VIETNAM - Evan Worldwide Global Youth Perspectives

Originally spelled as two words, Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, is the 2nd largest exporter of coffee in the world. Vietnam is home to the Vietnamese language with contains the highest amount of accent marks than any other written language. The Vietnamese language is also very unique from other languages around Southeast Asia as their languages have received a lot of influence from French due to the french colonization. Learning from my friend Viet about Vietnam was so interesting, he has a unique global perspective as he has lived in and out of Vietnam his whole life. He brought up facts about the country's economic growth after the conflicts of war, and we discussed their national motto which translates to “Independence, Peace and Happiness”.  He pointed out that this is the most peaceful time in Vietnam history and they have not engaged in war in the last 40 years. He shared his perspective that people should look at conflict as temporary in order to find resolutions and move forward towards peace.  We spoke about one of my brothers favorite dishes Phở, which is very common to eat in the morning.  A delicious broth with noodles and a choice of meat.  I found it really interesting that Viet brought up the conflict within the cultural identity of whether they wanted to allow themselves to become more westernized as the country continues to develop.