What Is "National Character"?

I have worked in Vietnam for 13 years. During that time, I have been asked several times: "Is that Vietnamese national character?"

I don't think the people asking mean any harm. If anything, they mean well. I think it reflects an attitude of trying to understand and accept a different culture.

But when I hear those words, something bothers me a little.

For me, working closely with Vietnamese employees every day, that remark sounds like "stereotyping" or "giving up." As in, "It's national character, so I guess it can't be helped." It feels as if the thinking stops just before engaging with the person in front of you.

Infrastructure, climate, religion, local customs. It is true that certain tendencies arise from backgrounds like these.

When I first came to Vietnam, I gathered a lot of information about what "Vietnamese people are like." I also listened to many Japanese people who had lived in Vietnam before me. I had been thrown into an unfamiliar environment, so I wanted clues. I think that is only natural.

There is nothing wrong with trying to understand tendencies in itself.

The problem is stopping once you know the tendencies.

A tendency is only a baseline. It is a rough guide of "somewhere around here," and whether the person in front of you fits it is another matter.

I, too, went through a period when, whenever I had questions about an employee's way of thinking or behavior, I struggled with whether it was "because they are Vietnamese, or because of this person." I gathered other people's opinions and thought it over in many ways.

But in the end, other people's opinions are only a reference. I should have trusted what I saw with my own eyes and what I felt above all else. Overall tendencies and the individual in front of you are two different things.

What I eventually arrived at was making decisions not "because it's Vietnam" or "because it's Japan," but "because this is our company's rule."

Of course, complying with local laws and regulations and having a reasonable understanding of general customs are prerequisites. Religious reasons need to be taken into account, and there are also gaps in common sense that come from differences in infrastructure.

Still, when something puzzles you, rather than settling it with "it's national character," gradually exploring why that person says or thinks what they do leads to better mutual understanding.

There is a limit to what "national character" can explain. Knowing tendencies is useful as a starting point. But beyond that, the only way forward is to look at the person in front of you.