Ethical Issues in My Profession
There are many things that I saw in Vietnam that would not be allowed to go on in America. First and foremost are the rights of the workers. They work so much and get compensated so poorly in comparison to an American doing the same type of work. Also the corruption in the government goes into many of the businesses because the government owns so many of the businesses in Vietnam that those companies become corrupt. This is a deterrent for foreign investors because there is a serious risk that they might lose all their money due to the government mishandling it. However, the low labor costs could definitely allow for a foreign company to do very well and make a lot of money then using higher priced labor. I felt that while in Vietnam I did not notice many diversity issues. There were churches and coadi temples so clearly religion is free. There was no racism other than being stared at for being white. One difference that I did see was women especially when they were driving wore masks over the nose and mouth. However, there were men I saw with masks and there were some women without them, but masks were largely worn by women and seldom by the man. That was the only major difference in diversity that I really noticed.
Educational Breadth as Professional Development
There are many differences between the education in Vietnam and America. Vietnam’s education system is undergoing a huge reform because it is so far below the global standards; however, there are still opportunities for students to do extraordinary things in some of the more elite schools. From our experiences we went to UEF almost daily and saw students who seemed smart and from talking to them we learned that they do many things similar to American universities. Another example was the morning trip to the gifted high school. We saw students who were very smart and extremely motivated to succeed in life. The work they did was of high quality and an education from that school was basically a guaranteed college education down the line. Because of the opportunities that students in Vietnam have people going to work in Vietnam will have to deal with many talented Vietnamese and that requires knowledge of the Vietnamese culture. As for courses that would prepare me for a global economy would be specified history courses pertaining to a specific area I am interested in doing business. Also I would definitely take international econ to get the broad base of how a global economy truly works. Finally a language class is essential at least the basics should be known by anyone entering into not just Vietnam but any foreign country
Lifelong Learning, Continuing Education as Professional Developement
At Glass Egg Digital Media we were told that each of the designers had some background in art however it took an extensive training period of about a year before the people would be fully hired into the company. For that job therefore, most of the skill set are acquired there on the job. But for a company like ascenx their employees clearly have a much more solid base of knowledge for the work they will be doing. Because of that it is more likely that less training would be required. Also I feel that because some companies probably do not trust the educational system it makes them have a training session just to make sure the person can really do what their degree says they are able to do. The lack of education would definitely cause an American company to retrain employees. While talking to the employees I got the sense that many were well educated and even if they needed to be retrained the process probably went quickly because the universities at the least provided a small foundation of knowledge for them to be able to learn the things necessary for the job they were hired to do.
The Social Environment of Professional Life
It seemed that the employees of the companies we visited were extremely friendly with their coworkers and more than likely were very good friends outside of work. Also I noticed that many of the owners in the Etown buildings seemed to get along very well and I heard from Hoy that they do things while not at work. So clearly their social and professional lives overlap. From some of the articles I noticed that many of them are about what the government is doing. These were told always in a positive light towards the government. Even with quotes disagreeing with the government the writer of the article always ended with good things about the government. It is always important to know what is going on in a country if you are about to do business in that country. Investing money in a country that is about to have a coup clearly is a horrible idea. Therefore, American business that are or are thinking about investing must always be checking in on the status of the country and the state of the economy in the country. I want to do international business so one of the biggest issues for me is always going to be social. I will have to interact with the people of different countries and cannot do so if I have nothing to add to the conversations. Just because they know the happenings of our lives in America does not allow me not to find out what is going on in their country.
Functioning on Multi-Disciplinary Teams
I found there to be very little challenges in communicating with the engineers. There were times were they may be talking about something and I had no idea what they were talking about, but that can happen in any situation where I just do not have that information. We all got along very well so our educational differences were not in the way of working together and completing tasks. And example would be the group PowerPoint that we did before we left for Vietnam. I was in a group with two other engineer students however we were able to finish the PowerPoint on time with both business and engineering information on there. Actually in groups it really helps having both business and engineering because if it was all one type of student then students researching the opposite area of study would be reading stuff that they just do not know. Also because we got along as a group so well it actually allowed for us to learn a little about each other’s areas of study. I learned about superconductors to the point where I actually understand what they do. And once I helped explain how the supply chain is why an engineering company could not expand. This trip had great kids on it and that made it very easy for me to interact with both engineers and business students.

Day 9

hey blog,

so more classes it was kinda tough to stay awake haha, in at 12:00 up at 6:00 is really starting to take a toll on me. but not gonna change a thing. so we had another business class by a business man here in Viet Nam it actually was interesting and i felt bad for being so tired. for the language class i had two red bulls to get me through.

after lunch we changed for a site visit at the foreign commercial service office here in Ho Chi Minh. it is his job to advocate for US companies to the government in Viet Nam. he was a very intimadating man who i would never actually want to work for or with, because whatever was on his mind came out with a pretty blunt tone.

after the visit we wandered around the city stopped at a street vnder where three of our more adventurous students tried some form of cooked meat. i didnt go near it. for dinner there was a guy who just graduated college and he owns a cafe here so we ate there. i had another wonderful burger.

and after dinner we went to a club called bounce. good music but we were the only ones there besides the staff who treated us really well, after that we went to lush again the headed back to the hotel

bye blog

Day 8

Whats up blog,

so back to school, kinda sad about that. we had another vietnamese culture class that was a fight to stay up for. then we had some more vietnamese language class. i was told by our teacher "ok, but not right" then no other help, so im pretty sure that i suck at it. but thats ok i will just keep on practicing my sounds like ng (no clue how to make my mouth make that sound)

after lunch at the school we went on a site visit to CB Richard Ellis a real estate firm here in Ho Chi Minh. it was pretty cool to hear what they did there and also Patti really helped us with some new places to eat, and other things to do throughout the city.

once we got back to the hotel one o our kids realized he forgot his cell at the site visit so 4 of us went back to get it. patti came down ith him while me and another kid waited for James to show up cause his motorbike got lost. Patti told us about an American burger shop... It was amazing so i got my craving fixed for really cheap.

after dinner we went to the top of the rex again this time we had krysta and Dr. Berman came with us. krysta and Dr. Berman went back to the hotel and we left the rex to find apocalypse now a famous night club here in Ho Chi Minh. I had alot of fun we met some british people from cardiff so pretty good night.

over and out blog

Day 5 and 6 and 7

Hey Blog,



sorry bout missing days... had a ver early morning saturday so i was not able to actually post one. but friday started out the same as always early morning and the same food as every other morning. we had another very very interesting business class on stuff we didnt know... then more vietnamese language we finally got a sheet with all the information on it so that really helped out. i still am terrible at everything though.

after school and lunch we went to an awesome company site visit, granted i know nothing about engineering, but the chairman was really intertesting. he had escaped Viet Nam after the war with his aunt and uncle, grew up in America and has now moved back to Viet Nam to start a company. after the site visit he took us and his employees down to the coffee shop in his building and bought everyone coffee.

then we almost got destroyed during rush hour traffic by the traffic cop with a stick and a hawaiian shirt on. once we arrived at the families house we were going to eat dinner we got a tour at got to see the saigon river at night. the dinner was alot of fish so kinda passed on it except for the one that looked like chicken. (mom because of that fish bumps/ hives appeared on my knees. so HA. love u still and happy mothers day i got u two things already so dont worry.) after dinner we had a nice shot of banana wine pretty strong stuff. when we got back to the hotel i was not feeling well so i had an early night.

saturday we woke up an hour earlier. that sucked. we got in the bus and went down to the mekong delta for the day. on the way we stopped at a vietnamese soldiers memorial site. it was a very odd feeling being there because of past events between our countries. then we stopped at caodi which is a combiation of basically every religion ever.

at the delta we travelled around on the boat and made stops at different places along the shore. we stopped for fresh fruit, homemade candy, where we got stuck in a monsoon and watched parts of the roof blow off. after the rains slowed we got back on the boat and went off for lunch. after lunch we headed bak to ho chi minh city so we could meet up with some vietnamese students and go to a vietnamese club.

on sunday (love ya mom) we had a vietnamese cooking class for the morning till lunch. we were given money and were told what and how much to buy and then head back tothe man's shop to prepare the food. we spent the morning cooking and eating food.

after cooking we went to a water park and were literally dragged around by kids from a vietnamese orphanage. the water park was awesome and i had a great time. i would not have minded if the kids had a little less energy then they did but still it was very fun.

after the water park we went to a vietnamese cafe for, terrible idea, seeing as how we waited for our food for a good hour and a half. after dinner we went to an ice cream shop for dessert. then a couple of us took a walk around the city. after our walk we stayed in and hung out at the hotel.

Day 4

Dear Blog,

so we got to sleep in an extra 15 minutes, that really made all the difference... but after a nice breakfast we wẹnt to a high school for the gifted. the amount of straight work those students had to do was crazy. there was an entrance exam for all the students and the graduation rate and students who go to college was 100 %. while the national average for Viet Nam was only 15%.

after the school we went to lunch at a local fast food shop called lotteria, it was actually really good and very inexpensive. then we walked around for a little before returning to the hotel to prepare for the next site visit we had. this site visit was to a lawyer firm where the guy we visited helped give his legal advise on financial decisions that should be made. he gave us an in depth look on how Viet Nam was affected by the credit crisis. also he told us how hard it is to deal with the government hear due to all the coruption that exists in southeast asia and Viet Nam.

we were very hungry after the site visit so five us went looking for a place to eat. we found a cafe where the service was terrible but the 2 hour wait was made up when they brought out those chicken sandwiches with fried egg and sweet mayo. also the entire dinner only cost me tree dollars.

after dinner we went to the ben than market and went shopping with two of the vietnamese students who help us with the language, they showed us around the market and helped us haggle with the locals for the stuff (family your expensive so your welcome). then we went to a coffee shop had a couple of drinks then went back to the hotel to sleep. another good day for me in Viet Nam.

love ya blog

Greg

Day 3

Dear Blog

Another early morning after a late night so the entire group was pretty tired. However, we did discover thatthe hotel does serve eggs which really beats the rolls every single morning. We had classes like normal in the morning. the cultural class was very interesting and the teacher was animated to say the least, also we learned the vietnamese are not big fans of the chinese to say the least. another horrible day of trying to speak vietnamese ended with me getting about nothing right in the hour of me trying.

after lunch at the school we went back to the hotel to get ready for our site visit to the company in charge of creating all of district 7. the project is called south saigon and for the first time since we have been in Ho Chi Minh it felt like we were actually in america. the streets looked like we were in florida and the new buildings were very modern. the amount of construction that was occuring was crazy cause every direction we looke we could see at least 10 cranes set up working on buildings.

after the site visit i took a nap for way to long then was abruptly awoken my a fellow student telling me we had to go out. so we went out to the caravel quickly realized the beer list was outside our price range at 8 dollars a beer. so we went back to the Rex. at 1130 three of realized we were way to tired to do anything else so we went back to the hotel. I was out cold the second my head hit the pillow.

bye blog

p.s.
mom sorry i diidnt get in touch everything is fine love ya
Greg

Day 2

Dear Blog,

Today we woke up again early and ate another wonderful breakfast at our hotel. at UEF today we had a business class on Vietnamese tax law, that was about half as interesting as our own American tax laws. after our business class i failed at learning Vietnamese. basically its impossible.

after our classes we had lunch at the university then decided to fit 11 people in an elevator designed for 9 vietnamese people needless to say that was an epic fail. after a 15 foot freefall in the elevator we waited for 10 minutes until someone pryed open the basement door to let us out.

once we were freed we went to Glass Egg Digital Media where they do artwork for video games. we learned alot about the industry and how they operate within the industry. the business owners suggested a club which they are investors in so after my nap at the hotel we wentthere for the night.

peace out blog

Day 1

Our first day in Viet Nam started early at 630 in order to go to UEF. we left the victory hotel at 815 in the morning and arrived for our reception at 9. After the reception we began our first vietnamese language class. Vietnamese turned out to be much harder than Spanish but after learning the alphebet we started to learn a couple of words and phrases.

Once our classes were over we ate lunchn at the university and then went back to the hotel for a little before we headed back out to visit some sites in Viet Nam and the American consulate. First we went to see the presidential palace and the bunkers below it. the palace is now a museum but used to house the presidents of South Viet Nam. then we went to see the Cathedral and the giant post office. outside the two buildings we were hounded by people trying to sell things however no was not in their knowledge of english.

at the consulate we learned what things the foreign service does and learned how the consulate operates here in Viet Nam. they also showed us the grounds were a memorial was that commerated 6 Amjerican soldiers as they died defending the consulate during the tet offensive.

after we went back to the hotel and went shopping for a few needed supplies then came back to the hotel to swim a little in the pool. when it was time for dinner we loaded back into the bus and went to a small place that just kept bringing out more courses. i am not sure what exactly i ate but it was very good.

after dinner we went to the rex with a student we met at UEF and had some beverages. the small tab of 2000000 dong was well spread oout over the 3 hours we were there. and we returned to the hotel by 12 so we could start over again at 630

Arrival

Hi everybody.

Got to Viet Nam safely after the longest flight EVER! but we got a nice free upgrade to business class from Hong Kong to Ho Chi Minh. After we got here we went on a quick adventure throughout the city with a map so we wouldn't get lost. my shower was a little interesting though due to the fact the water was brown and the following flood was interesting. getting ready to start our first day talk you tomorrow blog.

http://www.vietnamplus3.pitt.edu/