Nov 29, 2025 Dec 3, 2025 2025-11-29

As a location independent write and programmer, I get to spend a lot of times in different countries. Lately, I’ve been in Vietnam a lot. Needless to say, I thoroughly enjoy the country culture and warm people. When I settle for a while in a new country, I’m very curious not only about what makes us similar, but also what sets us apart. Or the cultural differences that nobody tells you about – you only get those if you’re actually spending time there. What follows are a few quick observations about these random facts.

1. Pajamas as Street Wear

People can go out in their pajamas here, and it’s completely normal. This is far more frequent – and less of a social issue – than in any other country I’ve encountered. You’ll see locals running errands, buying street food, or having relaxed conversations in what would be considered sleepwear elsewhere. In and by itself this says a lot about the practical, unpretentious approach Vietnamese culture takes toward daily life.

2. The Maybe-Yes Paradox

“Maybe” means yes. “Yes” means maybe. Understanding this linguistic and cultural nuance is essential for anyone trying to navigate social or business situations in Vietnam. Because direct refusal is often considered impolite, responses are layered with context, tone, and timing. So when you hear maybe, you should take this as an implicit “yes”. And when you hear “yes” you should take it as “yes, I understand what you’re saying to me”, and not necessarily as “yes, I agree”. What sounds like agreement might be polite avoidance, and what sounds like postponing might be genuine commitment.

3. The Poetic Origins of the Nón Lá

The conical hat – the nón lá – got its name because when you look at the hat through the sky, you will see a poem inside it. This isn’t just folklore: traditional artisans would place leaves with verses between the layers of palm leaves, visible only when held up to sunlight. The hat becomes both functional object and hidden literature, protection from sun and rain that carries poetry in its structure.

4. Nuoc Mam: The Foundation of Every Taste

Nuoc Mam – Vietnamese fish sauce – is the most pervasive and frequent ingredient in Vietnamese cuisine. More so than kimchi in South Korean cuisine, more so than soy sauce in much of Asia. You will find it anywhere and everywhere. It’s not just a condiment but the foundation of flavor itself, the base note that defines what makes Vietnamese food distinctively Vietnamese. If you meet a Vietnamese outside Vietname, ask them about it, and you may be surprised to hear that they’re actually carry a small bottle with them when they travel long distance.

5. Speaking in Third Person

It is normal in Vietnam to use your first name instead of the first-person pronoun when you say you’re doing something. So you would say “Dragos is going out for beers” – which means “I’m going out for beers.” This linguistic habit stems from the complex pronoun system in Vietnamese, where the “correct” pronoun depends on relative age, status, and relationship. Using actual first names avoids some potential awkwardness and maintains a certain formality-within-informality that characterizes much of Vietnamese social interaction.

6. The Road as Social Space

It’s very common in Vietnam to see people stopping and having conversations in the middle of the road – especially across older generations. The intermingling between pedestrian and car roads runs very deep. Streets aren’t just areas for vehicles; they’re extensions of living space, places for socializing, doing business, eating meals. Two friends meeting will simply stop wherever they happen to be – center lane, intersection, busy corner – and chat as if they’re standing in a quiet park – and traffic will flow around them like water around stones.

7. The Missing Floors

Buildings don’t have certain stories, certain levels. Floor number 4 and floor number 13 are either missing or relabeled as 3A or 12A. Both numbers are considered extremely bad luck – the number 4 in Vietnamese sounds similar to the word for “death,” while 13 carries Western superstitious weight that’s been absorbed into local culture. The elevator simply skips from 3 to 5, or from 12 to 14, via 3A or 12A, as if those floors never existed. As an aside: those floors are usually significantly cheaper when it comes to renting or buying property. For the pragmatic expat unencumbered by numerical superstition, this presents an opportunity – the same apartment, same view, same amenities, at a discount simply because of the number on the button you press.

8. Bonus – The Vietnamese Coffee Culture

This might be something that you’ll find hidden at the end of some travel guide, but the actual experience is far more powerful: Vietnam is the 2nd largest producer of coffee in the world, something that I had no idea about until I arrived here. As a result, coffee has incredibly diverse declinations: salted coffee (cafe muoi), egg coffee (trung coffee) and so on. Also, just the regular coffee is way stronger than anywhere I’ve been to – you’ve been warned.

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These aren’t the facts you’ll find in travel guides – they’re the textures of daily life that reveal themselves slowly, the kind of understanding that comes from being present rather than just visiting.