Top 10 Unfavorable Habits to Change among the Vietnamese

This is perhaps one of the bad habits of the Vietnamese that needs an immediate change. The naive thought of being a few minutes late is harmless can lead to various troubles. Due to this mindset, work schedules, event organization, conferences, and programs are often delayed and interrupted. Gathering people at the scheduled time is a rare occurrence. For example, if the invitation specifies a start time of 2 PM, people will only start arriving around 3 PM.

Most people fall into this bad habit. The consequences may seem normal to you, but in the long run, it will negatively impact you. Surely, no one would want to have an employee who is consistently late, right? You might face salary deductions for being a little late, even if you've been diligent throughout the week. Is it worth it? You will miss out on many opportunities just because of this habit of being late. It's time to change this bad habit now!

Indeed, the discipline of Vietnamese people is severely lacking! In a conference, a event, whether big or small, we can easily witness how undisciplined we are. Dragging chairs to another place, huddling in groups to chat and laugh loudly in the auditorium while someone is still speaking. Disregarding regulations, knowing but still violating. This is most evident in students. A typical example is not adhering to school and class rules. Disregarding traffic laws. Working without order, doing whatever they like or working based on inspiration.

The regulations of the collective are not prioritized while individualism is overly emphasized. Lack of discipline will lead to reduced work productivity, not only affecting oneself but also those around them. With prolonged lack of discipline, we will lose awareness of what we should do, what we are doing, and compliance with the rules set by the collective. Those lacking discipline are often lenient and ineffective! It is precisely because of this lack of discipline that we are not highly valued. Therefore, from now on, cultivate discipline, be conscious of the smallest things. Cultivating your discipline is also cultivating yourself to become a better person.

Crowding together to watch an accident just to gossip and satisfy curiosity, meddling in other people's business to gossip, distort... are manifestations of the bad habit of getting involved in other people's affairs that many Vietnamese people are falling into.

It seems that we are very good at chit-chatting regardless of time and place. This often happens with students. Two people may have never met before, but as soon as they sit together, they have enough stories in the sky and on the ground to talk about as if they had known each other for a long time.

And sometimes those can be valueless, nonsensical stories, extremely noisy. Noise will make people lose their calm and be very uncomfortable. It is impossible to achieve high results when the mouth works faster than the brain. From today, let's give up this bad habit.

Usually, a program or event in Vietnam often ends in an abrupt and scattered manner. For example, a school union congress or even an opening ceremony doesn't really end, but as long as a few people start to leave their positions, it's like everyone is in a rush to leave, there's no sense of equality or discipline here. We just hope to leave early.

The conference hasn't ended yet, but it's already scattered. Each person goes their own way, if I like it, I leave early, what's the problem? It's extremely chaotic, no different from a broken market. This is also one of the bad habits that makes us lose our image in the eyes of others. Wait until it really ends before leaving because you're not in a hurry, right? Why rush to pack up and leave early. It doesn't make your image any better.

When we, the Vietnamese people, organize events or programs, we often get criticized for being unprofessional. Let me tell you what is considered unprofessional here. From the organizing phase to the preparation phase, it's usually quite chaotic. The organizational plan is not specific and clear but rather done roughly. People often overlook the initial steps, which play a crucial role. The preparation phase is also unprofessional, with things scattered around, and there's no careful and orderly planning, but rather a last-minute rush. Anything that needs attention will be dealt with later! Our ability to handle unexpected situations is also very poor.

When an unforeseen situation occurs, not many of us can handle it properly and smoothly. This is because we often let our minds relax too much, losing the sharpness we inherently have. It can be said that we are weak in the organization phase. Get rid of this bad habit; don't work in an unscientific way, and don't let your mind stay sluggish for too long. Instead, always keep your brain active, read a lot, watch a lot to have the ability to handle unexpected situations well. Besides, try to plan everything very specifically and scientifically to become someone with good organizational skills.

Maintaining cleanliness in public places is a constant reminder in our daily lives. In times when the risk of infectious diseases spreading is high, everyone should strive to raise awareness of maintaining a clean environment.

One of the bad habits that many Vietnamese people have is disposing of bodily waste improperly. Many times while driving on the streets, I've seen people ahead suddenly slow down, casually tilt their bodies, and spit on the road. Then they speed away, indifferent to the fact that they just did something uncivilized. We can clearly see the lack of cleanliness when using public restrooms at bus stations, train stations, airports, hospitals, schools, and even in offices. Even sacred places like temples and shrines are full of litter during festival seasons.

Many people don't seem to care about how others feel when they casually blow their noses in crowded eateries (especially those serving spicy dishes like beef noodle soup, crab noodle soup, etc.). If you're eating and hear someone blowing their nose, the culinary delight is instantly lost.

Vietnamese has tones—rising, falling, high, and low, unlike many other languages. Therefore, many foreigners, especially those from Europe and America, find Vietnamese quite ear-piercing. Yet, many people speak loudly in crowded places, making it sound like they are arguing.

In Vietnam, in coffee shops, there are many Vietnamese groups who talk loudly as if their strength lies in being louder than others. However, if you pay attention, you'll see the annoyed eyes and faces of others...Whether at home, on the street, in busy markets, or in meeting rooms, people rarely speak at a moderate volume. Even in everyday life, the noise is enough to drive someone crazy. The phrase 'walk lightly, speak softly' seems to be a specialty reserved for pregnant women.

Noise ranges from the streets to the alleys, reaching inside homes. On the road, horns blare incessantly, and people curse at each other. In public places, people speak at full volume. Even in the quietest places like hospitals, people still make all kinds of noise. In concert halls, cinemas, buses, airplanes, people feel free to comment and shout, not allowing the person next to them any peace. Once, I politely asked the couple sitting behind me in a movie theater to be quiet. They stopped talking but started... vibrating their seats, as if to retaliate.

Many people often sigh that in life, the wealthy are hated, and the poor are scorned. Many shy away from admitting their own shortcomings and others' superior talents. They often find ways to criticize and condemn if someone succeeds, attributing it to A, B, C, like this and that, trying to find faults.

Therefore, it can be said that while Western culture tends to encourage, Vietnamese culture tends to criticize. It seems people feel more comfortable hearing that the richest person in the neighborhood is just a nouveau riche, only completed junior high school, and inferior in every way with at least 2 failed grades.

Seeing someone else's success, someone else's excellence compared to oneself is a distressing thing, or at least a 'difficult-to-define discomfort' for many Vietnamese. Even if people try to hide it, or not admit it to themselves, it sometimes unintentionally reveals itself in everyday conversations or emotions...

The fear of being judged and the desire to show off lead to stinginess and haunting memories of difficult times, ... are the main reasons many Vietnamese people waste food. Just try going to a buffet, and you'll see many people piling up food on their plates that they can't finish. They push themselves to eat enough for the money they paid. If they can't finish it, they leave it behind. That's why in many places, there are signs in Vietnamese: Please take just enough food!

Many Vietnamese people nowadays are wasting food, especially during the Lunar New Year, a known issue that has been talked about endlessly but not fixed. It's not difficult to come across scenes of banquet tables in restaurants with many plates barely touched. It's also easy to see the sight of garbage bins on the 4th or 5th day of the Lunar New Year filled with moldy chung cakes, wilted vegetables, and withered fruits…

This food waste happens from normal days to holidays, from the city to the countryside. So why, in a country that is not yet rich and still has many poor people like us, do we waste food like this?

Vietnamese people enjoy doing what many others are doing, eating at places with long queues, buying advertised products on TV, discussing topics covered in the media...

In general, everyone wants to prove themselves stylish and keep up with the times, so many collective criticisms and praises unintentionally create many awkward phenomena… These bad habits not only do not diminish but tend to flourish.

Anticipating needs must happen before they rise, but when the trend has started, rushing in is a bit late. Before recovering the investment, the trend may have declined. Trends are just trends. Before doing something just to be like everyone else, let's pause and think about why we are doing this. Moreover, will we shake our heads about the silly trend a few years from now?