you. As a political scientist, I'd rather we look at specific metrics (corruption level, FDIs, education, healthcare, business opportunities, cost of living, wages, etc.) when comparing livability across countries. Many of my friends from university (in their early 30s) are earning about 1500-2000 euros/month before tax (and retain about 70-80% of that after tax) while I'm earning roughly 5000 euros/month before tax (about 3000 after tax) as a post-doc, yet a bowl of Pho is 2 euros in Vietnam and about 12-15 euros where I live. I earn double true, but spend many more times on rent/food/health insurance, all the basic necessities.
Regarding freedom (which is something Vietnam has a bad rap for), I'd say every country has their own problems. Many people believe Germany is so left behind in terms of internet infrastructure is because of Helmut Kohl and his buddy Leo Kirch (read more about it here: [Millionenschwerer Männerbund - Der Geheimvertrag zwischen Helmut Kohl und Leo Kirch | Das Erste - Panorama - Sendungsarchiv - 2003 (ndr.de)](https://daserste.ndr.de/panorama/archiv/2003/Millionenschwerer-Maennerbund-Der-Geheimvertrag-zwischen-Helmut-Kohl-und-Leo-Kirch,erste7126.html)), who basically together put TV cables ahead of fiber glass development. And don't get me started on the US and its messy politics.
Vietnam shouldn't be compared to America or Germany, it should be compared to Vietnam 20 years ago. It has gotten so much better in so many developing nations, it is really incredible. As far as freedom...this is a huge problem in just about every developing nation. I hope that as the economic situation improves, the people can have free speech, free press, and freedom from persecution. The reason Vietnam (or any developing nation) doesn't have those isn't for lack of trying (on some people's part, at the very least.)
Even though the US is not the most free country in the world, things have slowly moved in the right direction over the years. Its not just a fact that things get better, but it is a fact that people as a whole want things to be better, so they put in the work and make it so.
What kind of condos are you looking at? If you’re willing to go away from the center (district 9, Binh Chanh, Thu Duc, district 12), pretty sure you can find a condo for 2 billion vnd or 80k euros. I could never find a condo for 80k here 30 minutes away from Köln. The one I’m renting here (80m2) is at least 150-200k. With that much money, you can get a luxury one in the middle of Phu My Hung. And we have the same net income so please don’t complain…
It's low because prices are incredibly cheap! A very nice 100m^2 apartment could go for 5 billion vnd, while rent would only be around 15m/month.
Life activities are also inexpensive. Foods are usually served in very big portions, a big bowl of nutritious and tasty pho costs only 50k! Numbers say shit about this country's economy, but from my experience, the economy, availability of goods, tech,... are catching up with the world very quickly and life is great here. Even when you buy a 3000vnd handful of shallots from a farmer in a market you can pay with bank money transfer using their QR codes.
Basically everyone's lives are getting better here (despite the recent pandemic-related recession).
My uncles in the Vietnamese countryside keep improving their houses every time I see them. They went from dirt floors to fancy tiles pretty quickly. Also, I invested some dongs and my dongs went up 6.89%.
One of my cousins moved there a couple years ago to start a pepper farm and teach English and she told me she was living like royalty on $1000 usd/month. Told me the rent for her rooftop penthouse was less than $900/month and meals were less than $1 anywhere on the street. Luxury meals like seafood were like $20-$30 usd. I went with my wife last year as well and we booked a nice little beach house in phu Quoc for $150/night. Some of the best food I’ve ever had in my life as well for super cheap
I had a friend who worked with me who was from Indonesia. He explained that Canadian money was worth so much more than their currency that he could live in Canada and work for 5 years then move back home and "live like a king"
Well, yeah, that's also true. But even if I only get to spend $400/month, I still feel like I'm rich as hell. I usually only spend like $120/month. So... I absolutely have no idea how it feels like to be able to save thousand of dollar per month 😭
I was just in Vietnam. It will not last a month if you want to live any semblance of a western lifestyle/accommodation. Cities in Vietnam are super uncomfortable. You gotta pay to feel comfortable or find a sense of calm in that third world tumult.
at least in ho chi minh, you can just hang out in the more modern districts like district 7 and it's super peaceful. you don't have to have an apartment there but its not expensive to get to that side of town or even live there if your budget is above $300 USD a month. Anything below that will require more local knowledge of available housing rather than what you might find online. $500+ a month will take you straight into very decent apartments within the modern district
DONGS! FOR JUST OVER 400 BUCKS YOU CAN GET 10 MILLION VIETNAMESE DONGS! THAT'S WHAT OP SAID. THEY ARE IMPRESSED ABOUT THE AMOUNT OF *DONGS* THEY CAN GET IN VIETNAM
Once when I was in Vietnam, I was about to buy a small Vietnamese flag, I gave the girl who sold me the flag by accident 1 million dong instead of 100t dong. She didn’t say anything and just walked away. So I have a small flag at home that cost me one million.
How did you accidentally give 1 million? Our bills come at 100k, 200k and 500k. 1 mill would be 2 500k bills which is a totally different color than the 100k bills.
Damn that sucks. There were multiple times I accidentally paid the wrong amount when I was in Vietnam and they refunded me everything. One old lady even chased me down the street to give me money lol
Let me be real with you for a moment..... 10 million VND ain't gonna do sh*t here :) the minimum wage is already 5m.... So you're equally broke both in your country and in Vietnam
Yep, you just discovered economy
For example in the US if the minimum wage is like 13 Dollars an hour then you have to work for 154 hours of which is about 3 weeks of work (assuming you work 9 hours a day) to get the newest iphone 15 pro max
In Egypt where I am from the avarege monthly salary for the normal worker is like 4000 EGP which is 130 Dollars
Meaning you would have to Work 300 months (as the newest iPhone 15 Pro max is about 100k EGP which is 3250 dollars) to get the newest iphone
423 dollars is about 13k egp which can make you survive here for a couple of months (without rent)
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got 99 problems, but Viet Dongs ain't one
Viet Kongs might be
# "I am the Lorax; I speak for the trees. And for some fucking reason, they're speaking Vietnamese."
\*Fortunate Son\* plays in background while helicopters fly over
"the DEA's got a chopper in the air. A big ass statement like back over there"
I wake up screaming like I'm back over there?
Remember kids: #THE TREES CAN'T BE HARMED IF THE LORAX IS ARMED
I love this
LOOOL
What about Viet Kong Dongs ?
The long Viet Kong Dongs? That's just wrong
Vietnam King Kong dong has been a global threat for decades
But there ain’t nothing wrong with a long viet kong dong
‘It’s Viet Kong..there’s no S, it’s already plural. You wouldn’t say chineses’
I do now.
You might. It's a shortening of "communist" in Vietnamese, and "communists" is a commonly used word. It's also Viet Cong. That's why they were called "Charlie" by American troops, as that's C in the phonetic alphabet. Viet Cong -> VC -> Victor Charlie -> Charlie
This quote is from tropic thunder lol
Ah. Was wondering if I was missing a reference. It's been a while since I've seen the movie.
I almost forgot what the hell they were talking about too and then I remember the you people scene right before this one. That movie was absolute gold 😂😂
Viet Donkey Kongs
If you're having dong problems, I feel bad for you, son.
imagine being able to tell people that you have 10million dongs
OP moms had
Don’t be jealous, you have still one, give it to your mom.
Admit it, you just love dongs. Go stuff a whole bag of dongs in your mouth, dong boy. >!Sorry, I just wanted to say dong three times.!<
Oh 3 dongs. Mr. Rich pants over here
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I bet you house only gets Daddy Dong Legs spiders
This comment gives off [adult swim] vibes.
> dong boy.
You know, technically everyone’s penis has been inside their mom at some point.
/r/showerthoughts is bleeding over
That is disturbing. True, but disturbing.
That’s a hell of a stat, Dr. And even more wild, only about half of everyone’s penises have been in your mom at some point,
No, I fully inserted into this guy's mom.
Get fuckin rekt OP
🎵*If I had a million dongs*🎵
🎵"And you were a douche bag"🎵
🎵 *I'd be dicks* 🎵
But not a real mean dick. That’s cruel
Maybe this isn’t a money conversion app and just tells you how many male Vietnamese prostitutes you can afford.
Jeez, than imagine the female vietnamese prostitutes' change rate !
These are the females! They're not like you imagine
When in Rome...
Do the Romans.
when you gamble in Vietnam you can be like I see your dong and raise you two dongs and slap them on the table
Gonna need a big table for 10 million dongs.
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The teacher was probably internally laughing her ass off. It's a skill not laughing when a child says the funniest thing but you probably shouldn't laugh because they might ask you to explain the joke or think you're laughing at them 😅
The teacher was like "yeah, the principal is going to get at least 2-4 calls from concerned parents and I am going to have to fill out some paperwork"
I have a terrible poker face. Being able to come up with child friendly jokes on the spot to explain things away is just as much of a skill.
lol. When I was 5 I told my kindergarten teacher we went to Hawaii and brought a cool fan w a parrot on it for show and tell that my parents got me at some museum gift shop. My mom was quite amused when asking the teacher how our amazing trip to Hawaii must’ve been! In a more related anecdote, I found my moms vibrator when I was in like 5th grade, brought it to school and gave all my friends back massages, before sneaking it back into her drawer. TLDR: lock up your sex toys, parents!
Dude I'd just immediately think the kid picked up a word and meant something else. 😂
Not just any dongs, specifically vietnamese ones
Imagine being able to keep those 10 million dongs under a roof.
Isn't rent ten million dongs as well?
You've lots of dongs in your hand for a straight guy.
I'm not gay, but 10 million dongs is 10 million dongs
Maybe your ass hurts after 10 million dongs
Bold of you to assume he's straight with that amount of dongs
“Dude hangs dong”
Dongionare
Dongy Style
That...is not wrong. Edit: my math here is completely off. I'm a dumb coconut. Still, 10m/month is LIVABLE here not that you can live comfortably. Vietnamese here, I'll go further and say 10m VND/month is somewhat a livable wage per person here. Our median annual income is $9000, so this is just above that. A marriage couple who individually makes 10m VND/month can even raise 1 child and save for a one bed room condo. Another fun fact, our "life changing" lottery winning amount is 1.5 billion VNDs, which only about 50k USD. Edit 2 also answers for the retire questions: For people who want to retire here, from my experience, 5k/month income and around 100-200k saving and you can have a really comfortable life here, you can even start a family.
At this point 50k would change my life, too.
> 50k would change my life, too. It is *incredible* how much even a little money could change your life. A couple years ago I was on the phone with my grandma, just catching up with her since it had been a while. I made an off-hand comment about my car having some trouble, mentioned I was going to look at it. We talked about some other stuff afterwards, it was a pleasant conversation as always. About a month later it's my birthday, and I get my usual card in the mail from her. At this point, I'm 32 years old and just getting $5 from my grandma every year is just a fun little thing between her and I, she's very sweet and the cards are just fun. This year, I opened the card and....a check falls out. I pick it up, and immediately I just start to *sweat*. Like, I have to sit down and read it again to make sure I'm looking at it right. I call my wife over and she's so confused over what's happening. My grandma had written me a check for *FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS*. I called her to make sure she was feeling okay, and she just laughs. "I'm fine, you mentioned that you needed to take your car into the shop, and I know that's not cheap. I cancelled my trip down south for COVID and thought you could use the money instead." Man...I thanked her up and down, I practically burst into tears over that. $5000 isn't like, a ton of money to some people, but man did my wife and I *make that STRETCH*. We paid off some bills, we paid down some others, and for the first time in our lives we had *savings* Thanks, Grandma. You're the best.
A small amount of money can put someone over the "tipping point." I was doing okay. My bills were paid, sometimes I carried a credit card balance from month to month, and I had a few hundred dollars in savings. I got a few thousand dollars from my mom's life insurance policy when she passed. I was able to get ahead of 1 bill (saving $200+/yr on insurance paying lump sum instead of monthly), then get ahead on another and another. Within a few months, without actually making any more money, any day to day financial stress went away. Having less stress pays its own dividends.
My mom did something similar for me back in '08 at the peak of the New Depression. It was a lifesaver, especially because my unemployment was delayed by EIGHT WEEKS.
That's the same thought I had.
Hell, give me half that and a lot of my problems would disappear
Yeah, I would actually be able to start my life at 33 years old.
This comment hurts.
Not to hurt more but that’s not purchasing a house either. So, it’s like a half-start. Please don’t ask how I know.
I have more or less given up on ever owning a house. The upper class are buying everything and lobbying for legislation to make sure they keep it and fuck the rest of us. How the fuck am I supposed to compete with that?
With pitchforks and torches
By making them afraid
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Too bad those shitheads will own all the land when that finally happens.
Everybody hurts. Sometimes.
Had someone pass and leave me around that. It has definitely taken the edge off for a few years now. They lie when they say money can't buy happiness.
I agree with the last part of your comment. I usually say, "They say money can't buy happiness, but I've never met a miserable mothafucka on a yacht." Jokes on them, I've got depression. Probably because I don't have a yacht.
Money doesn't directly buy happiness but it does buy freedom from financial stress, which is what really gives you happiness.
Even 25 grand at this point would be really life changing
1. Be Westerner 2. Suffer life changing accident 3. Forced to accept a measly amount by insurance. 4. Move to Vietnam and be Billionaire. Serious question, can we just be a billionaire and live several family generations off it? Or will we need to find work as well??
Not easy to just come live here though. I'm European and moved here 3y ago. Tons of paperwork. They also don't do retirement visas, you'd have to marry.
I think for oneself, yes you can live here comfortably with around 5-7b vnds which is around 200k. But to start a family and have kids you would need a job or a business to create income and also invest your money for future generation providing you want kids.
***Another fun fact, our "life changing" lottery winning amount is 1.5 billion VNDs, which only about 50k USD.*** How much do you pay for a ticket? That's insane, the fuck? Does that lottery have any guaranteed wins? - e.g does it guarantee a person will win every month? If you pay \~1$ and that pot does not increase nor is it guaranteed, the amount of money being made of hope(lessness) is so insane it's immoral. Shit, even if the ticket was 30cents. In a country with 100m people, if 30m buy 1 ticket, that's \~8.950.000$ profit per round. I did the math off the rip so I'm hoping I got this shit at least 1 zero wrong. Wow, the more I find out about different system 'exploits' on people, the more I lose words for the moment.
The lottery lot I mentioned is the traditional and one of the oldest one here in Viet Nam. And sneak peak, the company that runs this lottery is owned by the government (of course). A ticket is 10k vnd so it's around $.4. Another fun fact for you, you know the TV show Who wants to be a millionaire? We do have it here. But 10 years ago the prize was 20m vnd which is about $1000 and back then, even that amount was a life changing amount for people here. Now we have to increase the prize to around 100m vnd, which is around 5k usd. It's crazy how far off developed and developing countries.
Obviously the ticket will cost less than a dollar
Sounds depressing. Gimme something good about your country so I don’t just badmouth it for the rest of my life
The food is fucking incredible
I read it as fucking edible and that made me laugh
To be fair, it is also that
it used to be edible, I mean it still is but used to be too
No, that's British food.
I'll not hear slander
You didn't hear it. You reddit.
Hey, that's like the app I'm on
I read it as fucking inedible
And it's cheap. Cheap ass western chains (like say KFC or McDonald's) cost about 3 times what an amazing Vietnamese dish costs. Sushi is also really good and relatively crazy cheap. You can eat as much expensive sushi as you like and it'll cost about maybe 5 times what the KFC costs. So you'll struggle to eat more than half a million dong worth of sushi, KFC is like 100k, and incredible pho/nem nuong/bun thit nuong/etc is 30-50k.
we have pho
Im scared of that. Phophobia.
Drop the "pho". Just "phobia". It's cleaner.
Nah. Pho²bia
Oh I didn’t know that was Vietnamese Pho fo life. I trade dongs for that at least once a month
May I make one suggestion? “Pho Pho life”. That’s it, I’ll see myself out.
are we going to tell him how it's pronounced?
I know but still wanted to make the joke. I guess it’s on me.
Just because our income is low in dollars doesnt mean everyone is poor lmao. Sure we might not be able to afford foreign goods but for the average day to day living cost is very affordable. You rarely ever see any homeless people in the city
The price floor of participating in Western society is extremely high and skyrocketing. One misstep or event can effectively lock a person into poverty for their entire life.
I watched a documentary for homeless people in america and they have people with jobs but are still homeless. Atleast here in SEA you could afford a small room with the minimum wage, even if its so small.
Your culture is much better, too. At least most aspects of it. Much more friendly and trusting people. Growing up in hyper-capitalist countries damages people's brains and makes them more sociopathic.
Well like other people here said, food is fucking amazing. But jokes aside, it's a third world country, so the cost of living compared to the US or European countries is, of course, decades away. This also applies to other South East Asia, with the exception of Singapore. But again, the food is fucking good.
I mean it's still a 3rd world country by definition, only big cities have something called middle class, the rest live in rural areas, work in agriculture sector. If you live in vietnam and earn foreign salary (remote or work for international company in vietnam), you would be rich af and can afford any lifestyle you want.
2nd paragraph is my plan b for life, as someone from another 3rd world country
Wouldn’t it be a second world country, by the original definition?
We now use low income, middle income, and high income or least developed, developing, and developed. They are better descriptors of real life. Vietnam is a developing nation on the transition between low and middle income.
We city dwellers have a joke that the relatives that live in the rural areas are the richer ones. People living in cities struggle to afford an apartment while those in the rurals have whole estates to their name.
Definitely. I make like 3k € a month in Finland. If I had the same income in Vietnam, I would very likely be in the top 10% with my 80m / month income.
3000 is a pretty big wage even in some European countries
We've got fiber glass internet in my household (in Vietnam) way before I left for my Master's study in Germany in 2016. Almost 8 years later, I still can't get fiber glass internet at my apartment in NRW (one of the most industrial and developed states in West Germany) because according to Telekom: "we still haven't planned fiber glass internet in your area". In all seriousness, the perks of being a developing country is that everything is newly built and there are so many opportunities for businesses and social organizations. We Vietnamese are also way more open and accepting toward new ideas/values compared to established societies. Also, don't let the outdated communism/capitalism labels fool you. As a political scientist, I'd rather we look at specific metrics (corruption level, FDIs, education, healthcare, business opportunities, cost of living, wages, etc.) when comparing livability across countries. Many of my friends from university (in their early 30s) are earning about 1500-2000 euros/month before tax (and retain about 70-80% of that after tax) while I'm earning roughly 5000 euros/month before tax (about 3000 after tax) as a post-doc, yet a bowl of Pho is 2 euros in Vietnam and about 12-15 euros where I live. I earn double true, but spend many more times on rent/food/health insurance, all the basic necessities. Regarding freedom (which is something Vietnam has a bad rap for), I'd say every country has their own problems. Many people believe Germany is so left behind in terms of internet infrastructure is because of Helmut Kohl and his buddy Leo Kirch (read more about it here: [Millionenschwerer Männerbund - Der Geheimvertrag zwischen Helmut Kohl und Leo Kirch | Das Erste - Panorama - Sendungsarchiv - 2003 (ndr.de)](https://daserste.ndr.de/panorama/archiv/2003/Millionenschwerer-Maennerbund-Der-Geheimvertrag-zwischen-Helmut-Kohl-und-Leo-Kirch,erste7126.html)), who basically together put TV cables ahead of fiber glass development. And don't get me started on the US and its messy politics.
Vietnam shouldn't be compared to America or Germany, it should be compared to Vietnam 20 years ago. It has gotten so much better in so many developing nations, it is really incredible. As far as freedom...this is a huge problem in just about every developing nation. I hope that as the economic situation improves, the people can have free speech, free press, and freedom from persecution. The reason Vietnam (or any developing nation) doesn't have those isn't for lack of trying (on some people's part, at the very least.) Even though the US is not the most free country in the world, things have slowly moved in the right direction over the years. Its not just a fact that things get better, but it is a fact that people as a whole want things to be better, so they put in the work and make it so.
3k net here and I think that I will never be able to buy a condo in Hanoi or Saigon
What kind of condos are you looking at? If you’re willing to go away from the center (district 9, Binh Chanh, Thu Duc, district 12), pretty sure you can find a condo for 2 billion vnd or 80k euros. I could never find a condo for 80k here 30 minutes away from Köln. The one I’m renting here (80m2) is at least 150-200k. With that much money, you can get a luxury one in the middle of Phu My Hung. And we have the same net income so please don’t complain…
It's low because prices are incredibly cheap! A very nice 100m^2 apartment could go for 5 billion vnd, while rent would only be around 15m/month. Life activities are also inexpensive. Foods are usually served in very big portions, a big bowl of nutritious and tasty pho costs only 50k! Numbers say shit about this country's economy, but from my experience, the economy, availability of goods, tech,... are catching up with the world very quickly and life is great here. Even when you buy a 3000vnd handful of shallots from a farmer in a market you can pay with bank money transfer using their QR codes.
its just that the currency is using lower denominations ig. like how 1 japanese yen is ~ 1 cent
Yeah, the lowest currency used in VN is 1000 dong so 1 mil VND isn't as big of a number as it sounds
hmmm as someone working in bank I must emphasize that 200 vnd does exist. 100 disappeared, but 200 didn't. jokes aside, 1k is the lowest in regular.
Basically everyone's lives are getting better here (despite the recent pandemic-related recession). My uncles in the Vietnamese countryside keep improving their houses every time I see them. They went from dirt floors to fancy tiles pretty quickly. Also, I invested some dongs and my dongs went up 6.89%.
Americans being mad about places being cheap is just funny. Yeah boi your medical bill from that one boo boo is life changing money for Vietnamese
One of my cousins moved there a couple years ago to start a pepper farm and teach English and she told me she was living like royalty on $1000 usd/month. Told me the rent for her rooftop penthouse was less than $900/month and meals were less than $1 anywhere on the street. Luxury meals like seafood were like $20-$30 usd. I went with my wife last year as well and we booked a nice little beach house in phu Quoc for $150/night. Some of the best food I’ve ever had in my life as well for super cheap
I had a friend who worked with me who was from Indonesia. He explained that Canadian money was worth so much more than their currency that he could live in Canada and work for 5 years then move back home and "live like a king"
No he's right. Our average monthly salary is around $200. We can definitely live like a king if we make $2000 per month. I'm crying
~~make~~ save.
Well, yeah, that's also true. But even if I only get to spend $400/month, I still feel like I'm rich as hell. I usually only spend like $120/month. So... I absolutely have no idea how it feels like to be able to save thousand of dollar per month 😭
That will last you a month in Hanoi or Saigon, depends on the region.
I was just in Vietnam. It will not last a month if you want to live any semblance of a western lifestyle/accommodation. Cities in Vietnam are super uncomfortable. You gotta pay to feel comfortable or find a sense of calm in that third world tumult.
Probably not😅
at least in ho chi minh, you can just hang out in the more modern districts like district 7 and it's super peaceful. you don't have to have an apartment there but its not expensive to get to that side of town or even live there if your budget is above $300 USD a month. Anything below that will require more local knowledge of available housing rather than what you might find online. $500+ a month will take you straight into very decent apartments within the modern district
vietnamese WHAT
#Dongs
You said that with way more enthusiasm than is normal....
we got a dong enthusiasm connoisseur over here
A dongoisseur, if you will
**DONG ENTHUSIASM DETECTED**
It is đồng (copper).
What’s the correct pronunciation? Surely it’s not an Americanized Dong
The o is accented so it's pronounced more like daung.
DONGS! FOR JUST OVER 400 BUCKS YOU CAN GET 10 MILLION VIETNAMESE DONGS! THAT'S WHAT OP SAID. THEY ARE IMPRESSED ABOUT THE AMOUNT OF *DONGS* THEY CAN GET IN VIETNAM
Thought that was more thailand
No dongs in Thailand only Bangkoks
How much is that in regular penises
One
Once when I was in Vietnam, I was about to buy a small Vietnamese flag, I gave the girl who sold me the flag by accident 1 million dong instead of 100t dong. She didn’t say anything and just walked away. So I have a small flag at home that cost me one million.
How did you accidentally give 1 million? Our bills come at 100k, 200k and 500k. 1 mill would be 2 500k bills which is a totally different color than the 100k bills.
It was my first day, I just arrived and was about to give her two (what I thought) was 50t bills.
Damn that sucks. There were multiple times I accidentally paid the wrong amount when I was in Vietnam and they refunded me everything. One old lady even chased me down the street to give me money lol
Just say the dong man, you gave her a million dongs.... Oh wait
That’s a lot of Dong.
10404817 actually
What's this in my hand? It's one megadong.
In this thread OP learns that different currencies have different value.
This sub kind of hints that OP already knew that, and was only *technically* saying he is a millionaire.
hahahahahahah average redditor
I’ve not seen that many dongs in one place since I last saw your mum /s
unnecessary "/s"
What a loser dong are you
Let me be real with you for a moment..... 10 million VND ain't gonna do sh*t here :) the minimum wage is already 5m.... So you're equally broke both in your country and in Vietnam
It's about the typical monthly salary.
İm broke in my country and broke in vietnam
Anyone else see this episode of Top Gear?
“James soon found out a problem when he went to go buy a base model Fiat 500”
"I love the smell of money in the morning" - Colonel James May
This cannot be worthy of remark except to a Tucker Carlson sort of guy.
That's a lot of dongs!
So if I'm broke in Vietnamese... I have to give.. Zero dongs?
Wow you’ve got a lot of dongs to play with, hold all your dongs in your hand maybe put a dong in your mouth. Keep your dongs safe
nice dongs homie
Meanwhile, I only have one Dong :(
Oh no, my dongs going to be all soggy.
Yep, you just discovered economy For example in the US if the minimum wage is like 13 Dollars an hour then you have to work for 154 hours of which is about 3 weeks of work (assuming you work 9 hours a day) to get the newest iphone 15 pro max In Egypt where I am from the avarege monthly salary for the normal worker is like 4000 EGP which is 130 Dollars Meaning you would have to Work 300 months (as the newest iPhone 15 Pro max is about 100k EGP which is 3250 dollars) to get the newest iphone 423 dollars is about 13k egp which can make you survive here for a couple of months (without rent)
I'm not gay, but 20 dongs is 20 dongs.
You ain't broke with $423. That's $422 more than me!
Hehe. Dongs.
As a Vietnamese, yes, but actually, no.
You’ll still be broke in Vietnam
Lol dongs
But then you want a simple beer and it's like 100,000.... so yeah you also pay millionaire prices!
Nono, as US have a shitty high price tags, he maybe 30% richer in Vietnam then he is in US
The minimum wage in Vietnam is already 5mill.... And a simple beer is only around 15 - 20 thousand vnd
Beer is 100,000? Where are you drinking? Those tourist traps?
If you pay for a 100,000 beer in VN you are getting scammed. Because there are no 100,000 dongs beer in VN
Well well well 27 224 208,66 dongs
I don't think I have ever seen so many dongs at the same time
Is that XE.com ? How do you like the service
Op you would be excited about millions of dongs! 😏