Last Saturday I had a meeting with my Japanese friend at the Somerset’s Highland’s Coffee shop. As I was parking my motorbike in the parking lot, a middle age Expat woman was blocking the path between the motorbikes with her motorbike. As I came in, I had to lean my motorbike to the right against the wall to let her pass me. I did not have to since she was blocking me, I just did it to be courteous to her.
What happened next shocked me, she glared at me and started shaking her head. She was then rude to the parking attendant who was smiling at the both of us.
Even worse, I knew she thought I was Vietnamese. I was wearing my full face mask, glasses and helmet at the time. Yeah, I do get confused for being Vietnamese while I am in my full motorbike garb. Black hair , Asian height, yeah I must be Vietnamese to her. It was that look that she gave that appalled me but I knew she did not like this half-breed-Japanese-blood-Asian-looking-must-be-Vietnamese taking her space.
She kept shaking her head. If I had not been leaning my motorbike to allow her to pass, I probably would have smacked her. Before I could say anything to the woman, she sped by rather fast. The parking attendant did try to stop her when he saw me saying something to her but she was too fast for him.
I hope this is an isolated case but even some Expats are blogging about Western behavior towards the Vietnamese in Saigon. Expats need to respect the Vietnamese while they live and work in Vietnam. I mean, honestly, it’s their country, not yours…
Great post. One of the very few things I dislike about living in Vietnam is the ex-pats. Exactly why I got out of District 1 as fast as I could. It depresses me to listen to the pathetic ramblings of some of the English teachers I work with (usually Americans – sorry), and I also want to smack some of them.
My thoughts to you annoying ex-pats – you came here for a reason, and it’s not your country. If you don’t like how things are done or how people operate then get the hell out of here!
@Stephen: We Americans tend to be very opinionated and think the world revolves around us as in the US of A. I say the Aussies can join the Americans in the ramblings as well. Brits are very straight forward. French seem quite polite to the Vietnamese.
Sometimes I wish the US forces all American students to spend at least one year overseas with a host family. It would do our nation some good.