Humour can be a valuable tool in Vietnam. The Vietnamese truly love to have a laugh about almost anything – and someone who can crack a joke will be appreciated, find it easier to fit in and… Humour can be a valuable tool in Vietnam. The Vietnamese truly love to have a laugh about almost anything – and someone who can crack a joke will be appreciated, find it easier to fit in and bizarrely, may even be taken more seriously by colleagues or associates – and indeed by any local. The monosyllabic, tonal nature of the Vietnamese language also makes puns and plays on words particularly popular. You’ll be making a lot of these without even realizing you’re doing it when you speak some Vietnamese: that’s why people will often fall about laughing when you say anything, however simple or banal you thought it was! The Vietnamese truly love to have a laugh about almost anything Do joke about things as a polite way of dodging the many questions you may not want to answer (“Can I come and visit you tomorrow morning before breakfast?”, “How much did you pay for that?”) or as a clever way to defuse almost any kind of difficult situation. If you manage to have a laugh with people when you bargain, you’ll get a better deal when the time comes to fix a price. And you can gain people’s trust or sympathy much more easily than by any other means. Do realize that Vietnamese people also laugh when they are sad, angry, embarrassed, puzzled, uneasy, shy, grieving, etc. – so laughter (literally) covers a lot of situations! All sounds too good to be true? Don’t forget if you get stopped by the police with five kilos of heroin in your backpack, try slipping on a false nose and doing a funny walk. The firing squad will probably still shoot you, but they may have a laugh when they do it.
