H*n*i!
December 8, 2009
I attempted to introduce a Vietnamese friend to The Wire.
Thirty seconds in and the f-count was already pretty high and I noticed that it wasn’t impressing.
She asked me: “Do people really talk like this?”
I thought for a second and, despite never have visited the mean streets of Baltimore, I answered: “I suppose so”.
“Hmm,” she said. “And Americans come here and complain Hanoians are rude”
It actually seemed like a fair point.
We put Dr Who on instead.
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5 Comments
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Steve, apropos nothing in particular, take a listen to Rachel Unthank. Well worth a download for a lad like yourself.
I haven’t spent enough time in Hanoi to know whether or not its residents are generally rude or not …
but c’mon, that’s a facetious comparison. There’s a difference betw. liberally peppering one’s speech with expletives and being rude TO another person.
Just sayin’.
What comes off as rude to westerners here isn’t always necessarily the case. Just different ways of going about things. But true to what I think Robyn is getting at, dropping a few F bombs is casual conversation in the US isn’t so much rude as just (d)evolved conversation.
Maybe your Vietnamese friends didn’t like the show because s/he had no cultural frame of reference for it? No mean streats Ba Thi Mo. Just pondering.
Bob – I love The Unthanks. Great stuff. I think they are towards the top of my Last Fm most played at present.
Robyn/Aaron – I think you are mostly right and I included this mostly because I thought it was just an amusing exchange. However i think there is also a little more to it.
We expect people to behave in a certain way when in a country like Vietnam and yet we wouldn’t even demand it in our own countries.
What I do find is that people have a preconceived idea about Asian hospitality but they are unwilling to compare like with like. Using Baltimore as an example if you found the cheapest hotel room in the city – you’d hardly start whining that the owner didn’t press his palms together and bow from the waist when you entered.
If the receptionist spent more time watching soap operas than dealing with customers then you’d take it as par for the course. Likewise if your room was a little bit damp or the toilet seat was cracked you’d reckon that for what you were paying you’d hardly expect more.
And yet people somehow expect better in other countries. Of course you can expect everything to be cheaper here but you’ll always pay most for the best and least for the worst. And if you’re not paying very much then you can expect apathy and on occasions, downright rudeness if you start putting on airs and graces and demanding five star service.
I’m still not sure you can divorce expletives from being rude. After all your manners are largely based on what you say.
But yes, agreed, there is probably little culturally to compare it with.
I’ve never found Hanoi especially rude. Give or take a few pho ladling old ladies who don’t have time for niceties. The old dear at 13 Lo Duc is a dragon but it’s still the best pho in town.
I’m pretty sure that last time I was here I never came across the idea of Hanoians being abrupt and rude. And I certainly didn’t see it. I wonder if things have changed or whether that particular belief has just become more widespread.
I’m an American living in Da Lat and The Wire is one of my favorite shows. The truth is in and around large urban centers we really do talk like that. I have had a hard time explaining to my students in Vietnam that we usually don’t take too much offense to being cursed at. It all depends on the context in which someone is speaking to you. That said, The Wire is one of the best and most realistic shows ever to be on television.