Intercultural Communication-READING LOG 3

In the last few decades, people in a lot of countries have been raising awareness about healthy
habits like doing sport and nutrition. As a Vietnamese person, I can see for instance the
development of Gym centers and the appearance of concerns regarding healthy food (Nguyen
2019). However, some ‘bad habits’ remain difficult to tackle even if most parts of people agree
they are dangerous for health. In this perspective, I decided to choose ‘How much do people
smoke in Vietnam?’ as my third reading log. This reading addresses a very alarming issue
regarding smoking habits in Vietnam from the perspective of 3 foreigners living in Vietnam (2
French and 1 Canadian). The article was published in Tuoi Tre News online newspaper on March
15, 2020, by Ha My and Dong Nguyen, journalists, and they collected foreigners’ perceptions
about Vietnamese smoking habits in Vietnam. Therefore, we are not in a ‘Vietnamese’ point of
view regarding the smoking habits in Vietnam, and the category can be ‘Cultural perspectives on
smoking habits’.
There are three critical points in this article. Firstly, is about the impact of smoking on health,
how smoking habits are different comparing to other countries, and possible solutions to
tackle the problem as Vietnamese smoking habits impact social life and well-being.
According to the foreigners, smoking habits are also about cleanliness and safety (fire,
cigarette butts, smell…). Moreover, it is also about gender as most smokers are men, and
about generation, as it seems young Vietnamese smoke less and less.
In my opinion, this article is very interesting as it highlights how smoking habits in Vietnam
are clearly a problem, and we have many examples of careless smokers setting fires in a
condominium or dirtying the streets. Therefore, it is important to acknowledge that different
cultural viewpoints are important to know more about ourselves, without rejecting them and
seeing them as judgmental, especially regarding smoking habits and its symbolic, peer-social
pressure, and public place respect. Moreover, smoking habits often come from childhood or
socialization process and the way it is valued or not by peers, family, and as a recreational
activity (Chassin, L, Presson, CC, Todd, M, Rose, JS & Sherman, SJ, 1998). Somehow, I could
personally witness the family dimension of the transmission of smoking and drinking habits in
Vietnam as an ‘acceptable’ behavior, even associated with the ‘becoming a man’ process in
some contexts (wedding, causal party…). Here the role of education and parenting appear
essential, as further analysis regarding urban and rural contexts.
At the level of intercultural communication, we can say that here Vietnam’s smoking habits
example is more related to a cross-cultural perspective and redefine somehow what is
individualism and collectivism (LeFebvre, R & Franke, V 2013). It is a surprise to me as I
considered European countries more individualist than Vietnam. This article helped me to
redefine the meaning of individualism and public place as smoking is somehow in contradiction
with collectivist behaviors. The different point of views clearly shows that smoking is forbidden
and regulated in many countries with high fines for the ‘common good’ of the ‘society. In
contrast, the regulation enforcement and the social pressure in Vietnam is low regarding the
environment protection and awareness of others outside the family environment. This can be
changed and somehow is already changing as smoking seems less and less popular.
REFERENCES :

My, H, Nguyen, D 2020, ‘How much do people smoke in Vietnam?’, Tuoi

Tre News, 15 March, viewed 10 January 2021,
<https://tuoitrenews.vn/news/city-diary/20200315/how-much-do-people-smoke-in-vietnam/534
62.html>.
Nguyen, D 2019, ‘Urban Vietnamese happy to pay more for healthy food: survey’, VNExpress
International, 6 November, viewed 5 January 2021, < https://e.vnexpress.net/news/business/data-
speaks/urban-vietnamese-happy-to-pay-more-for-healthy-food-survey-4008016.html>.
LeFebvre, R & Franke, V 2013, ‘Culture Matters: Individualism vs. Collectivism in Conflict
Decision-Making’, Societies, vol. 3, no. 1, pp.128-146.
Chassin, L, Presson, CC, Todd, M, Rose, JS & Sherman, SJ, 1998, ‘Maternal socialization of
adolescent smoking: the intergenerational transmission of parenting and
smoking’, Developmental psychology, vol. 34, no. 6, pp.1189-1201.

HERE A PART OF THE COMMENTS:

-Good presentation of the article and authors. The category is clear enough, and here it was
difficult to be more ‘creative’.
-Who are the foreigners? Experts? Tourists? Why them? Maybe we can’t answer that questions
but mentioning the absence of data could point out the limitation of the cultural
analysis/perception.
-Why their sharings are relevant or not? Is it a generalization? Do we have data about smoking in
Vietnam? Is this article a sign that there are problems with smoking in Vietnam?
- ‘smoke less and less’: do you have a reference or another article confirming that point?
- ‘setting fire in condominium’: very good point, you could add the reference of this tragic event
and the aftermath (stricter enforcement of existing law, and so on). It lacks the reference here.
-Great, you mention socialization and found an article about intergenerational transmission.
Good use of the model and good personal research.
-Your personal example is clear and yes, we need ‘further’ investigation regarding the contexts
to confirm if there is a difference between urban and rural socialization.
-Yes, it can be more cross-cultural as it is about a few foreigners giving opinion and you put in
discussion individual habits in a collectivist context. You could better develop these aspects or
be more consistent. Moreover, IC can be of interest as intercultural competence is about
observing and interpreting (for instance understanding smoking is not accepted in a specific
context, therefore not asking for or smoking in a private context to conform to the ‘common
good’) and so on. Overall, it is true that socialization + education+ experiencing a variety of
contexts can be a key to tackling smoking habits that are disturbing social interactions. The
meaning of public space is also very important.
-Be careful with the spelling mistakes, even if it is clear and overall acceptable.
-Good referencing and good in-text citations. You added relevant information from your own
research to support your statements and critically analyzed the article to assess the
topic/statements.