You go into a foreign city. Everywhere around you, you see people sporting big smiles. They all wear white lab coats and have toothbrushes in their coats' pockets. You deduce that: this culture is very happy, puts a high value on taking care of their teeth, and their native costume includes white coats. Right?
Actually, you're just an Idiot surrounded by a Dentist's convention; they just heard that they can all raise their rates 50%. It could be Hanoi or it could be Chicago.
The point is, it's difficult (and erroneous) to come to broad conclusions about a people based on a few observations. But we're going to anyway.
"All generalizations are wrong. Some generalizations are useful"
We've had a few hours time to talk with three English speaking Vietnamese [and there's the first flaw - English speakers are a fairly small, relatively well-educated part of the population]. The first was at the Economics school in Hanoi, the 2nd with our tour guide to Halong Bay.
The first observation is that everything (from our Western perspective) is very very cheap. Here are a few examples: Item Cost Loaf of French bread 7¢ Annual property tax for typical house $1.33 One and 1/2 liter bottle of water 53¢ Kilo of tomatoes 33¢You get the picture. But then you find out that the average monthly income for a professional (e.g. our Tour Guide) - is $35-50. It means that a few hundred dong (Viet currency) means as much as a couple of dollars to us, even tho' it's 15,000 to the dollar. Also, it means internet service (which is monopolized) is unaffordable by the masses at this point in time. On the other hand, it's intensely competitive in some places, bring access costs down to more reasonable levels.
These are incredibly proud people, and not somebody you want to pick on - the Chinese, Japanese, Koreans(?), French, and Americans all tried and failed to colonize Vietnam; this has been going on for several hundred years now. The word "powerful" was used the people we spoke with to describe the people of Vietnam - an unusual position in a developing nation ("3rd world"). I've never seen more resourceful people. You'll see every scrap of metal being recycled for one thing or another, bicycle tubes being repaired directly over wood fires; I saw a truck axle being beaten back into alignment with a hammer over a wood fire on the sidewalk They're remarkably warm and welcoming, and genuinely curious about foreigners, despite being the victims of half the world trying to colonize them. The economic condition for Vietnamese has improved drastically since market reforms began in 1990. Our Tour Guide said her Mother thought they had 30-40 times the purchasing power of what they did when she was young. I think may be too enterprising as a nation, to let their communist leadership keep them from achieving their goals - whatever they may be. Despite the "modernization", Vietnam remains very Asian with respect to the roles of women, and family in general. Our guide complains that it's hard for her to find a husband because she's old (24), short (5' 2'?) and has an "unwomanly" career as a Tour Guide. Her last relationship fizzled because the boy didn't like her leaving Hanoi and hanging out with Foreigners. The various "religious" teachings that have been impressed on the Vietnamese over the centuries - Confucianism, Buddhism in particular - still shape their lives.