17th Mar

Today’s plan… P.M. Training Centre

9:00@ internet café

Because something is not right with the Internet of my house from yesterday, I decided to go to Internet café near my house to send E-mail to the school. I got into one building without seeing the signboard because I found many computers inside. But actually it was a school teaching computer skills not the Internet cafe. I was so embarrassed when I noticed it but the owner let me use the Internet for free.

13:30@Training Centre

In the afternoon, I went to the Vocational Training Centre to interview and distribute questionnaires. But today’s plan has ended in failure. Although I informed that I’m going to interview a girl from Bac Ninh province today, the different four people were waiting at the meeting room. Moreover, school officials also sit with them. I wanted to interview individually so that I can elicit in-depth information that they may be hesitant to say in front of other people. When I asked about national welfare services, the youngest girl answered that she doesn’t receive anything. But the school official corrected her answer right away. I couldn’t proceed to ask further.

The questionnaire was also unsuccessful. The school officials checked my questions before distributing and I was advised to change some questions. They pointed out that I’d better not to use the word ‘national’ or ‘government’ in the questionnaire. So I didn’t distribute it today. I should have been more careful about the usage. The hundreds of papers were ruined.

Today, I felt the fundamental difference in ways of thinking between Vietnamese and Japanese. It does not appear when we socialize with individuals, but it becomes clear when we deal with an organization. I thought I knew this country and people well but I was unfamiliar with this point.

I’d like to ask about the efficiency of national welfare services for people with disabilities. But if I ask about it directly, I think that the answer except ‘very sufficient’ can’t be expected.

I should have thought about the feature of the communist countries before making the questionnaire. Now I need know that things I take for granted in Japan is different from that in here.