Ten Kilometers - Very Far!

The Vietnamese have a different sense of distance than Americans. Growing up outside of Washington, DC, I became used to long commutes, like my father's one and a half hour fifty mile marathon that he used to run twice every day. For two summers I had a thirty mile, forty minute commute to my job at the Washington County Maryland Circuit Court and really didn't think too much of it.

These distances would be almost unimaginable to the average Vietnamese. Most Vietnamese live much closer to their place of work. Indeed, for most of them, their home is their place of work.  In many cases the first floor of a home is comprised of a shopfront or office.  A common Vietnamese commute is walking downstairs.  Even if a Vietnamese works outside of the home, however, they usually don't live more than a ten or fifteen minute motorbike ride away.  

Most Vietnamese don't seem to like going very far from their hometown, or even their home neighborhood.  I once went on a walk with a friend from Ho Chi Minh City.  After we went about four blocks from her home, and she said she was unfamiliar with the area.  I asked her why she didn't leave her neighborhood very much, and she said that she could get everything she needed in the streets around her house.  

This more limited sense of what's "far away" holds true in Cao Lanh as well.  Most students don't go beyond the half-mile strip of cafes and food stalls that run along the front of the campus.  My students are very unfamiliar with downtown Cao Lanh, which is a whopping three miles to the north, accessible by bicylce in about fifteen to twenty minutes.  Personally, I get pretty bored staying around campus, and try to get out into town at least a couple times a week.  It must be my American wanderlust coming out.    

Many Dong Thap students feel that they are impossibly far from their homes.  Students from different parts of the province tell me that their home is "ten kilometers, very far!"  Students from neigboring provinces feel that their journey to university is a true cross-country affair.  Students from beyond the Mekong Delta are considered hardy, if not crazy, to go so far.  As for me, travelling from the United States, I might as well be coming from Mars.  

Part of the reason for this different view is cultural.  Vietnamese culture is very much based on agricultural village life.  Even as Vietnam modernizes and moves beyond its agricultural base, the extended family, most of  which usually lives in the same village, maintains a paramount social importance.  So important is the Vietnamese family that pronouns are based on family titles. In Vietnam, you don't call other people "you," "she," or "he," instead they are "uncle," "older sister," or "grandfather."  Vietnamese society is built around the family, and the family has usually stayed in the same town or village.  To leave your town is to leave your family, and this is a very painful prospect for most Vietnamese.

Another more pragmatic reason for the more limited Vietnamese view of distance is the lack of infrastructure.  In the US, we have highways that allow us to travel quickly in our cars.  Vietnam is not so fortunate, and the expressway is unknown.  It's about ninety miles from Cao Lanh to Ho Chi Minh City.  In the US, the trip would probably take a little over an hour and a half.  In Vietnam, the ride is a long three and half hours.  The bus has to put up with delays like slow long-haul trucks, broken down motorbikes, and, occasionally, livestock.  No wonder, then, that the Vietnamese concept of travel and distance should be on such a smaller scale than in the United States.