Doan Van Dieu, Ph. D

I really enjoyed the presentation tonight by Doan Van Dieu, a Ph. D at Ho Chi Minh University in Vietnam. He works in the Department of Psychology Education. He talked about the viewpoints on Family and Relationships in the family. He really made me think about my future as a wife and how to prepare myself to be a good mother. I did not know that marriage was a big part in Vietnamese lives. He talked a lot about how American women are very scared to get married. I took that as Vietnam people just get married all the time and do not really think about the possibilites of the person not being their person they are meant to be with. I think American's do have a lot of divorces but they think more about what they are doing with their lives than do Vietnamese people. Maybe that is just me though! I feel like I need my parents approval and my friends to know exactly that I want to marry this person. Most Vietnamese people want approval from their parents and also their friends, so there is a similarity in marriages between Vietnam and America.

Many of the Vietnam's accustoms are very different than they are from here in America though. An example would be that they believe they should have a son so that they can inherit the descent. Also, there are not many divorces, but it has increased since 1913. In 1913 there were on 2 divorces and in 2000 it increased to 2,000. This is very different than American style way of living. There are many divorces in America. Vietnam values family very, very, very much! They put a lot of time and effort into keeping their family close. I feel they also communicate to each other with respect and do not have to deal with fighting as much as Americans do.

Vietnamese people also appreciate education very much! Parents really want their children to be successful in their studies. That is the number one thing that parents expect from their children. I feel that in America education is very important too. I would have never thought that in Vietnam they appreciatd education as much as America does. I feel like America really emphasizes education, so that children can live a happy life and be able to live in the real world. The number one thing that chidren think their parent's expect is to show respect to their parents and show that they love and care for them. Sometimes I think that children in America take their parents for granted. They do not know how much their parents do for them and in turn treat them very badly or like sommeone their age. Children in America need to realize that parents are very important and they need to keep very good contact to them.

I was very interested into what Doan was saying. He did not speak very clearly, but I understood what he was saying. He made Vietnam people seem very different than Americans. He emphasized how much family and marriage means to Vietnamese. I really enjoyed his presentation!