Quan điểm của người nước ngoài về văn hóa việt nam và phản ứng của người việt trước những quan điểm đó trong các đoạn phim và bình luận trên youtube

This study examines the intergroup interaction among foreigners having connection to Vietnamese culture and Vietnamese people.. Applying critical discourse analysis method, this study an

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIESFACULTY OF LINGUISTICS & CULTURES OF ENGLISH SPEAKING COUNTRIES

HÀ NỘI – 2018

ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA NGÔN NGỮ VÀ VĂN HÓA CÁC NƯỚC NÓI TIẾNG ANH

KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP

QUAN ĐIỂM CỦA NGƯỜI NƯỚC NGOÀI VỀ VĂN HÓA VIỆT NAM VÀ PHẢN ỨNG CỦA NGƯỜI VIỆT TRƯỚC NHỮNG QUAN ĐIỂM ĐÓ TRONG CÁC ĐOẠN PHIM VÀ BÌNH LUẬN TRÊN YOUTUBE

Giáo viên hướng dẫn:(Ts) Hoàng Thị Hạnh

Sinh viên: Phạm Hồng Ngọc Khóa: QH2014.F1.E2

HÀ NỘI – 2018

Acceptance

I hereby state that I: Pham Hong Ngoc, 14E2, being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (programme) accept the requirements of the College relating to the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper deposited in the library

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited

in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper

Signature

Date

Acknowledgements

I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor Ms Hoang Thi Hanh, who took time to give me valuable advice and comments to complete this paper despite her busy schedule

I would like to thank Hai Yen for spending time discussing and giving me useful suggestions for the research, Huyen M y, Ngoc Anh and Viet Linh for helping me in collecting data I also want to send my sincere thanks to all of my friends and family members who have always encouraged and supported me during the completion of this paper

Finally, I would like to thank the teachers in the Faculty of Language and Culture of English Speaking Countries who participated in commenting and

evaluating our graduation thesis

Abstract

Different factors and elements affecting the intergroup interactions have widely been investigated and discovered by researchers of various fields This study examines the intergroup interaction among foreigners having connection to Vietnamese culture and Vietnamese people Applying critical discourse analysis method, this study analyzed five widespread YouTube videos posted by three different foreigners and Vietnamese viewers’ comments on those videos in order

to understand more about their perceptions of Vietnamese culture and how they communicate with one another regarding this issue The findings sho ws the importance of language use and attitudes in conveying one’s opinions about a culture as well as the impacts of these two factors on the interaction patterns in intergroup interaction Moreover, data analysis results also indicate that foreigners’ opinions whether appropriate or not have significant influences on Vietnamese people’s views toward their own culture, specifically shaping and reshaping their perceptions and behaviors regarding cultural elements This paper also draws attention to noticeable tendency in intergroup attitudes of Vietnamese viewers in intergroup interaction, namely in-group favoritism and out-group preference with distancing from their own group in case of negative opinions from out-group members

TABLE OF CONTENTS P AG E

CHAP TER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the study 1

CHAP TER 3: METHODOLOG Y

CHAP TER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

4.1 The impacts of language use and attitudes on the effectiveness of i ntergroup

4.3 Intergroup attitude patterns reflected in Vietnamese viewers’ intergroup

4.3.2 The tendency to distance from one’s own in-group identities 39

List of charts

Chart 4.1.2 Type of reactions towards the videos 24 Chart 4.2 The disagreement and agreement toward Dan and Kyo opinions 30

Chapter 1: Introduction

1.1 Background

In the age of advanced information technology, it has become fairly convenient for people to communicate with one another Especially, in recent years, thanks to the development of social networking sites, one can now communicate his or her personal view points to a large number of people from anywhere in the world simply using computers or smart phones In addition, the improvement of transportation systems and policies enables people to travel around the world more easily People from different parts of t he world, therefore, have more chances to experience and discover other cultures These processes are

of great interest to researchers and scholars and inspire them to investigate how people react and adjust to others’ cultures as well as how people from different cultures communicate (Macfadyen, 2006)

In the Vietnamese context, there are also a number of studies comparing how people communicate in different cultures or the problems arising in intercultural communication, which is “the process in which people from different cultures create shared meanings” (Lustig & Koester, 2006, p 46) There are also several universities that teach students intercultural competence – the skills or behaviors that are considered appropriate and effective when people commu nicate with ones from other cultures (Spitzberg, 2000) Nevertheless, the field of intercultural communication is still a new area and needs more investigation In particular, with the increasing trend of foreigners coming to Vietnam for tourism

or employment, their perception of Vietnamese culture are highly concerned Examples of this phenomenon can be easily found on the Internet, as thousands of articles appear when the key words about foreigners’ perception of Vietnam are searched Besides, as foreigners who have experienced Vietnamese culture express their thoughts and feelings, Vietnamese people also show their reactions toward

those thoughts and feelings in different ways This process can be considered intercultural communication as it reflects the way people from different cultures exchange meanings When searching for information about this issue, the researcher found a widely spread opinion that Vietnamese people should have their own opinions regarding their own culture instead of depending on outsiders’ comments (Hữu, 2015) However, no specific and comprehensive evidence of Vietnamese people’s reaction to outsiders’ views on their culture was presented Moreover, from the researcher’s investigation on the topic, no research studies regarding the views of foreigners toward Vietnamese culture and Vietnamese responses to those views have been found, which leads to the decision on the topic

of this thesis: Foreign people's perceptions of Vietnamese culture and

Vietnamese's reaction towards these perceptions in YouTube videos and comments

Recently, there is a trend among foreigners to convey their thoughts of Vietnamese culture on social networks, and this draws great attention from Vietnamese people In their discussions and conversations regarding this issue, there have been diverse attitudes, leading to heated debates about Vietnamese culture This is a valuable source of data for intercultural communication study, yet it has not been thoroughly investigated In other words, there is not any st udy found analyzing these data systematically Hence, the researcher decided to examine the videos where foreigners express their thoughts about Vietnamese culture and the comments on those videos in order to understand more about the way Vietnamese and foreigners perceive Vietnamese culture as well as how they communicate with each other regarding cultural differences

Furthermore, studies with similar approaches to one group of people’s perception of themselves and others in the world revealed remarkable thought provoking results One of them is the negative and inferior image of Africans as

portrayed by Chinese online community investigated by Shen (2009) Another research showed the tendency that Western customers perceive the local services more negatively than Asian ones (Lin, Nguyen & Lin, 2013) From these findings,

it can be seen that several problems may arise when people perceive their own culture and others’ Whether the same case would apply for Vietnamese context is the question that motivates the researcher to conduct this study

1.2 Statement of research problem and questions

From what is observed from the social networking sites, especially YouTube, the researcher discovered that the topics related to foreigners’ opinions

on Vietnamese culture attract great attention from Vietnamese internet users The view counts and comments for posts and videos concerning this matter are usually quite high, ranging from a few thousands to more than a million views and hundreds of comments Not only are those contents paid attention to, but they also create various debates on social networks With a view to understanding more about the problem and search for effective solutions, this research is conducted and aims at answering three main questions:

1 As shown in their YouTube videos, how do foreigners perceive Vietnamese culture?

2 How do Vietnamese viewers react to the way foreigners perceive Vietnamese culture via the comments for those videos?

3 What are Vietnamese viewers’ perceptions of their own culture?

1.3 Scope of research

The research investigates five YouTube videos in which foreigners express their opinions about Vietnamese cultures and a total of about 2000 comments of Vietnamese internet users for those videos

The videos are chosen after searching keywords related to the topic and based on the number of view counts and comments The selected comments are those that are relevant to the videos content regarding cultural issues and have the highest number of likes and replies To be more specific, the selected comments are ranked as “top comments” by YouTube based on the number of people who liked and replied to those comments These “top comments” are shown in the order from the comment having highest number of likes and replies to the one having the lowest number of likes and replies, with the number of replies as the prioritized factor to rank Among the comments in each video, 20% of those that are ranked highest by the “top comments” rules will be selected and analyzed

1.4 Significance

The research result is expected to give a picture of how foreigners view Vietnamese culture through five YouTube videos, which may help Vietnam in enhancing its image in foreigners’ eyes More importantly, the research will reveal

a part of intergroup interaction patterns between Vietnamese people and foreigners, particularly the possibly arising problems and their strategies when handling those problems related to culture differences, thereby suggesting effective way to communicate with people from different cultures Moreover, by pointing out misperceptions of both foreigners and Vietnamese as well as the influence of their perceptions, this study will raise an awareness of people on appreciating a culture and cultural differences to avoid unfair judgment

The researcher also hopes that this study will help fill a part of the gap in literature of the field as well as inspire and provide references for further investigation on this matter Additionally, this might offer useful materials for teachers and students in courses related to cultures in general and intercultural communication in particular

1.5 Organi zation

This research paper consists of five chapters The first one provides a brief introduction of the study including its background, objectives, scope, significant and organization The second chapter is the review of relevant literature, which provides a picture of the theoretical background for the study The third chapter describes the methodology of the study, specifically the sampling method, data collection and data analysis procedure The next chapter, findings and discussion,

is where the research questions are answered by arguments drawn from the analysis of collected data This chapter includes three sections corresponding to three research questions mentioned previously The last one, chapter five gives the conclusion drawn from data analysis as well as implications and suggestions for further studies

Chapter 2: Literature review

2.1 Theoretical background

2.1.1 Perception

The term “perception” in this research is understood as “the way in which something is regarded, understood, or interpreted” according to The Oxford Dictionary Hence, when analyzing foreigners’ perception of Vietnamese culture, the researcher aims to discover how Vietnamese culture is regarded, understood and interpreted by foreigners

2.1.2 Culture

Culture is a complex term that researchers have spend centuries trying to define Kroeber and Kluckhohn (1952) combined a list of nearly three hundreds definitions of different researchers Depending on their purposes and fields of research, scholars view cultures from various angles, thereby building various ways to define culture The term culture used in this paper can be referred to as “a learned set of shared interpretations about beliefs, values, norms and social practices, which affect the behaviors of a relatively large group of people ” (Lustig

& Koester, 2006, p 25) This definition is considered to be suitable with the purpose of this research as the aspects of culture most frequently encountered in the data include beliefs, norms and social practices as well as how they are understood and interpreted by people

2.1.3 Cultural intolerance

In the book Intercultural communication for everyday life, cultural intolerance is described as “any thought, behavior, policy, or social structure that treats people unequally based on group terms ” (Baldwin et al., 2014) Based on this definition, there can be numerous kinds of cultural intolerance groups into

several categories In the next part, three of them will be reviewed in order to provide a theoretical framework for data analysis

2.1.3.1 Stereotype

Stereotype is considered a type of cognitive cultural intolerance It is defined as “a generalization about what people are like; an exaggerated image of their characteristics, without regard to individual attributes” (Herbst, 1997, as cited

in Baldwin et al., 2014, p 118) Stereotype is what people use to “make sense of” the world more easily without having to “make sense of” every new piece of the world that they encounters (Baldwin et al., 2014, p 118) Stereotypes, therefore, can be true in certain cases or to some extent only Stereotypes can result in the lack of consideration for individual differences during the process of message interpreting (Lustig & Koester, 2006) Baldwin et al (2014) also cited Devine and Sharp’s research (2009) that although people tend to depend on stereotypes, and they are to some degree automatic, it is possible to refrain from stereotypes if people pay attention to it

2.1.3.2 Ethnocentrism

According to Sumner (1940, as cited in Baldwin et al., 2014), ethnocentrism occurs when a group is considered as the core and standard for every other one to be evaluated against In the conceptual analysis published in

2012, Bizumic and Duckitt combined a number of ethnocentrism de finitions into

“ethnic group self-important” with six aspects The first one is “preference,” which is the feeling of preferring one’s group to others The second is

“superiority,” described as the “belief that one’s own ethnic group is better than or superior to others on certain dimensions” (p 8) The third is “purity”, which is the rejection to out-group interference to keep the cleanliness of one’s group The fourth one, “exploitativeness” is the act of achieving one group’s goal without considering others’ thoughts and feelings The fifth is “group cohesion”, which is

the elimination of individual’s “freedom, disagreements, and differences for the sake of one’s ethnic group and its unity” (p 8) The sixth one is “devotion”, which

is “a strong, ardent, and unconditional loyalty, attachment and dedication to one’s own ethnic group and its interests” (p 8) Among these elements of ethnocentrism, the first two emerged when I analyzed data in this paper as they were reflected in the opinions expressed by two authors Also, another definition for ethnocentrism that is also relevant to this study is “the view of things in which one’s own group

is the center of everything, and all others are scaled and rated with reference to it” (Sumner, 1940, as cited in Lustig & Koester, 2006, p 150)

“Singaporean consumers show little support for their domestic English-language musicians because they perceive these musicians as inauthentic” (p 192)

2.2 Previous research related to perceptions and attitudes of different groups towards each other

As intercultural communication can be defined as the “process in which people from different culture create shared meanings” (Lustig & Koester, 2006, p 46), it occurs among people from different groups Thus, intercultural communication can be considered an example of intergroup interaction Both intergroup interaction and intercultural communication have been investigated in-depth by researchers for centuries Conclusions have been drawn about the patterns of intergroup interactions as well as intercultural communication

2.2.1 Intergroup interaction

2.2.1.1 In-group favoritism

This is a frequently observed phenomenon in intergroup interactions It can

be described as the “favorable beliefs about in-group, as compared to out-group members” (Tajfel, 1982, as cited in Hughes, Ambady & Zaki, 2016, p 3), which also involves “dehumanization” (Haslam & Loughnan, 2014, as cited in Hughes, Ambady & Zaki, 2016, p 3) and “distrust” of out-group members (Balliet et al., 2014; Brewer, 1999; Stanley, Sokol-Hessner, Banaji, & Phelps, 2011, as cited in Hughes, Ambady & Zaki, 2016, p 3) Studies also indicated that there is a tendency for in-group members to show preference and support for member in the same group over those from out-groups (Levine, Prosser, Evans & Reicher, 2005,

as cited in Hughes, Ambady & Zaki, 2016)

2.2.1.2 The role of intergroup attitudes

Summarizing existing literature about the role of intergroup attitudes, Flache (2017) states that “attitudes about a group […] shape how individuals interact with and are influenced by members of different groups” (p 2) Flache also combined the results of different studies and pointed out the attitudes pattern

in which individual adjust their view according to in-group’s or “distance

themselves” from opinions related to out-group (Salzarulo 2006; Huet and Deffuant 2010; Huet, Deffuant; Jager 2008, as cited in Flache, 2017, p 3) This is

to some extent related to in-group favoritism and has been widely supported by researchers However, there are situations when this pattern of intergroup attitudes

is not applicable Specifically, Becker and Tausch (2014) pointed out that there are also several cases when individuals “actively distance” themselves from their group’s “unwanted identities”, such as in-group’s low social status, important individual morals or norms violation

These studies are all set in intergroup interactions in general and in foreign contexts; thus, whether the same theories are applicable in Vietnamese context specifically is the room for further investigation This paper aims at comparing these existing theories of intergroup interactions with an actual situation of the interactions between Vietnamese people and foreigners on the Internet

3.1.2 Selection of comments

Firstly, using the “top comments” sorting device offer by YouTube, the comments in each video were arranged from the one with higher interaction, reflected in the number of likes and replies, to the one with less interaction Among those comments, 20% of the top comments were then selected from the top down

After all the selected comments below each video were scanned through, there were certain comments that were omitted from the data They were, firstly,

illegible comments, which were written in either Vietnamese without tones, abbreviations, special codes or symbols, English with too many mistakes t hat prevented understanding or other languages apart from Vietnamese and English Secondly, comments that were irrelevant to the videos, advertisement or spam for example, were also omitted

3.1.3 The language of data

As the chosen data are in either English or Vietnamese, the ones in English were kept the same and those in Vietnamese were translated to English The translation only focused on the meaning and ignored mistakes in terms of language, namely grammar mistakes, spelling mistakes and understandable omission of Vietnamese tone marks Vietnamese words that do not have English equivalents were cited exactly along with detailed meaning explanation in English

3.2 Data analysis procedure:

After collecting needed data, the researcher applied content analysis strategy to analyze the video contents and comments

The data were first coded and categorized into groups of similar content, then analyzed closely using critical discourse analysis strategies and based on the terms reviewed in Literature review chapter Great attention was paid to the underlying messages and implications reflected in the content of the videos as well

as comments The frequencies of similar features were calculated as well in order

to find out whether there is any trend or pattern

During data analysis, the YouTube account names of viewers and video’s authors were kept the same as they were recorded and displayed publicly on YouTube

Chapter 4: Findings and Discussion

4.1 The impacts of language use and attitudes on intergroup interaction pattern

4.1.1 The role of language use and attitudes in showing perceptions about a culture

The videos’ content was summarized or represented by their titles, which also reflected the first difference among the three authors’ language use Dan and Kyo used negative words to refer to Vietnam and Vietnamese norms, while Heyri used a quite neutral one

Dan Hauer’s video title:

Normal in Vietnam, weird elsewhere (author’s translation)

Kyo York’s video title:

13 things that make tourists “afraid” of coming to Vietnam

Hyeri Kim’ video title:

Surprising things in Vietnam

Hyeri used the word “surprising” to talk about what she experienced in Vietnam, which seems that she was describing her feeling as this word in Vietnamese is normally used to express something unexpected Therefore, the video title was not likely to cause any sensation or displeasure On the other hand, both Dan and Kyo used quite negative words in their titles Although the

Vietnamese word “kỳ lạ” he used in the title can also be translated as “strange”, Dan himself referred to it as “weird” in the video’s description The latter has a

more negative connotation, so by using it, Dan indirectly judged the norms in

Vietnam using other cultures as the standard Likewise, the word “afraid” used by

Kyo also has no positive meanings This word is used to talk about people’s feeling toward something undesirable, unfavorable or simply bad The phrase

“afraid of coming to Vietnam” may bring negative impression to viewers from the

beginning that it is only about bad things in Vietnam

Regarding the language use in the video, the frequency of words with negative connotations used by Dan and Kyo was noticeably higher compared to Hyeri Dan had the tendency to use judgmental words frequently in his videos and comments replying to viewers Several words or phrases were emphasized or repeated several times, which showed his negative views towards Vietnamese culture

[…] But there are still five things in Vietnam that I can't understand, even

though I've tried really hard

[…] But the thing that still makes this custom difficult for me to

understand is the use of the word "mời"—invite […]

From a Westerner's perspective, it seems like it should be the other way

around—the older people invite the younger people to eat, and the younger

people wait to be invited before putting food in their mouths […]

Heading: "worrying about safety in the wrong places, at the wrong times"

[…]Well, let me tell you, it would definitely be more meaningful, because

a lot of the English in those albums is meaningless […]

[…] I can't understand what's going on with all the guys you see around

Hanoi who wear gray or black dress pants and white socks […]

In his video “5 things in Vietnam that I can’t understand”, the phrase “can’t understand” was repeated five times and the phrase “difficult for me to understand” once These two phrases can have various meanings, but from what

Dan expressed in the video, it seemed like Dan meant illogical or unreasonable when he used these phrases The evidence for this was found in his intonation

including rising tone and emphasis on the phrases “can’t understand” and

“difficult for me to understand”, which seemed to express great confusion and

doubt Also, his facial expression did not show that he was asking out of curiosity, instead demonstrated an apparently annoyance and irritation, as there were numerous times he frowned and smile ironically Moreover, his language following the phrases indicated his judgment as well Specifically, Dan did not only express his confusion about Vietnamese norms but also added his reasoning

to explain why the norms are unreasonable to him by comparing them with Western or American ones:

[…] In the West, we usually invite someone to do something when we've

done something for them

[…] From a Westerner's perspective, it seems like it should be the other

way around

[…] Where I come from, it's basically understood that when you wear nice

pants, you match the color of your socks with the color of your pants

[…] I'll just say that if you dress like that where I come from, the fashion

police will get you in no time

He also used the clause “it doesn’t really make sense to me” when talking about the “belly showing” habit of some Vietnamese man in summer or “can’t get

behind it” when talking about Vietnamese teeth brushing habit These phrases, similar to “can’t understand” analyzed in the previous video, suggested that he

considered those habits unreasonable and unnecessary Likewise, with the case

“ice in beer”, his language may make viewers understand that he referred to people who put ice in beer as “crazy” even though he did not directly state so (“People will look at you like you're crazy”) He stated that he “can’t understand”

Vietnamese norms and at the same time explained how things work differently in his culture, contrasting the two with different attitudes, which showed that he was inferring that his culture’s norms seem more understandable, reasonable and logical Furthermore, he constantly asked rhetorical questions:

[…] What? They're embarrassed about people seeing them pick a few bits

of food out of their teeth, when just before they showed everyone their mouth full of food?

[…] So why are Vietnamese families that speak no English having wedding albums made in English instead of Vietnamese? Is English considered cooler? Is it supposed to be more romantic? Do people think it's some kind

of status symbol, like, "Oh, Vietnamese simply won't do for our wedding It must be English." Wouldn't it be more meaningful to have an album in a language that the family can actually understand?

[…] what’s going on with all the guys you see around Hanoi who wear gray or black dress pants and white socks […] what's up with these guys?

From the way he asked questions and the language of those questions themselves, it can be inferred that Dan did not actually want to ask for clarification

or explanation for the Vietnamese norms he experienced; instead, he used the rhetorical questions to, apparently, judge or criticize those norms The first two questions, he repeated the information as if he could not believe it, regarding the fact that people covering their mouth while using toothpicks eat with their mouth

open was somehow irrational Likewise, the questions about wedding albums in Vietnam were not used to seek answers, either Rather than asking questions, he sounded like he was stating his opinions in the form of interrogatives In other words, he did not want to get the answers yes or no for those questions, he was

suggesting that those yes-no questions (“Is English considered cooler? Is it supposed to be more romantic? Do people think it's some kind of status symbol, like, "Oh, Vietnamese simply won't do for our wedding It must be En glish.") are the answers for the question “why are Vietnamese families that speak no English having wedding albums made in English instead of Vietnamese? ” In the part about Vietnamese men’s clothing style, he continued to ask questions “what’s going on with all the guys” and “what’s up with these guys.” These questions are

usually asked when someone does unusual things or strange things Therefore, by using these questions, Dan seemed to questions the men’s logics or rationality, implying that they were doing things that are against common sense He also used

the phrase “stupid-looking socks” to talk about their fashion, which was an

obvious insult, showing his clear opposition to this kind of clothes There were two other words in the video that expressed Dan’s judgmental view towards

Vietnamese norms He used the word “strange” four times and “weird” three

times Like mentioned above, the word weird has a quite strong meaning and often used to judge or criticize something Therefore, the fact that Dan used it repeatedly throughout his videos may make viewers think that he was talking about negative cultural practice or habits in Vietnam, not the culture differences Additionally,

although the meaning of the word “strange” is not as strong as “weird”, it also

refers to something unusual, abnormal or odd Thus, by using this word, Dan meant to attribute those negative characteristics to the customs he saw in Vietnam

Another word Dan used in the video that also indicate d his negative views

was “wrong” in one of the heading (“Worrying about safety in the wrong places,

at the wrong times”) He supposed that Vietnamese people worry about safety in

all kinds of situation, many of which are unnecessary or “dubious” This can be

understood as that he was telling Vietnamese people they should change their minds about which cases are worth worrying and which are not In addition to word choice, Dan also used comparison as indirect signals for his objection to the way some Vietnamese people behave:

[…]The open-mouth chewing is surely the more offensive thing Kind of seems to me like pissing in the kitchen sink, and then excusing yourself to the bathroom to fart […]

This was one of the most significant examples of Dan’s judgmental language in the vi deos He made a comparison between some people’s habit of

eating and using toothpicks and “pissing in the kitchen sink, and then excusing yourself to the bathroom to fart” With the latter actions as a clearly inappropriate

behavior, this comparison showed Dan’s ironic criticism toward the former It seemed to be used to make fun of the eating habits and demonstrate that they are unacceptable By these claims, he meant that Vietnamese people should change as what they are doing is illogical and meaningless

Moreover, apart from implications suggesting that Vietnamese change their culture, Dan also used more direct phrases to advise viewers what they should do

or adjust about their norms and practice:

[…]it's a habit you might want to consider changing if you're, say, trying

to make friends with a Westerner

[…] Over there, if you want to drink some beer and it's not cold yet, you

put it in the freezer, and you wait

[…] Seriously, try eating breakfast at home and brushing after It's better

[…] But apples? The peel is totally edible, guys And, what's more, most of

the nutrition of an apple is in the peel, so you're really missing out if you

don't eat it

These acted as advice that Dan believed viewers should follow and change their habits as they are not right or unnecessary Similarly, he also used the clauses

such as “it should be the other way around” or “it would definitely be more meaningful” in the previous video, which showed his objections to what

Vietnamese often do, thereby implied that they should change or stop doing those things These pieces of evidence showed that Dan was trying to make Vietnamese viewers act according to his own culture’s standard or norms, which also means turning their back on the existing habits and norms of Vietnamese

From the evidence analyzed above, it can be said that Dan had the tendency

to compare Vietnamese norms and Western or American ones and at the same time judged and even criticized the former using the latter as the standard He implied that some of the Vietnamese norms are illogical, abnormal, irrational, unnecessary or wrong He also tried to change Vietnamese people’s habits by giving direct and indirect advice as well as reasoning and evidence to prove why they should not keep some habits These are significant examples of ethnocentric behaviors or ethnocentrism, which includes believing that one’s culture is better than other’s and using one’s culture as guidelines for people from other cultures (Lustig & Koester, 2006)

In addition to his ethnocentric views, Dan’s language use also demonstrated his stereotypical judgments about Vietnamese people and Vietnamese culture Stereotype was observed through Dan’s word choice in his video He used general noun phrases to talk about people he meet in Vietnam and what they often do as if

they represent all Vietnamese people or Vietnamese culture: “Vietnamese meal”,

“Vietnamese families” (twice), “all the guys you see”, “Vietnamese people” (6 times), “Vietnamese habit”, “Vietnamese students” (twice) Although Dan, as he

claimed, has lived in Vietnam for a few years, he over generalized his observations about a group of Vietnamese people’s behaviors The way he talked made viewers think that he was judging all the Vietnamese based on what he