From: vavo@milton.u.washington.edu (Tuan Nguyen)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.vietnamese
Subject: [CULTURE] Differences!
Date: 2 Sep 92 06:38:44 GMT
Article-I.D.: u.1992Sep2.063844.2858
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle


Hi!

Thought this may be interesting to SCVers. What follows is from a book
titled "Japan-Think, Ameri-Think".  Enjoy!

Condition    American treatment   Japanese treatment       VNese treatment
---------    ------------------   ------------------       ---------------

cut finger     Band-Aid           hospital, professional      Anybody want
                                  bandage from elbow to tip   to volunteer
                                  of finger, thirteen         for this
                                  varieties of pills, half     column?:-))
                                  day off work, revisit
                                  hospital everyday for the
                                  next five days

headache       aspirin            hospital, brain scan, eight
                                  varieties of pills, complete
                                  day off work, eye checkup
                                  next day

stubbed toe    curses and         hospital(overnight), X-rays
               aspirin            fourteen pills, two days off
                                  work, cane, professional
                                  bandage encasing entire foot
                                  and ankle

scraped knee   disinfectant and   hospital, antibiotic pills of
               Band-Aid           every color in the spectrum,
                                  revisit hospital daily for 2
                                  weeks for redressing bandage,
                                  continue wearing knee pad until
                                  end of Rainy Season

sprained ankle cold compresses    see "stubbed toe" above, except
               later hot ones     walking cast, one week off
                                  work, and six more pills

tired,         eyedrops           hospital, four types of
scratchy eyes                     prescribed eyedrops (depending
                                  upon time of day), 16 varieties
                                  of pills, a great, whopping
                                  white eye patch (worn on
                                  alternate days), no time off work
                                  (except for daily hospital
                                  visits) but sit around office
                                  all day doing things alternately
                                  one-handed.

cold           aspirin, plenty    badge of honor is white face
               of fluids,         mask, worn until gray, and
               tissues            37 liters of green tea per day
                                  until next birthday

broken arm     visit doctor, in   rarely happens (Japanese tend to
               and out same day   have shorter, thicker bones) but
                                  when it does, gangbusters:
                                  hospital confinement for 3 weeks
                                  intravenous feeding, a banquer of
                                  pills (equal otherwise to one
                                  square meal), trip to Hawaii to
                                  recuperate.

pneumonia      visit doctor, bed  hospital (by ambulance), one
               rest, pills,       month confinement, tests
               chicken noodle     every day for tuberculosis,
               soup               white face mask until next
                                  birthday

broken leg     could spend the    see "broken arm" except
               night in hospital  hospital confinement until
               could be in        end of year, crutches until
               traction at home   spring; will tak pills
               certainly some     until end of life
               crutch action

broken gall    operation,hospital hospital, operations, rumors
blader         as long as three   as to whether or not it's
               to five days       cancer ("since doctors won't
                                  tell patients that they have
                                  cancer, the fact that the
                                  patients says he doesn't have
                                  cancer means the doctor told
                                  him he doesn't which means he
                                  probably does have it but the
                                  doctor told him he doesn't"),
                                  confinement until eldest child
                                  graduates from highschool,
                                  plastic surgery to fix stitch
                                  marks, medical leave of
                                  absence from work until "bonus
                                  season," admonitions about ever
                                  eating Western food again,
                                  recuperation at Disneyland in
                                  California


T.
Newsgroups: soc.culture.vietnamese