Although nuclear families have also been increasing in Vietnam, families that live with both parents are still common.
Unlike Japan, Vietnam has few people who live alone even if they are single. In this article, we will introduce the living arrangements of Vietnamese people.
Loneliness wins over privacy
Students and single people from rural areas who have moved to urban areas often share rooms with someone. While financial reasons account for the majority of this, it seems that the feeling of being lonely outweighs the importance of privacy and private space. It is not uncommon to share with people you have not been close to or who you have only met once, and there are also posts on social media seeking roommates. This reflects well the Vietnamese people’s sense of distance from others.
Also, in families where the parents have moved to the city from a rural area and have bought a home there, it is often common to temporarily let relatives in the countryside stay with them. For example, when a nephew or niece comes to live in the capital to study, they may be placed in a temporary home with the family; it is not uncommon for their siblings and other relatives to move to the capital for work and stay with them for a while as a temporary residence.
Living together as a refuge
The building I live in has a neighbor who is a family of four, consisting of a husband and two children. One day, I thought it was more lively than usual and opened the front door to peek inside. When I glanced inside, I saw a family of two people of the same generation with their children. At that moment, I probably thought that my relatives were coming from the countryside to visit, so I didn’t pay much attention to it. However, even after a month has passed, it still remains there. I thought it might be my neighbor’s family, so I casually asked my wife, and she said, “It seems to be a family of my sister, but they are hiding in a rural area to avoid being chased by debt collectors.” Well, that’s just the situation, but I also find it strange that neighbors are comfortable talking about such things. I thought that maybe they just don’t take it too seriously because they live in the same floor. In fact, I thought that they might be okay with talking about such things to their neighbors, but for them, this wouldn’t be a big deal. (I thought that maybe the family is already okay now, so they decided to stay in the countryside for about two months and return to the city.)
By the way, when my parents come to Vietnam for a few days, they stay at a hotel. I feel that that way is more convenient and less stressful for both of us, but when Vietnamese families hear that their parents have come from far away and they don’t let them stay at their home but at a hotel, they seem to assume that it’s a dry parent-child relationship unless there’s some very special reason.
author (usu. of a particular book, etc.)
Takuma Inada
Representative of SESSA VIETNAM CO.
Profile
After working in Vietnam for 7 years in the human resource field, he established SESSA VIETNAM, a human resource consulting company in 2021. In 2021, he established SESSA VIETNAM, a human resource consulting company. The company provides human resource consulting services for companies and job seekers, focusing on "recruitment", "labor consultation", and "work permit acquisition on behalf of clients".
He has made it a daily routine to observe Vietnamese people and think about the "why and what" of Vietnam. His motto is "If you do it, it will come to you.
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