From: Nhan Tran <tran@peora.sdc.ccur.com>
Subject: SOC: VN society & judging people's values
Originator: daemon@media-lab.media.mit.edu
Reply-To: tran@peora.sdc.ccur.com
Organization: N/A
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1992 14:55:13 GMT



>From: Nhan Tran <tran@peora.sdc.ccur.com>
> 
> 		[ STUFF DELETED ]
>
> * On judging people's values
> ----------------------------
>
> Some netter said "I think Vietnamese society tends to judge people's values 
> based on how much money one makes."
>
> I think all modern society tends to judge people's values based on how much
> money they make. I don't know if American society value a high-school teacher
> more than someone who earn a million a year or not.  On contrary, Vietnamese
> society pre-75 tended to have higher value of a teacher than a businessman,
> at least that's my perception. After 75, VN society tends to judge people's
> value on their survival skills. :-)


| From myt@bali.amd.com (My Tran) Mon Aug 24 18:47:31 1992
| 
| People usually come with a conclusion on certain issue based 
| on their own life experience.  Though out the past 14 years
| in this country, I have seen cases when a child in a family 
| would like to pursue a career, says Teaching for instance, 
| while the parents think that doctors or lawyers can earn much 
| more money than teachers, therefore, they encourage the child 
| to pursue her career in being a doctor or a lawyer.  Well,
| encourage is actually the wrong word in the sentence above, more 
| likely, the family drills to the child's mind that becoming a
| dortor, making ton of money is the ONLY way to go.  Without fully 
| understanding the child's talent, and capabilities, in their mind, 
| only making a lot of money one can earn admires from people.  
| 
| In another occasion, when we visited a couple of Vietnamese 
| friends who had an infant recently, he told us that he wants his 
| child to be a doctor.  I asked him why, unsuprisingly, the answer 
| was doctors make a lot of money.  
| 
| The message I got from these families is only money can make one 
| feels great and happy; well, while that is true in most cases, 
| family should NOT teach children that money is the only goal in 
| life.  I probably don't have to explain why.
| 
| Maybe the cases that I encountered are not enough to justify what 
| I said, maybe I have not interacted enough with Vietnamese people 
| to draw a conclusion, maybe what I have seen are just an odd group 
| of people who don't live in the main stream of Vietnamese life style 
| that is practiced here in the U.S.  If those are the cases, then I 
| was wrong, and I sincerely apology everyone.
| 

You are right that one's opinion or conlusion is usually based on one's
own life experience.

In my family or and my relative's families (here in US), the children 
are not drilled into their head about money.  They very much choose 
their careers on their own.

It's interesting that those familes (here in US) you have met stress MONEY 
as the primary reason for being a doctor or lawyer.

In pre-75 Vietnam, if I wasn't mistaken, the Vietnamese families want
their children to become doctors, lawyers, judges, professor, engineer for 
STATUS reason. Being a doctor bring respectability. Wealth will come later.
Being an engineer doesn't make one wealthier than a businessman, yet families
still prefer their children to be an engineer than being a businessman.

Teacher is a special case. Because of our Confucian tradition, we respect
the teachers. Even though they don't make much money, the Vietnamese still
respect and value the teachers.  Thus the opinion "I think Vietnamese society 
tends to judge people's values based on how much money one makes." is not
true in this case.

All of that are in pre-75 Vietnam. After that, everything changed. In the
current Vietnam, survival in an oppressive communist regime is of the utmost
importance. Therefore, being a doctor, lawyer, etc... doesn't mean much if
you could not survive.  The Vietnamese (in VN) tends to judge people's values 
based on one's survival skills, that is my opinion.

Here in the US, again everything changed. The US is one of the most if not
the most materialistic society.  Being rich is sucessfull.  The American
families might not drill into their children' heads that MONEY is everything,
but the society might, in subtle ways through advertising, TV, peer pressure,
media, etc...

If you ask an American high school student about his/her aspiration, you will
LIKELY get answers like 

	doctors (because they make mucho money as opposed to the noble idea
		 of alleviating people's suffering)
	laywers (because they screw other people and make big buck
		 as opposed to the idea of bringing justice for all)
	baskeball/football/baseball players (make even more money)
	etc..

How many would say their dreams are being teachers (Oh yeah, get real. So you
can have low salaries and get no respect?)

Thus living in the US, the Vietnamese families know that the used-to-be-
respectful teaching profession is of no value here. They know that being a
doctor, lawyer, MBA, accountant, or engineer will bring better money. Status
is not important in this society. In this society, money talks so if you 
want to have influence, have money.

Is there a difference between a Vietnamese family putting the idea in the child 
head that MONEY is important and US society putting the same idea on American 
teenagers. I think not. That's why I opinionated that "MODERN SOCIETY tends 
to judge people's value based on how much money one makes"

For the Vietnamese in Europe, it is another story.  (From this point, it
is purely my opinion and speculation.)  Europe is an old world. Opportunities
are not as plentiful as in the new world (America).  Getting into business
is very difficult as illustrated by small number of Vietnamese-owned business
establishment (I talk about ratio of number of business/Vietnamese population
in an area).  It's not easy to be rich over there.  Therefore, I have the
impression that Vietnamese in Europe tend to be more laid-back than Vietnamse
in US.  They are not obssessed with being rich, with making money. They
just want to have a stable, comfortable life.  So how do Vietnameses in Europe
judge people's value?  What kind of idea do the Vietnamese familes put forth
in their children' heads?  I dare not venture an answer. But it is likely to
be different from the answer for Vietnamese in US.

For the Vietnamese in Canada, Australia, Japan, it is likely different too.

In short, such statement like "Vietnamese society tends to judge people's 
values based on how much money one makes" is not very accurate when you look
closely at other society, VN society before/after 75, Vietnamese society in 
US or elsewhere.

Nha^n