INFORMATION SHEET ON THE PhD DISSERTATION

Research Topic: German cultural characteristics

Major: Culturology Code: 62.31.70.01

PhD candidate: Nguyễn Thị Bích Phượng

Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Sc. Trần Ngọc Thêm

Institution: University of Social Sciences & Humanity, Vietnam National University HCMC

1. Dissertation summary
The Federal Republic of Germany has the highest population and greatest economical
potential out of the nations from the European Union (UN). Germany is also a special country
that has given “birth” to special figures. At the same time, they have been through hardships
and posperity, especially throughout the two World War. Vietnam is considered an important
partner for the cooperative development of Germany in Southeast Asia. Therefore, Germany
has invested the most in Vietnam’s economy, healthcare, environment, education and culture
out of all EU members. This cooperation gave rise to opportunities for connections and
exchanges between Vietnamese and Germans. The mutual understanding of each other’s
personality will be the foundation for successful cooperation.
Currently there are nearly 160.000 Vietnamese living, working and studying in
Germany. On the contrary, more than 70.000 people in Vietnam has studied, worked in
Germany and can speak German. Therefore, the reseach of the German characteristics is
necessary for promoting the understanding across two nations.
The mentioned reasons urged us to choose “German cultural characteristics” as our
research topic. While there have been a few articles by Vietnamese authors on German
characteristic, the majority are lists and are thus not structured. Structured research on German
characteristic from a culturological perspective can bring certain scientific values. In the thesis
on German cultural characteristics, we rely on appropriate theorectical basis and scientific
research methods hoping to yield a structured, systematic, more complete perspective on the
German cultural characteristics.
Teaching the German language, we always question ourselves on how to better
understand Germans, on what basis their cognition and lifestyle are determined. This thesis will
provide us with more information and understanding on the German culture to effectively
support the teaching of the German language as well as presenting the German culture through
this language. This is one of the driving reasons for us to choose this research topic.
The dissertation opt for research methods such as: qualitative research (mainly using
the semi-structured research method), comparative method (internal and external
comparision), structural system method, interdisciplinary approach. The dissertation has
conducted surveys on Vietnamese in Germany (focusing on 04 cities with a dense
concentration of Vietnamese being Hamburg, Berlin, Southwestern Ruhr region and Eastern
Germany) together with more than 200 related research documents for the research objectives.

In addition to the introduction and conclusion, the dissertation consists of 3 chapters:

 Chapter 1. Theoretical and realistic issuses of the topic: The theoretical issuses
present the basic concepts and approach theories. The realistic basic focuses on issues related
to the research subjects, Germans. This includes their origin, history of the formation of their
nation, geographical features and living space as well as the important historical periods
affecting the development of German characteristics.
Chapter 2. The German cultural characteristics displayed through cultural elements.
This chapter focuses on analysing the German cultural characteristics shown through the
culture of cognition on the universe and humans, the cultute of community organization, the
culture coping with nature and social environment.
Chapter 3. typical German cultural characteristics: Finding a system of all collected
characteristics to figure out a set of 6 characteristics using different examples and evidences
in many fields and the results of qualitative survey.

2. The main results of the dissertation

2.1. Scientific contribution
(1) This dissertation contributes to the important aspect of research in Culturology that is
the research of a community, a nation’s cultural characteristics, here being German – a nation
with a big culture worth researching.
(2) From a culturological standpoint, the dissertation presents systematically and
completely the structure of German’s cultural characteristics, thus contributing to the aspect
of researching a community, a nation’s cultural characteristics.
(3) All reference, compiled data and especially personal data collected from the survey
process of Vietnamese in Germany and Germans in HCMC are also a contribution from the
dissertation to highlight the view of Vietnamese on Germans.
2.2. Practical contributions
(1) The dissertation helps establish the much more important role of the subjects
(compared to geographical features or historical and social context) – Germans in the process
of formation and changing their characteristics.
(2) The results of the dissertation is a useful reference source for anyone interested in
knowing the German culture and cultural characteristics, working or collaborating with
Germans wanting to better understand their partners and for German language researchers as
well as German culture teachers.

3. Implications for further studies and development of the research

(1) Expand the range of data collection from Vietnamese in Germany and in Vietnam to
clarify the German cultural characteristics viewing from Vietnam.
(2) Researching in depth the German cultural characteristics from the perspective of
systematic structure

Ho Chi Minh City, 16th January 2020

Dissertation Supervisor PhD candidate

GS.TSKH. TRẦN NGỌC THÊM NGUYỄN THỊ BÍCH PHƯỢNG