Cultural Distance in The Workplace Differences in
Cultural Distance in The Workplace Differences in
10; 2017
ISSN 1833-3850 E-ISSN 1833-8119
Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education
Received: August 15, 2017 Accepted: September 5, 2017 Online Published: September 17, 2017
doi:10.5539/ijbm.v12n10p91 URL: https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v12n10p91
Abstract
In this globalized and internationalized world, intercultural communication at workplaces is a topic often
examined. This study aimed to shed light on the cultural differences in work-related values between Western and
Vietnamese employers in Vietnam. In total, 94 Western and Vietnamese companies in two areas in the South of
Vietnam participated. Questionnaires were completed by 763 Vietnamese employees, 43 Vietnamese
employers/managers and 33 Western employers/managers. The findings from the questionnaire data indicate that
there are substantial differences in work-related attitudes between Western employers and Vietnamese employees
that are related to both cultural differences and position in a company. Sense of time and face-concern are the two
prominent differences between Western and Vietnamese professionals. Implications are discussed for further
training of Vietnamese prospective graduates so that they can work effectively with Western
employers/managers in the future.
Keywords: work-related values, Western employers/managers, Vietnamese employees
1. Introduction
As a result of globalization, many foreign subsidiaries and joint-ventures are mushrooming in East Asia, where
expatriates from Western nations and local staff work and interact together on a daily basis (Brew & Cairns,
2004). Since the two parties are from two divergent cultures, conflicts and misunderstandings at the workplace
are inevitable. This can make it difficult for both parties to complete their tasks and work productively. In such a
setting, cultural distance has been understood to be the key reason for conflicts and misunderstandings (Brew &
Cairns, 2004; Froese & Peltokorpi, 2011; Hofstede, 2001; Peltokorpi, 2008; Redmond, 2000).
Cultural distance can be defined as the degree of dissimilarity between two cultures. The more dissimilar the
cultures are, the harder it is for interlocutors to adjust. Peltokorpi (2008) argued that living in a culturally similar
country is less stressful than living in a culturally distant country since similarities help to predict and explain
host national behavior. She also discussed the negative influence of cultural distance on interaction in work
settings. Cultural distance creates challenges and communication barriers for both employees and employers. In
addition, cultural distance in communication and management style can negatively affect the organization’s
workforce productivity. Therefore, understanding culture is crucial to multinational companies and managers to
be prepared to compete with other firms (Dong & Liu, 2010).
Higher education programs could prepare Vietnamese students to work in this international work situation and
these programs could also be linked to multinational companies and the higher management in those enterprises.
However, we do not know much about cultural distance and its effects in the Vietnamese setting. The current
study was aimed at providing greater insight into differences between employers and employees from different
cultural backgrounds in organizations in Vietnam in order to assist higher education institutions in designing
further cross-cultural training curriculum.
1.1 The Vietnamese Workplace Context
The economies in Southeast Asia, including Vietnam have recently witnessed a transitional development. After
the economic reform “Doi Moi” was implemented in 1986, the Vietnamese government activated the country’s
economic activities by reorganizing state-owned enterprises, encouraging private businesses, and attracting
foreign direct investment (Weng, 2015). Because of the need to transform but still dominated by Confucian
ideology, the Vietnamese economy has been in a mixed landscape, undergoing dramatic changes and struggling
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within the old and novel typologies simultaneously. This transformation brought in international managers, since
the current personnel were not adequately qualified to keep pace with the new trend (Weng, 2015). Local
managers lacked the management knowledge to cope with the human-related issues arising in a market economy
(Le, Rowley, Truong, & Warner, 2007). McDaniel, Schermerhorn and Huynh (1999) suggested that the
managerial competencies of those local managers must be upgraded to align with world levels of Human
Resource Management in order to survive fierce economic competition. Moreover, following the influx of
foreign companies into the country, the call for more industry-ready graduates has been taken into account by
many policy makers. Still, “many of the companies apparently found it difficult to find local employees that
match their needs” (Weng, 2015, 82). Graduate employability has become a topic of both concern and debate
among higher education institutions, employers, enterprises, students and their families (Tran, 2012).
The main mission of higher education institutions is training and producing an educated labor force for the
industry. However, in Vietnamese universities, this mission is difficult to reach because of the lack of
connections among university, research institutions and the internal industry. This absence of collaboration
hinders preparing students with the necessary skills and knowledge required by the contemporary labor market.
Moreover, Vietnamese culture bears similar traits to China in many aspects such as high collectivism, large
power distance, high uncertainty avoidance, masculinity, and long-term orientation (Truong & Nguyen, 2002).
Although recently there have been studies indicating that Vietnamese professionals have shown their attitudes
towards individualism which means that employees direct more to individual achievement and the high power
distance dimension is not as high as it was 10 years ago thanks to the trend that the younger generations are
becoming more individualistic and independent, lots of studies noted certain attributes of Vietnamese workers
such as indirectness in their communication with others, respect for hierarchy, lack of work orientation and
adherence to timeline and lack of language ability to communicate effectively with foreign workers (Le, Rowley,
Truong & Warner, 2007; Tran, 2012; Pham, 2014, Weng, 2015). Accordingly, the educational system have
difficulties to address Western norms on, for example, trainees’ communication skills, teamwork skills and other
interpersonal skills. To prepare future workers better, teaching and learning about interpersonal and
cross-cultural communication skills should be done in both enterprises and higher education institutions.
1.2 Cultural Distance in Work-Related Values between Western and Vietnamese Culture
In general, belief systems are crucial to the study of intercultural communication because they entail the core of
our thoughts and actions (Qingxue, 2003). We extracted six work-related values from the international research
on cultural distance in the workplace (references included below): 1) sense of time, 2) participation in higher
managers’ decision-making, 3) open relationship with employers, 4) face-concern, 5) accountability and 6)
autocratic versus work-performance orientation
Sense of time
“Sense of time” is the way people feel, experience and evaluate time (Venter, 2006). Different culture has
different perspective towards time, punctuality and pace of life and those concepts are manifested in their
manners and attitudes. Many researchers have conceptualized the distance in time perception between Western
and Eastern culture which affects professionals’ manners, decisions and expectations in a cross cultural
workplace. Wang, Wang, Ruona & Rojewski (2007) and Brew & Cairns (2004) contended that time orientation
in Confucian cultures like Chinese and other Eastern countries tends to be more past-oriented than present and
future-oriented. This means that people in those cultures are inclined towards tradition and time is considered to
be flexible and repeatable and is used to achieve ultimate human reward. This perspective notifies a sharp
contrast with Western culture, which focuses on efficiency and, thus, time is carefully designated in order to
achieve personal and organizational goals (Arman & Adair, 2012; Kathryn, 2006; Kawar, 2012; Kvassov, 2003;
Smith, 1996).
Participation in higher managers’ decision-making
Employee involvement in work-related decisions has been proved to be positively associated with labor
productivity. However, cultural values might highly influence the degree of employee involvement in
work-related decisions (Le, Rowley, Truong & Warner, 2007). Accordingly, this might complicate the direct
feedback between Western higher managers and Eastern subordinates as they own two opposite views on
decision-making process (Bjorkman & Lu, 1999). In Vietnamese culture, most people highlight a “we” identity
and employees might rarely speak out their own voice in the process of higher management’ decision-making
even if they are requested to do so (Le, Rowley, Truong & Warner, 2007; Wang, Wang, Ruona & Rojewski, 2007;
Qingxue, 2013). In contrast, Western individualistic culture accentuates an individual’s thoughts and opinions,
initiative and achievement and individual decision-making (Wang, Wang, Ruona & Rojewski, 2007).
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first two groups in order to grasp the complete picture of the divergence between the two cultures in the
Vietnamese workplace context.
• To what extent do Vietnamese and Western employers differ with respect to their work-related values?
• To what extent do Vietnamese employers and employees differ with respect to attitudes towards
work-related values?
• To what extent do Vietnamese employees working in Western companies and in Vietnamese companies
differ with respect to attitudes towards work-related values?
2. Methods
2.1 Participants
In total, 94 Western and Vietnamese companies in two areas in the South of Vietnam (Ho Chi Minh City and the
Mekong Delta) participated. We searched for the companies’ information on the Internet, using reports on the
Global Trade in Customer Language website (http://eu.ecizi.com). We also searched for companies using the
researchers’ networks. We collected the companies’ information; then we sent emails, phoned or visited the
companies in person to ask for their permission to carry out our research at those companies. We visited 128
companies, and 94 of them agreed to participate. Of these 94 companies, 47 were foreign subsidiaries and
joint-ventures and 47 were Vietnamese private and state companies. In the 47 foreign companies, 33 higher
managers (all Westerners including Americans, Australians, New Zealanders, and Europeans) and 360
Vietnamese employees participated. In the 47 Vietnamese companies, 43 Vietnamese higher managers and 403
Vietnamese employees participated. We provide background information on the participants in Table 1.
Table 1. Participants
Vietnamese companies Western companies
Background Information Employees Employers Employees Employers
1. Age
<18 0 0 0 0
18-29 158 8 125 3
30-39 127 25 119 17
40-49 22 8 17 13
50 or older 4 2 1 0
2. Sex
Male 95 19 77 30
Female 216 23 183 3
3. Job status
CEO 3 9
Deputy CEO 0 4
Senior manager 6 4
Middle manager 3 8
First-line manager 17 6
Supervisor 14 1
4. Years of working in Vietnam
1-2 years 35 1 23 4
3-5 years 91 0 73 13
More than 5 years 71 11 55 10
10 years 28 4 46 2
More than 10 years 69 21 61 4
More than 20 years 17 6 5 0
5. Years of working with Non-Vietnamese
1-2 years 88 86
3-5 years 64 80
More than 5 years 28 71
10 years 2 8
More than 10 years 9 9
More than 20 years 2 1
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6. Highest degree
Elementary 0 0 0 0
Secondary 1 0 0 0
High school 5 0 0 0
Vocational 10 0 17 0
College/University 273 35 228 26
Other 22 8 15 7
7. How large is the organization?
Micro (<10 employees) 5 1
Small (<50 employees) 9 14
Medium-sized (<250 employees) 13 11
Large (>250 employees) 11 6
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each factor).
1) Being on time in a direct way refers to the extent to which employers and employees evaluate the degree of
punctuality in daily work situations.
2) Being on time with a condition also denotes the extent of punctuality the employers and employees evaluate
in daily work situations, but with a condition added.
3) Taking part in decision-making refers to the extent to which decision-making between higher managers and
employees in daily work situations is shared.
4) Open relationship with higher managers refers to the degree of intimacy or closeness in daily
communication in the workplace between employers and employees.
5) Face concern refers to the extent to which employees save their face in order to keep their own and others’
prestige in daily work situations.
6) Accountability refers to the extent to which self-accountability in their daily work situations is performed
by the employees and employers evaluate and control their employees’ accountability in these situations.
7) Autocratic versus work-performance orientation refers to the extent to which how employees’
work-performance is controlled and evaluated by their higher managers.
After establishing the seven factors of work-related values for Vietnamese employees, we employed this
structure on the employers’ data. In Table 3, we included for each factor the number of items and the reliability
in terms of Cronbach’s alpha.
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3. Analysis
In order to answer the research questions, independent sample T-tests were used to test the differences between
two groups of participants on their scores on the seven cultural dimensions. To determine the strength of the
differences, effect size Cohen’s d was calculated.
4. Results
In Table 4, the means and standard deviations are presented for each of the four groups of participants on the
seven cultural dimensions.
Table 4. The means and standard deviations on the seven cultural factors
Western companies Vietnamese companies
Western employers Vietnamese Vietnamese Vietnamese
Measures (n = 47) employees employers employees
(n = 47) (n = 38) (n = 32)
Mean (SD) Mean (SD) Mean (SD) Mean (SD)
1. Being on time in a direct way 4.59 (0.31) 3.50 (0.28) 4.30 (0.36) 3.55 0.26)
2. Being on time with a condition 3.48 (0.54) 2.96 (0.28) 2.93 (0.47) 1.99 0.40)
3. Taking part in decision-making 4.06 (0.28) 3.40 (0.46) 3.93 (0.36) 3.25 0.46)
4.Open relationship with
4.20 (0.21) 3.74 (0.27) 4.12 (0.29) 3.71 0.29)
employers/manager
5. Accountability 4.11 (0.43) 3.35 (0.30) 4.04 (0.47) 3.37 0.35)
6. Face concern 3.91 (0.49) 2.99 (0.35) 3.15 (0.49) 2.88 0.22)
7. Work-performance orientation versus
4.22 (0.29) 3.87 (0.32) 4.19 (0.35) 3.76 (0.37)
Autocratic orientation
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in a direct way (t(df)=68; p<.001; d=0.86); being on time with a condition (t(df)=68, p<.001; d=1.08); and
face-concern (t(df)=68; p<.001; d=1.55), with higher scores for Western employers. The mean scores on
face-concern showed the largest difference (Cohen’s d=1.55)
4.3 Vietnamese Employers and Vietnamese Employees
To further interpret the differences found between Western employers and Vietnamese employees into
perspective, t-tests were performed on the mean scores of Vietnamese employers and Vietnamese employees.
These analyses showed that Vietnamese employers displayed higher mean scores than their Vietnamese
subordinates in six factors: taking part in decision-making (t(df)=37; p<.001; d=1.84); open relationship with
employers/managers (t(df)=37; p<.001; d=1.42); being on time in a direct way (t(df)=37; p<.001; d=2.44);
accountability (t(df)=37; p<.001; d=1.77), face-concern (t(df)=37; p<.001; d=0.70); work-performance
orientation versus autocratic orientation (t(df)=37; p<.001; d=1.31). These significant differences can be
understood as larger differences (with a Cohen’s d of 0.8 or higher, see Cohen, 1988) for five dimensions. No
significant difference was found for Being on time with a condition (t(df)=37; p>.05; d =-0.13)
4.4 Vietnamese Employees from Western Companies and Vietnamese Companies
No significant differences were found between Vietnamese employees working in Western companies and
Vietnamese employees working in Vietnamese companies
5. Discussion and Conclusion
In this study, cultural differences were examined between employees and employers in Western and Vietnamese
companies in Vietnam. The findings showed that Western employers exhibited higher mean scores than
Vietnamese employees in all work-related values. Significant differences were also found between Vietnamese
employers and Vietnamese employees, except for being on time with a condition, with higher scores for
Vietnamese employers. However, these differences between Vietnamese employers and Vietnamese employees
were smaller compared with the differences between Western employers and Vietnamese employees.
Additionally, we found three significant differences between Western and Vietnamese employers, with higher
scores for Western employers. We did not find any significant differences between the Vietnamese employees
working in the two types of companies. In conclusion, the differences between Western employers and
Vietnamese employees seem to be caused partly by cultural aspects and partly by status differences between
employers and employees. We go into more detail below on two cultural dimensions: sense of time (including
being on time in a direct way and being on time with a condition) and face-concern, since the largest differences
between Western employers and Vietnamese employees and between Western and Vietnamese employers were
found in these dimensions, which indicates that these are two significant differences between Western and
Vietnamese professionals.
5.1 Sense of time
Consistent with pertinent literature, this cultural dimension showed the largest difference between Western
employers and Vietnamese employees and employers. The findings could be explained in part by time perception
theory (Arman & Adair, 2012; Kathryn, 2006; Kawar, 2012; Kvassov, 2003; Smith, 1996; Venter, 2006) in which
the Westerners are always skillful in time management and hold an exact time clock. Their plans and schedules
are clearly set to ensure that they never fall behind on their deadlines. By contrast, Vietnamese professionals
following Confucianism are not always on time and do not stick to exact deadlines. Time extension at
workplaces is quite common in Vietnam and people in organizations understand the situation and feel at ease
with the stretching of time. This explains why they scored quite low in the questionnaire, and it is the reason for
sense of time being the most significant distinction between Western and Vietnamese professionals.
5.2 Face Concern
Face concern was found to be significantly different in the two groups too (Western employers versus
Vietnamese employees and Western versus Vietnamese employers). Among three groups, Western employers,
Vietnamese employers and Vietnamese employees, the Western employers scored the highest, the Vietnamese
employees the lowest, and the Vietnamese employers in the middle (the higher the score, the less the participants’
concern about face). However, the Vietnamese employers’ scores were closer to those of the Vietnamese
employees’ than those of the Western employers’, which indicated that the Vietnamese employers scored much
lower than the Western employers. There might be two reasons for the differences in these groups. Firstly, title,
status, and formality are very important in Vietnamese society as indicated in its high power distance score
(Hofstede, 1984, 2001). In organizations, there is a clear subordinate-superior relationship (Truong & Nguyen,
2002). When Westerners hold the position of superiors and Vietnamese professionals, the post of subordinates,
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the latter would suppress their points of view in order to behave ethically to senior people. Secondly, in
accordance with previous findings (Pham, 2012, 2014; Merkin, 2006), Vietnamese professionals who are
interdependent people and depend on public recognition might withdraw their egos and benefits in order to save
their own as well as others’ face. Strictly speaking, in Vietnamese culture, face maintenance for both sides is
more important than achievements (Pham, 2014). The conclusion can be drawn that saving face is significant for
Vietnamese employers and employees.
5.3 Limitations
The first limitation is that the Western employers who participated in the current study had various cultural
backgrounds and various nationalities. They were grouped to make a comparison with Vietnamese employers
and employees possible. Different categories of employers might score differently on the seven factors of
work-related values. However, the standard deviations of the scores of the Western participants were similar to
the standard deviations of the scores of the Vietnamese groups of participants.
The second limitation of this study is the lack of a Western employee sample working in the same companies as
the Vietnamese employees. As the Western employers both represent people from different cultures and hold the
position of management, the results might be affected by two conditions. Consequently, it is difficult to
determine whether the differences were due to cultural distance or position distance. Therefore, we tested
differences for all pairs of participants. However, in the future, when there are more Westerners working as
employees in Vietnam, this research can be validated by comparing employees from these two cultures in the
same companies.
5.4 Implications
Based on the findings, we formulate four implications for work-related interaction between Western employers
and Vietnamese employees.
First, in Vietnamese culture, face loss is considered a vulnerable situation which might cause an emotional
barrier between two parties, Western employers and Vietnamese employees. Accordingly, it is suggested that
both direct and indirect facework strategies should be exercised simultaneously in order “to lessen the blow of
the direct communication that needs to be used to get points across” (Merkin, 2006, 155). This means that in
order to coax the employees’ appreciation, the Western employers might play the role of both a quietly powerful
but considerate boss. Then, the Vietnamese subordinates might feel at ease to reduce the distance, talk openly
and voice their opinions to the superiors.
Second, since the concept of time is quite stretched in Vietnam, the Westerners must understand that the
Vietnamese employees take time to do their work because they desire to do it in a rigorous and effective way.
Hence, strict measures to discipline employees’ time and deadlines at workplaces such as finger sensor scanning
for timework or salary reduction might lead to adverse effects. The employees might be on time and stick to the
deadlines. Yet, they might be annoyed and try to avoid the punishment by completing the tasks without fully
devoting their energy to the company’s benefits, with as a result that the quality of their work might be affected.
Thus, both sides should moderate their time management in order to accomplish a deal satisfying the company’s
needs.
Third, the condition provided in “being on time with a condition” factor might shorten both the cultural and
position distance. It might be advisable that employers examine the reasons for lateness of their employees in
order to improve mutual understanding. Additionally, the employees might be more explicit about why tardiness
occurs so that the seniors discern their subordinates’ difficulties in order to draw out effective solutions. In many
cases, the communication might be much improved when the reasons are worked out.
Fourth, for a better workplace environment, training should be given to both expatriates and locals so that
cultural distance can be understood and appreciated (Fabian, 2012). Consequently, both parties might be more
sympathetic and tolerant to cultural differences to interact effectively in a multicultural workplace.
5.5 Concluding Remarks
In conclusion, the current study was carried out for the purpose of designing training courses for future graduates
in Vietnam who are prospective employees in those foreign subsidiaries and have interactions on a daily basis
with Western employers. Therefore, it is implied that solely teaching the language is not sufficient for effective
communication. The current findings provide insight into what differences are the greatest between the two
cultures so that intercultural communication training can be centralized and conceptualized within those scopes.
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Appendix 1
Employees’ Questionnaire
Instructions: Please use black or blue pen or use pencil (do not use fluorescent pen). Mark
clearly the bubble of your choice.
Correction: cross out the wrong answer, fill in the right bubble, and place an arrow to indicate
the correct answer.
This questionnaire aims at clarifying your PREFERENCES of the organization’s and your employers’ policies. The purpose of the
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questionnaire is to shed light on the cultural distance in terms of sense of time, low and high-context cultural orientation, power
distance and value orientations between Western and Vietnamese culture in work places. The outcomes of the study will be
beneficial to new graduate educators since they can employ the knowledge to produce culturally well-equipped workforce to meet the
needs of the Western employers in foreign subsidiaries and joint-ventures in Vietnam. The information will be kept
CONFIDENTIAL and will be used for RESEARCH PURPOSES only. There is no right or wrong answer. Please read and
consider the following statements carefully before answering.
A. Think of real situations in your company. Indicate your PREFERENCES for the following
statements. Fill in the bullet that is most appropriate to your case.
Quite a
Not at all Not really Somewhat Very much
lot
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employers/higher managers
46. leaving the office earlier than the appointed time when I have good
reasons.
B. Think of real situations in your company. Indicate how important you think the following statements
are by filling in the bullet that is most appropriate to your case.
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7. Highest degree:
□ Elementary □ Secondary □ Vocational
□ College/University □ Other (please specify) ___________________________
8. Are you a native speaker of English? □ Yes □ No
(If the answer is “Yes”, please skip number 9)
9. The following four items ask you about your ability to:
Not so
Not at all Average good Very good
good
a. Understand English □ □ □ □ □
b. Speak English □ □ □ □ □
c. Read English □ □ □ □ □
d. Write English □ □ □ □ □
Very
Not at all Not so good Average good
good
a. Understand Vietnamese □ □ □ □ □
b. Speak Vietnamese □ □ □ □ □
c. Read Vietnamese □ □ □ □ □
d. Write Vietnamese □ □ □ □ □
Appendix 2
Employers’ Questionnaire
EMPLOYERS’ EXPECTATION QUESTIONNAIRE
Instructions: Please use black or blue pen or use pencil (do not use fluorescent pen). Mark
clearly the bubble of your choice.
Correction: cross out the wrong answer, fill in the right bubble, and place an arrow to indicate
the correct answer.
This questionnaire aims at clarifying your expectation of your employees’ possible activities within your organization. The purpose
of the questionnaire is to shed light on the cultural distance in terms of sense of time, low and high‐context cultural orientation,
power distance and value orientations between Western and Vietnamese culture in work places. The outcomes of the study will be
beneficial to new graduate educators since they can employ the knowledge to produce culturally well‐equipped workforce to meet the
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needs of the Western employers in foreign subsidiaries and joint‐ventures in Vietnam. The information will be kept
CONFIDENTIAL (all the information you provided will not be revealed to anyone outside the research group) and will be
used for RESEARCH PURPOSES only. There is no right or wrong answer. Please read and consider the following statements
carefully before answering.
A. Think of real situations in your company. Indicate your EXPECTATION from your employees
about the following (possible) activities. Fill in the bullet that is most appropriate to your case.
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B. Think of real situations in your company. Indicate how IMPORTANT you think the following items are by filling in the
bullet that is most appropriate to your case.
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Not so
Not at all Average good Very good
good
a. Understand English □ □ □ □ □
b. Speak English □ □ □ □ □
c. Read English □ □ □ □ □
d. Write English □ □ □ □ □
9. The following four items ask you about your ability to:
Not so Very
Not at all Average good
good good
a. Understand Vietnamese □ □ □ □ □
b. Speak Vietnamese □ □ □ □ □
c. Read Vietnamese □ □ □ □ □
d. Write Vietnamese □ □ □ □ □
Copyrights
Copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal.
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution
license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
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