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When Thai/Tai think of Vietnamese

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athena
Posts: 928
(@athena)
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a few responses from Quora:

Among the common Thai, Vietnamese have a reputation as being hard workers, very industrious. And intelligent and quick, although I’ve sometimes heard some negative stereotypes of Vietnamese being “cheaters” and fraudsters. But a small minority seem to have that opinion.

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Previously quite positive. Now it’s pretty mixed and quickly turning a bit negative.

Positives

  • Hard workers (many Vietnamese come to work in Thailand)
  • Tough (as a result of many wars)
  • Smart (the government always talks about how fast Vietnam is developing)
  • Many Thais enjoy Vietnamese food
  •  
  •  Negatives
    • Competitive (many Vietnamese love to compare themselves with Thailand for everything, whether it’s football, entertainment, economy, etc. It’s a bit hard to be friends if you constantly feel like they are comparing with you and always turning everything into a competition).
    • Prideful (I would see Vietnamese people boasting like being kings of Asian football - your recent football development is indeed very admirable, definitely a worthy successor to our ‘King of ASEAN’ title, but ‘King of Asia’ is kinda pushing it. Or how Vietnam’s entertainment industry is on the level of Korea and better than ASEAN. It’s fine to be proud but the facts didn’t really support what they were saying. It seems a bit delusional).
    • Because many Vietnamese have been caught pickpocketing tourists in Thai tourist sites (many friends and family have experienced this personally) and shopping mall
      • there is some negative stigma. Because it’s so common, many Thais feel uneasy with their belongings around Vietnamese people they don’t know.

      Previously, most Thais didn’t really have much contact with Vietnamese people so they didn’t really think much about it. If they did, it usually tended to be quite positive if superficial (nice scenery, beautiful aodai, delicious food, etc.)

      However, as many Vietnamese recently came to Thailand to work in low-paid labor positions, and many Vietnamese criminals have been caught shoplifting and pickpocketing in many tourist sites (a security guard I know who works at Siam Paragon told me they catch at least one Vietnamese person stealing EVERYDAY. Isn’t that ridiculous?), the impression of Vietnamese is quickly becoming quite negative.

      It’s not all bad though. Many Thais I know who are friends with Vietnamese people tend to have quite positive opinions of them. I have many Vietnamese friends and they’re great, smart, hardworking people. I hope more Thais can be friends with Vietnamese people so we can breakdown prejudice and social stigma.

---these are just 2 out of many responses. I can say from my experience at home and web audiences, the general attitude is snobbish towards the Indosphere or SEA. More pronounced Esp with Thailand as opposed to the Philipines for instance because historically Vietnam and Thailand had political conflicts. 

notably I see Viet commenters on Thai music or sports games tend to be negative towards Thailand. I think this is due to insecurity more than anything. There's a need to put down Thailand to feel better about themselves. 

the part about petty crimes is true. This is not true only in Thailand but in other places as well. I think it's because these low lifes think being able to cheat on these things shows they are clever. 

Now to the positive things: smart and hard working. You cannot deny this based on the Vietnamese who settled in the US, and I would extrapolate would be the same with the immigrants in Thailand - from war refugees who truly came with nothing within 1 generation are on par with other asian groups. 

Other than that I haven't had much interaction with Thai. Not too many of them in the US and I've never been to Thailand. 

 

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James avatar
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Thais are nice people but sheez 😱 this has to go by any means. the world has no respect for Thailand unless Thailand grows two pairs. 

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athena
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@james a lot of that stems from the sex tourism industry. It's a complex social problem.

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James avatar
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@athena I can't even buy Thai coconuts without thinking about the horrors of ladyboys. So how is Thailand supposed to move from the tourist industry to the export industry?

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athena
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@james same question for Vietnam. How does Vietnam move from nobody to the export industry? Vietnamese compared to other Asians are very conservative in terms of cultural values, henceforth, sex tourism is not a phenomenon there. Coupled that with the fact that most Vietnamese are somewhat judgmental towards foreigners, even more so towards Westerners, so they are not as tourist friendly as the Thai, (generally speaking) so tourism is not as well developed as Thailand.

Right now, Vietnam is not known for anything and I'm glad it has not turned into a sex tourism business. But judging from the copycat behavior of the youth, and lefty LGBT lobbying, I can see it inching that way. 

As far as increasing exporting in the form of manufacturing and farming capacity. I don't have an answer as I'm not a business minded person. Chinese are the merchants of asia for millennia. that explained why they dominated SEA economy. In order to ramp up manufacturing capability, perhaps SEA should have people learn from the Chinese or from Koreans or Japanese. Koreans and Japanese would serve as a good model at this point.   A few things I can see is the country needs good leadership that want to promote manufacturing agricultural science and as a result fund exchange programs to learn aspects of manufacturing, farming, etc... and provide incentives to retain talents in the country. That's a long game strategy and sadly, Vietnam does not have a leadership that care. I think maybe the same problem with any SEA country that want to step up to the plate to replace China really. 

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James avatar
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@athena Give it 3-5 years. Vietnam will surpass the Philippines & Thailand. 

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