Vietnam's Population

Vietnam is ranked 13th in population an estimate from the US Bureau of the Census based on statistics from population censuses.  What is also fascinating is the age structure, the population is made up of teenagers and adults in their 30s. Social security is definitely not going to work here for these baby boomers and especially because of the decline in new births.

Median age:
total: 28.2 years male: 27.1 years female: 29.2 years (2012 est.)

Age structure:
0-14 years: 24.9% (male 11,924,283/ female 10,824,773) 15-64 years: 69.6% (male 31,824,777/ female 31,887,228) 65 years and over: 5.5% (male 1,940,755/ female 3,117,473) (2012 est.)

RANK COUNTRY POPULATION DATE OF INFORMATION

1 China 1,343,239,923 July 2012 est. 2 India 1,205,073,612 July 2012 est. 3 United States 313,847,465 July 2012 est. 4 Indonesia 248,645,008 July 2012 est. 5 Brazil 199,321,413 NA 6 Pakistan 190,291,129 July 2012 est. 7 Nigeria 170,123,740 NA 8 Bangladesh 161,083,804 July 2012 est. 9 Russia 142,517,670 July 2012 est. 10 Japan 127,368,088 July 2012 est. 11 Mexico 114,975,406 July 2012 est. 12 Philippines 103,775,002 July 2012 est. 13 Vietnam 91,519,289 July 2012 est.

Robbers in Vietnam

Unusual Suspects:

The first type: they are dressed  like rich business people. They are swift and are not obvious to their potential victims, at a moments notice they rob their victims when given the opportunity. These characters haunt downtown Saigon or shopping malls;

The second type: Are on foot, standing on the sidewalk pretending to buy from food vendors or 'reading' books whilst actually observing potential victims;

The third type: often drive around on bikes hunting potential victims. They will strike whilst you are driving, stopped at a light or even eating in a restaurant!

Also common robbers will even steal dogs on leashes attached to their owners.

Foreigners are the target of choice:

The Ben Thanh Market area, as well as Le Thanh Ton are popular areas with thieves, as are shopping malls and outside marketing areas.

Another hot spot for robberies is the Le Lai / Pham Hong Thai / Truong Dinh area where robberies of Foreign tourists are a daily occurrence. Another is the Park 23/9.

Ben Thanh market have increased their guard count. This simply persuades the robbers to hunt elsewhere like Nguyen Hue, Pham Ngu Lao and Tran Hung Dao.

Equal opportunity robbers

The robbers are, at least,fair and steal from Foreigners and Locals alike. 

Advise--Don't be dumb....
Foreigners can be naive and set their cameras on automatic so as to include themselves in the picture. Not known to miss an opportunity, a robber simply scoops the camera and drives off. Other robberies occur when a VNese volunteers to take a picture for tourists, and when they are getting ready for the shot the 'volunteer' photographer runs away!

Dusk might be the bewitching hour for tourists but it is the most opportune time for robbers, too. Singly, or in pairs, using motorcycles, they approach victims ready to snatch handbags, necklaces, cell phones, or other bling before departing.

Hot robbery spots (all touristy areas, we don't go to these areas)

The Pham Hong Thai / Le Lai intersection in District 1; Notre Dame Cathedral; the Central Post Office; the bigNguyen Hue roundabout (traffic circle); Park 23/9; the front areas of shopping malls. 

Never walk near the curb

The most popular trick is snatching bags, necklaces and cell phones of Foreigners who are walking near the curbside or even on the roadway.  Paul and I don't carry bags or wear jewelry   I have the crappiest phone in VN so I'm not a target.

Drug addiction drives the trade

Many robbers are also drug addicts. The police’s claim of 10 arrests, up to 7-8 robbers are drug addicts.

Marriage and Owning Land in Vietnam

Here's one man's story:

I thought that you nice guys and gals might find it useful as to what a foreigner has to do to buy property (land/building not a condo) in Vietnam. 

First up I am married to a VN citizen, yes a real marriage certificate from HCMC. If you do not have legal marriage in VN do not bother buying a LUC (Land Use Certificate) as you will have no rights at all, even if you have an agreement it will carry no weight as it will be a civil matter. So if you are considering buying a property here in VN marry her fast, those who have married after buying property here in VN will still have problem if the marriage goes bad as she will have owned the land before the marriage. Apparently is is illegal to be living with a VN citizen without being legally married; well so I have been told. 

We bought an old house in Bien Hoa city as I do not like HCMC. The price was reasonable by VN standards: $114,000 for a block of 257m2 with a pink paper in a very good area with professional employed neighbors, as you all know some VN people can be very noisy and messy; yeas I know it is the same as in the West, so location is important. 

Here a pink land paper is building land, red land is agricultural, and you are not supposed to build on it, lol you can but it is risky as they can buy it off you (the government) for very little. 

Pink land is valuable in VN as they will have to pay you heaps if they want to take it off you. The other reason that pink land is also costly is there is so little of it. Remember when you buy land you are just buying a LUC . But this LUC is yours/wife forever. Well that of course if the laws are not changed in the future. I doubt that that will ever happen. 

So how does a foreigner married to a VN citizen protect oneself? I have been through the merry go round of finding a lawyer and so far as I can see I have NO protection on the land, (well I do, because she is my wife, BUT what happens if I get kicked out on VN? Yes that has happened, I bet he was a dog husband in the first place, lol when a divorce happens we all become dog husbands to her), but I do on the building as I am apparently allowed to own the building in VN. 

I still have to nut out the process with my lawyer.So when it comes to signing the building contract with the builder I will sign it only and not her. Please note that you will also need a trail of transactions showing that the money for the LUC was through your bank account, that is if you are paying for it, I bet you are?. 

So I will have an agreement with my wife on the property that she owns the land but I own the building. I do know that as a husband of a VN citizen that I have rights, as in she cannot sell the land without my permission, but that does not mean that I will get half the money if for heaven bid a divorce happens, as the moneys will go into her account not mine. So one can only get the money owned by a civil action. So your agreement needs to state a joint account that the moneys can go to on a divorce settlement. 

BTW divorce is not an easy process in VN, there will also be a lot of face to loose in such a terrible thing. I have only done this to protect myself if things go south, I love my wife and have no intention of divorce, but anything can happen, who knows the future? I will be seeing my lawyer soon I will keep you all posted on the process.

Ultimatum

I have sent my resume out to at least 10 different schools and English Programs and have 3 solid leads.

I have the opportunity to train and become a Kindermusic teacher after a 15 week intensive program.  This program is really unique because it caters to newborns all the way up to 7 year old children These years are the most critical years in the child's development.  Hence Kindermusic has created a program to assist children develop more through movement and music.  If you're interested you should check out this TED talk  http://www.ted.com/talks/patricia_kuhl_the_linguistic_genius_of_babies.html

The other opportunity I have is with a newer school called Master English, they offer full time jobs and work visas, the only downside is that it's so far away.  You've seen the traffic here so it's best to avoid it.

With these 2 jobs in my back pocket, I decided to give UEC (the ideal school to work at) an ultimatum.  I woke up this morning extremely confident.  I had sent my resume to the hiring manager a week ago and had not heard back.  So I decided I was walking in to follow up but to also let them know that they were this close to losing me as a potential teacher at their school.  I arrived at a random time, 10:30am and asked to speak with the hiring manager.  I was told to come back at 11am because he was teaching a class.

When I returned, I thanked him for seeing me without an appointment and told him frankly that I wanted to work here and that I have offers that I need to respond to and that I wanted to check if UEC would take me on or not before I commit to the other schools.  He actually seemed relieved to have me there and so he explained about a teacher who was a "no show" twice this week.  Also the reason why he was teaching that morning was because he had to fill in for that "no show" teacher.  Timing was on my side.

He asked if I could do a demo at 5PM and teach 10 year old students English at a pre-intermediate level.  It was only going to be a 30 minute demo.

I was so excited and went home and began to write up a demo for this target age group.  It took me longer than it should.  I arrived promptly and performed the demo as best I could!  It was all worth it too because I got the job.  Well sorta....He gave me a glowing review and mentioned that he has a new class starting this Monday and he hasn't assigned a teacher to the class yet.  He has to do some shuffling but has me in mind for the course.  Then he asked if I was free tomorrow morning.  Certainly I said, and I got a gig for Saturday morning from 9-11:30.  Took me another 2 hours to write out the lesson plan and I hope it goes over well tomorrow.

I'm super pooped but I had to tell you all the great news!  I just hope that I get the Monday gig and get more hours at this school and a freakin work visa!!!

Ultimatums work :)

Trivia Idea-Your Thoughts?

Another idea I had for this bar called Monopoly is Trivia night.  There is a bar down the street that already has it and it does bring in about 40 people every Thursday night.  But it's all trivia, the MC has a horrible British accent and it's 2 hours long.  The worst part about it is they are allowed to smoke inside the bar and a lot of English people frequent the quiz night so you end smoking about half a pack when you walk out.

I think I want to hold Trivia on Wednesday or Friday nights.  I want to take a different spin on it and make it a 1 hour game.  Winning Team wins a bottle of liquor that they must keep at the bar and redeem when they visit.  Or Winning team can win up to 2 pitchers of beer.

The first half hour is general trivia.  Here are 40 questions, are they too hard, too easy or just right?  Winning Team wins 1 pitcher of beer.


The second half hour are beer games to earn points. (The drinking games will encourage them to buy more pitchers)

Beer pong 20 minute 

send 2 representative from each team
How to Score: get the ball in red cup at the end of table, you and your teammate each get a turn, if you both get it in the cup consecutively, you both get to go again. Every ball you sink in you earn a point and the other team has to drink the beer. Each side starts with 10 cups each and the team that starts must win coin toss.

*Rerack the cups at 6, 4 and 2

Flip Cup Challenge 10 minutes
send 4 representative from your team
How to Score: you can challenge any team if they choose to accept to win 2 points
Each team stands on one side of the table facing your opponent, at the whistle first group chugs their drink and must flip the cup open end facing up and flip it so that the open end is faced down. When the first person completes this the next person on your team will continue until the last person finishes.

1. how many miles is a marathon race? 
2. How many dots are on a (standard 1-6) die? 
3. Japanese haiku poems loosely comprise how many syllables? 
4. Each player begins with (how many) pieces in a game of chess? 
5. Pure gold is (how many)-carat? 
6. By what name is the Gravelly Hill Interchange better known? 
   
7. Which Gilbert and Sullivan operetta is sub-titled The Slave of Duty? 
   
8. Who succeeded Sir Clive Woodward as England's rugby union coach?
   
9. What is a baby oyster called? 
   
10. What is Bill Clinton's middle name? 
    
11. In which country are the Sutherland Falls? 
    
12. In the US TV comedy show Everybody Loves Raymond, what is Raymond's brother's first name? 
    
13. What is the largest flat fish species? 
    
14. Who invented jeans? 
    
15. What does a cartophilist collect? 
16. Which European city had the Roman name Lutetia? 
17. What is the green pigment found in most plants that is responsible for absorbing light energy? 
18. What note do orchestras typically tune up to? 
19. How did soul singer Otis Redding die in 1967?
20. Who invented the revolver (handgun)? 
21. What is the USA state capital of California? 
22. Who was the first British person to walk in space? 
23. What does a vexillogist study? 
24. Which is the largest of the Channel Islands? Jersey
25. What does NATO stand for? 
26. Which is the largest Castle in England? Windsor Castle
27. In which country was exiled Russian leader Leon Trotsky killed in 1940? 
28. Who played Simon Templar in the 1997 film 'The Saint'? 
29. Which European country had the Roman name Helvetia? 
30. Which fashion items does Jimmy Choo design? 
31. What is a blini? 
32. Who scored England's first goal in the 1998 World Cup Final tournament? 
33. Which is the largest of the Great Lakes? 
34. What is the lightest metal? 
35. What is the ninth letter of the Greek alphabet? 
36. What is the Fahrenheit boiling point of water? 
37. How many sides does a rhombus have? Four
38. Which playwright wrote 'The Crucible'? 
39. What is the name of the character played by Angela Lansbury in 'Murder, She Wrote' ? 
40. What is the name of the hooked staff carried by a bishop called? 

Monopoly

When we first arrived to Saigon, there was a bar/restaurant under construction and we watched its progress everyday. The grand opening was last week and so Paul and I decided to check it out.  We walked out 20 steps and arrived to Monopoly.  The theme was board games and bar games.  The place has a variety of board games from all around the world but they were all very long games like Monopoly, Risk, Chutes and Ladder, etc.  There's also a pool table and a dart board but no customers.

After checking out the games, we studied the menu and boy was it poorly written.  Lotsa typos, bad formatting, poor food description and etc.  The menu catered towards Vietnamese people and Foreigners.  Paul ordered from the "Western" side and I ordered from the "Vietnamese" side.  I got my meal but it was served without the proper sauce.  Paul's order arrived and he got a plate with 5 pieces of beef rolled with sandwich cheddar cheese for 100k.  We ordered 2 beers during happy hour but it was on the expensive side.  

We paid and were on our way home.  The owner Jay ran over and thanked us for stopping by.  Then he asked us what we thought.  I decided to be nice but frank, and so I gave him my thoughts.  We exchanged numbers and he said he wanted to talk some more.

I get a call from him the next day and I we decided to meet.  So basically he wants me to help revitalize his restaurant and bar.  I have always wanted to open up a theme bar, and here was an opportunity to try out some of my ideas on someone else's dime.  But the hardest part is to figure out if I should give out my ideas, because what if I decide to open a bar one day and I've given them all out.  On the other hand, what is the likelihood of that, so maybe I will turn his bar into an American Bar using American games and help him get more customers in.  If so, the other problem I face is how I will go about charging him, what are my ideas really worth?

They aren't super grand ideas but they are unique to Vietnam.  First off, Vietnamese don't sell pitchers of beer.  So I want him to get some, especially because I want them for beer pong and flip cup.  Maybe this can be the event available on Friday nights.  

Then on Saturday night I want to bring in line dancing or some kind of activity where a large group can learn together.  I remember going to a line dancing bar in Hollywood where they would teach you for the first hour then music would keep playing specific to the dances you just learned and you can practice all night.  The great thing about line dancing is that you can go alone but still be part of a group.  

Paul thought I should do a bingo night, do people really still play bingo??

Does anyone else have any ideas?

Anyhow, it's a pretty good gig to have and its so close to home.  I just rewrote his whole menu and got paid handsomely.  I am going to write up a happy hour menu next and go from there....

Seeking a New Teaching Position

It's my last week teaching at the University of Economics, I am going to miss those kids.

So I am on a mission to find a new job in my district.  It would be ideal to work from 9-12 break from 12-3, walk home (2 blocks away) and return to work from 3-6.

I am going to apply at 2 kindergarten school.  I looked up their website and I swear these places need assistance with translation and content.  I wonder how it would be to teach such young kids?

I will also apply at English schools and I have a feeling they may place me with the younger kids and I'll be working really odd hours, like 6-9pm weekdays and early mornings on weekends.  Hopefully this will lead to better hours down the line.

My ultimate goal is getting into SSIS or RMIT, which are considered prestigious colleges and only teachers with years of experience and a glowing resume can get in.  I hope to break through in a year after teaching at these other schools first.

The pay for a teacher here is reasonable.  So if you are considering picking up and moving to Vietnam, you can take the CELTA certification crash course for 2k here, but it's a really great program and you can count on  working immediately.  I would strongly advise against TESL or TEFL from the US, I learned nothing and it was such a waste of my time.

I did the math and on average a teacher gets paid between $10 to $30 an hour.

I am receiving $20 at UEH but it's such a far drive and pretty unorganized.  At UEC the school that would be most ideal for me is paying $17 but after tax it's $15.  So you can make up to 29k a year, which is more than enough money.  You can probably spend half of that on living expenses and traveling and still be able to keep 10-15k of it.

It's amazing how you can save so much here and eventually take it back to the US and do what you've dreamed of, pay off a debt, put a down payment on a house or get that new car you've always wanted.

The world is your oyster.