[Vnbiz] (The Bad Habits of Vietnamese)

[Binh, Vu The]

Dear a. Hoanh et CACC,

Thanks for sharing ideas/opinions. My interest about Japanese & Vietnamese
is not related to
>> When we rely on things outside us, we don't make progress.

I will try to go back from the beginning of this discussion thread to make
my opinions clearer.

Brother Toan posted some of "the bad habits of VIetnamese".  From my views,
those "bad habits" are quite similar to lots of Vietnamese people,
especially the one who have been growing up and staying in Vietnam,
including the youngsters who were born after 1975.

A. Hoanh replied:

>> Why do we have to focus on our so-called "weaknesses" so much?
>> Why do we have to always focus on how bad we are in this, how weak we are
>> in that?
>> Why do we have to be so obsessed with our own so-called "weaknesses"?
I don't think "we" - Vietnamese nowadays are focusing so much in the
weaknesses. Instead, as I quoted in the previous message, Vietnamese are
quite optimistic to express their "strength" such as smart, hard-working,
fast-to-learn, etc.

>>Of course, we should be aware of our weaknesses and limitations, just so
>>that we know our Self.
>>And we should improve our weaknesses as much as we can.
>>... we have to focus on our strength, our advantage, not on our weakness,
>>our disadvantage.
Agreed. But it seems that Vietnamese nowadays forget to see about the
weakness, the bad habits. So generation by generation, the bad habits could
not be improved. Some newspapers are trying to raise the awareness about
this, including "Sport & Culture" magazine, which has a very interesting
column "Người xưa cảnh tỉnh - Thói hư tật xấu của người Việt". I don't know
if you have chance to read it, as there's no online version.

>>Should you focus on your strength, say, a very logical mind, to become a
>>mathematician instead?
>>If you body is slender and light, should you try to be a body builder
>>instead of a swimmer?  And as a nation, should Vietnam focus on the
>> >>industries it can't do so well, instead of the industries it have great
>>competitive advantage?

The problem is the bad habits are not related to the born-characters, but
related to the educational and family systems. It's not related to physical
limitations.

When the kid throw rubish to the road (a bad habit), should his mother stop
him and educate him not to do that? Or she just forget it and focus on
motivating him in mathematic to win the "math olympic" competition.

Those "bad habits" are listed with the intension for Vietnamese people to
improve themself/ourself. Self-improving is the key point to make people
being perfect.

Seeing the light side of the Moon is nice, but forgetting the dark side is
dangerous. I'm sure that all of the VNbiz members don't have much the "bad
habits" listed, as they/we are educated well, I guess. But for lots of
Vietnamese people, this is a really an issue. Living here day by day,
working here day by day, you will see it.

Forgetting the "bad habits" of Vietnamese people: we will be dreamers. Those
are one of the key challenges to keep Vietnam not yet in the top countries
of the World.

Just my humble opinions,

Have a nice weekend,

Binh.