There are some awesome things about Vietnam; the food is fantastic, the beaches are great, the weather is warm, and the prices are pretty sweet too. There are some things that aren’t so awesome though; personal space doesn’t exist, traffic can be hectic, and there are some pretty dirty spots around town. However, if there is one thing that truly irritates me more than anything else in this country, it is the fact that people here are never on time.
People here seem to be late to everything; lunches, meetings, parties, concerts, you name it. Sure, there are a handful of my friends here who usually show up on time, but they are definitely the exception. The majority likes to be late. It’s something I experienced immediately when I arrived here. The first time I had lunch with a Vietnamese person they showed up 45 minutes late! How can you show up 45 minutes late to a lunch? There isn’t that much time that can be considered lunchtime. It’s kind of ridiculous.
When I first arrived in Vietnam I was warned by my Western friends that, ‘people here are on Vietnam time.’ By this they meant that there is a seemingly secret code that means that if the start time is 18:00 it actually means that you show up at 18:30 and even then you should show up a little late. If you cruise travel and expat forums online, you’ll see that Vietnam has quite the reputation as a country where punctuality isn’t a high priority. This is very off putting for foreign guests and it is something they are weary of.
As the country marches toward modernization you would hope that the problem would start to dissipate but sadly it continues. Recently I had the opportunity to attend an awards show, for an awards ceremony at the Opera House. You’d think that if someone had the chance to win an award, and possibly some money, they would show up on time to the ceremony. Unfortunately, when the start time rolled around the auditorium was a ghost town. Actually, there were so few people at the expected start time that the show was pushed back an entire hour! It’s not like there was confusion on the start time, the schedule was printed on the ticket and, since they started late, they just justified everyone who showed up late.
Even more inconvenient than a late lunch or an award show is the service industry. A couple weeks ago my refrigerator broke. It was under warranty so I didn’t have to replace it, instead someone was supposed to come to my house and fix it. They said that the technician would be there first thing in the morning, 9:00 sharp. 10:00 rolls around and nobody has showed up. I give the company a call and they assure me someone will show up by 11:00. I left at 12:00 and got a call at 2:00 asking why I wasn’t home, like it was my fault! This is all beside the fact that when a repairman finally showed up while I was home he didn’t bring his tools.
Where I grew up being on time is not only a sign of respect, it is a necessity. Lateness isn’t catered to; if you are late, you miss out. If you’re late to the show, you miss it. If you’re late to the meeting, you don’t get the job. If you’re late to the date, you don’t get the girl. Normally, I try to get to where I need to go early, usually around 15 minutes, because earliness is expected. Of course not everyone is always on time, but those people are looked upon negatively
I’ve had some of my Viet friends try to explain the tardiness. You will usually get silly reasons, like maybe traffic was bad. Here’s a newsflash for everyone: traffic here is always bad; maybe you should start planning ahead and leave a little earlier. The most common reason I get, besides traffic, is that people are late because they don’t want to be the first person to show up, which is just another way of saying that they are shy. If you show up first you’ll be all alone and people will look at you. But here’s the thing: someone will always be the first to show up and if everyone showed up on time then the first person wouldn’t be alone so long.
Being on time is very important to the Western world. It shows that you not only respect the time of the person you’re meeting but your own time as well. People here are going to have to get over their shyness. If Vietnam wants to be known as a modern country, and shake their reputation for tardiness, they need to start showing up on time because if they don’t respect their own time nobody else will.
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