Why Nothing Happens 'Today' in Vietnam — The Cultural Reason Behind It

[00:00:00]Welcome to Vietnam.

[00:00:02]This is the land where nothing happens today.

[00:00:06]And sometimes that can get extremely frustrating.

[00:00:10]Especially coming from a Western culture where words like tomorrow, later, soon all have true meaning.

[00:00:20]Here in this culture there's different aspects behind when somebody says tomorrow, later, soon.

[00:00:30]And that's what we're going to discuss in today's video. Welcome to Kevin in Vietnam.

[00:00:36]This is a channel where I've documented my journey leaving the United States and moving to Vietnam. And yes, there will be people who will comment and say you can't live in Vietnam. Yes, I will never be a full-time permanent resident of Vietnam.

[00:00:52]There are no opportunities for foreigners. They do that for reason.

[00:00:57]We're not going to get into the history lesson here on why. There are opportunities to have longer stays and legally live here long-term and work here legally, paying taxes. If that's something you're interested in doing, or maybe you're just interested in traveling anywhere abroad, checking it out, spending some time, let's connect and make it happen. Head on over to roamingwithkevin.com and get signed up. All right, so let's talk about the subject matter that sometimes can be very, very frustrating. You've ever spent any real time in Vietnam you've heard the words tomorrow, later, soon.

[00:01:42]And if you're like me, coming from a Western culture those words have specific meanings. It can drive you a little crazy because half the time tomorrow doesn't come, later never arrives, and soon could be next week, or maybe never. I'm still adjusting to this after being here for 4 months, a little over 4 months. I'm not going to pretend that I've got it all figured out because I don't. I've learned enough about why this happens that it's helped me understand it instead of just being frustrated by it. So, today, let's talk about why there's seemingly no urgency in the Vietnamese culture and why that's actually the wrong way to think about it. So, here's the first thing that I had to understand.

[00:02:30]The West and Vietnam are just not on different schedules. They operate on two fundamentally different concepts of time altogether. In the West, the US in particular, time is linear. It's a resource. We say things like time is money. You spend it, you save it, you waste it. A schedule is a commitment. A deadline is a deadline.

[00:02:52]If something's supposed to happen at 2:00 p.m., it happens at 2:00 p.m. Or there's a problem. Vietnam operates on what's called polychronic time. Time is more like a flow that's a fixed line. It's flexible, adaptive, and multiple things are happening at once rather than one thing strictly following another.

[00:03:16]Relationships present circumstances, and what's happening right now in front of you takes a priority over what the calendar says you should be doing. This isn't disorganization.

[00:03:28]It's a completely different operating system of how a day unfolds. The second thing is sometimes it's saving face. Why tomorrow's often mean no. This is the piece that took me the longest to understand. It's probably the most important one.

[00:03:46]In Vietnamese culture, direct rejection is generally uncomfortable. Saying no outright can feel harsh, even rude, especially in a culture that places enormous value on harmony and avoiding conflict. So, instead of a direct no, you get tomorrow, or later, or soon.

[00:04:07]This is what's often called saving face culture. The promise of tomorrow isn't necessarily a lie in the way we think of it in the West. It's a social buffer. It lets the conversation end smoothly, without uncomfortable confrontation, even if the task never actually happens.

[00:04:25]Once I understood that tomorrow was sometimes a polite container for no, rather than an actual commitment, a lot of things started to make more sense. It stopped feeling like people were lying to me, and it started feeling like a different social contract that I just hadn't learned the rules to yet.

[00:04:42]There's also a deep cultural value placed on adapting to what's happening right now, rather than rigidly sticking to what's planned. If a family emergency comes up, that takes priority over a scheduled appointment. That's no different than the Western culture. If a boss calls unexpectedly, that takes a priority over what was on the calendar.

[00:05:02]And if the weather turns, plans shift.

[00:05:05]In the West, we often push through the plans anyway. The schedule is the schedule. In Vietnam, the present circumstance is treated as more real and more important than future commitments made under different conditions. It's not that people don't value their word.

[00:05:21]It's that the now has more weight than the plan. There's also a very practical piece to this that doesn't get talked about enough. Getting anywhere in Vietnam can involve heavy traffic, sudden weather, or logistical surprises that simply don't exist in the same way in a lot of Western infrastructure.

[00:05:43]Time frames get underestimated constantly. Not necessarily out of carelessness, but because the actual conditions on the ground are unpredictable. What looks like chronic lateness from the outside is sometimes an accurate reflection of how unpredictable getting from point A to point B actually is here. The last piece is collectivism versus individualism.

[00:06:09]Family community relationships are central to daily life here in a way that's structurally different from a lot of Western culture. An urgent call from a relative, a friend who needs something right now, an extended family obligation. These things are treated as more important than a previously arranged plan because relationships are valued above arbitrary deadlines. It's a value system that says people matter more than schedules. And once you frame it that way, it's hard to argue it's the wrong way to live. It's just different from what a lot of us grew up with. And that's one of the things that I am still learning to adapt to here in Vietnam.

[00:06:49]Things that I grew up with, quick pause in the video because drinks just arrived. I'm over at Forest 98. It's a beautiful cafe.

[00:06:58]Waterfall over here to my right. Nice little stream with some fish in it runs all the way through the cafe. A couple more waterfalls behind me. You can see the one with the color changing lights.

[00:07:29]But I ordered two drinks. I ordered a passion fruit juice and a tropical strawberry tea.

[00:07:38]Now you're thinking, Kevin, man, you just ordered two drinks at a cafe. Man, that's got to be a fortune. No, two drinks together 80,000 VND or $3.12.

[00:07:50]The affordability of Vietnam. Plus, they give you iced tea, tra da, for free.

[00:07:57]And they'll keep refilling that glass as long as I sit here.

[00:08:04]All right, now let's get back to the video. So, I've been learning to adapt since being here in Vietnam that a lot of the things that are instilled in me and the way I grew up are completely different here.

[00:08:16]And learning to let go 50-plus years of doing something a certain way is difficult.

[00:08:24]Some things are easy to let go and other things it's like that's not normal to me and normal is a different way.

[00:08:33]Case in point, the traffic system here.

[00:08:36]Forget everything you know or learned in America about how to drive because the system here is completely different. You plan on driving on the roads here?

[00:08:44]Organized chaos to us.

[00:08:47]People here grew up in the system. It's the only system they know. Courtesies and other things that we have, traffic patterns or flow of things, yeah, they just don't exist here. Completely different system, but it works.

[00:09:00]And once you adapt to it, it goes smooth. I'm not going to sit here and tell you that this stuff doesn't frustrate me because it sometimes it does. I'm a planner. I come from a culture that runs on schedules and deadlines and I'm not going to pretend that the switch flips overnight cuz it doesn't. But understanding why this happened has changed how I experience it.

[00:09:21]It's not laziness. It's not disrespect.

[00:09:24]It's not people not caring about the work. It's a different relationship with time itself. One that prioritizes harmony, relationships, and the present moment over rigid commitments of the future. I'm still adjusting and I'll probably always be adjusting, at least a little, but I'd rather understand why than just stay frustrated by the what. Have you experienced living abroad, anywhere, not just Vietnam? I'd love to hear how you adjusted to this in the comments. This system of tomorrow, later, soon has a term that's given to it by the locals. And I've heard it from multiple locals. I don't know if it's a slang term or if it's an official term, but they refer to it as gum time.

[00:10:12]Think about chewing gum. It stretches.

[00:10:15]So, tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow. They never come because you're just stretching time. All right, if you found value in this video, go ahead and give it a thumbs up. If you're not a subscriber yet, what are you waiting for? It's free. Go ahead and subscribe and make sure you click that bell so you get notified when we publish new videos. You didn't like this video?

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[00:11:01]For me, I'm out of here. I'll see you later.

[00:11:03]I'll see you tomorrow.

[00:11:05]Nah, I'll see you on the next video.