Where do you live now?
I’m currently living in Saigon or people would call it HCM city, but I prefer Saigon cause it’s kind of reminiscent of the past, you know.
Is that your hometown?
It’s my hometown actually. I was born and raised here and I actually have been living here, you know.
What do you like about HCM city?
Oh, I feel like pretty fortunate to be living here because I got, you know, I got access to pretty much any amenity that you can possibly think of, right?
It’s very modern. It’s very convenient to live here. And I’m a foodie as well. So you know, I love eating. So I have a passion for eating, trying different cuisines and Saigon, particularly Saigon has a variety of cuisines and I can try as many kinds food that I can think of.
Has that city changed over the years?
I didn’t really, you know, pay attention, but the most striking change is probably the fact that it has gotten more polluted and hotter, so much hotter than before. I think it’s the same situation for a lot of mega cities that are growing. But Saigon definitely has a lot more residential, you know, areas, apartment complexes and skyscrapers. It’s kind of a nice thing to have but at the same time the infrastructure cannot really, you know, accommodate that many people. And I think it’s a good and bad things. And also it’s getting more polluted over time because of the volume of traffic on the road as well. I really hope that some things should be done in the the future and the congestion issue over here. So that would definitely help with, you know the air pollution problem as well.
What do you do at the weekends?
Well I don’t know if people know this fact about me, but I’m self-employed, I don’t work for other people. So I don’t have a clear boundaries between like a weekday and weekend. I schedule some downtime to hangout with friends, catch up with them, grab a coffee, we all need to relax. Sometimes I would have to spend the whole weekend just working on my deadlines, so , yeah.
What do you do last weekend?
Let me try to remember. Well, it was like just a typical weekend. I just grabbed a coffee with my best friend and just you know, took it easy to spend some quality time with him.
How do people spend the weekends in your hometown?
Oh people in my hometown, as far as I know, I think Vietnamese people are really big on, you know, spending time at cafes and drinking coffee. They do a bit of window shopping or drink coffee or have lunch in those malls.
Have you got any plans for next weekend?
I don’t think it’s a different weekend. Most likely I’m gonna do the same stuff. I think the fact that I’m up to my neck at the moment in deadlines.
What kind of clothes people wear in Vietnam?
It depends on what occasion we’re taking about. Right? Normally I see people wear jeans, t-shirts, shirts, as usual you can see on the street.
When do people wear the traditional clothes?
You mean aodai. One situation I can think of is when like female students, they have to wear aodai in high school. And specially, some people wear aodai during Test or big festivals in Vietnam. Because that’s the time for them to take photos and just show off on social media and looking transitional and that attracts a lot of attention.
Do you think it’s a good idea to have a uniform in school?
I think it’s a good way to identify who is a student at your school. And especially if you come from a really prestigious school, you would want to feel like you belong there and you would want to show that to the whole world. So wearing a uniform it has a few advantages.
Should adults be forced to wear uniform in workplace?
Yeah I think it depends. If we’re taking about front desk workers like bank teller or sales or dealer. If you’re serving customers you have to meet with customers on a daily basis then, sure I think wearing a uniform is advisable.
But if you’re woking in the back office, you know, you’re in charge of just business operations side. I think your productivity doesn’t really depend on, you know, looking professional or not.