W.Minh Tuan

A long time ago, I met a disabled girl riding a stroller in Hanoi. She complained that in Hanoi, and in general, in other cities in Vietnam, the sidewalks do not have a bevel for people with strollers to get on and off the sidewalks. She said that every time she goes out from home with a stroller, she has to ask family members to help her carry both herself and the stroller down the street.

However, Hanoi people have many good people who helped her in difficult times. She said that one time she was riding a stroller on the road and it rained. She didn’t bring a raincoat, so she wanted to stop on the sidewalk to avoid the rain, but she couldn’t ride the stroller up to the sidewalk by herself, because there was no place where the sidewalk sloped downward. She had to sit still on the stroller and endure the rain.

On the sidewalk, there were many people sheltering from the rain, but no one came out to help her put the stroller on the sidewalk. She felt sorry for herself, and began to cry, her tears mixed with rainwater.

Then suddenly a young man ran up and said, “Let me help you sister.” So that young man tried to push the stroller and her up onto the sidewalk, but could not, because the stroller and her were quite heavy, and the Hanoi sidewalk was quite high compared to the road surface. Every time one wheel reaches the sidewalk, the other wheel drifts down. Then two more people came running, all three of them practically lifted both her and the stroller up onto the sidewalk, and pushed the stroller into shelter from the rain.

At this time, she cried again, but this time she cried because she was touched, because of everyone’s kindness. She thanked everyone, then the rain stopped. She pushed the wheel onto the road, but this time, she struggled to know how to get off the road. Another person ran to help her get the car down the road.

It was a beautiful memory that she will remember forever. She doesn’t always meet good people to help her in Hanoi, but every time she remembers how many people helped her when it rained, she feels warmed up, and tries to overcome daily difficulties.

In today’s Vietnamese society, where we met so many chaos and injustice, but meeting those kind hearts is truly heartwarming.

I teach Vietnamese studies at the Faculty of Vietnamese Studies, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Tokyo, Japan. Every year this school sends Japanese students to Vietnam for a one-year study program before graduating.

Japanese students who return to Tokyo after studying abroad in Vietnam often tell me about their beautiful memories when they studied in Vietnam.

A student named Ayaka told me a story about her repairing shoes. On Saturdays and Sundays, she likes to walk from Hanoi University of Science and Technology, in Bach Khoa ward, where she studies Vietnamese, to the old town along Hoan Kiem Lake. Then one day, her shoe broke, it was a bit loose. She stopped by a shoe repair shop near the Vincom building in Ba Trieu street, to get her shoes repaired. The cobbler was a rather young man. He looked at the shoes, then quietly fixed them. It only took a moment to fix them.

Ayaka asked in Vietnamese how much it was. The shoe repair guy said, “Okay, I won’t take your money, I’ll just do a simple repair.” Then he turned to repairing another customer’s shoes, not paying attention to her anymore.

Ayaka said that during a whole year of studying Vietnamese in Hanoi, she always remembered the story of that simple shoe repairman. The cost to repair shoes is not much, but the soul of that shoe repairman is truly beautiful.

As for another Japanese student, Rika, she told me the story of her taking a taxi in Hanoi, when she first came to Hanoi. One day, she took a taxi from the Ao Dai store to her hotel. When she got off the car, the taxi driver demanded 120,000 VND, twice the amount she paid when she went from the hotel to the ao dai shop.

Rika said to the taxi driver in Vietnamese: “Brother, why do you charge me so much? Just now I went from the hotel to the ao dai shop, and it only cost 60,000 VND.”

The taxi driver remained silent, perhaps he was confused and didn’t know how to answer. Then suddenly Rika cried. When the taxi driver saw the young Japanese girl crying, he panicked and quickly said, “Okay, okay, honey, just give me 60,000 VND. Okay, don’t cry anymore.”

Rika gave the money and got out of the car, quickly running into the hotel, afraid that the taxi driver would change his mind.

The next morning, suddenly the receptionist called on phone room to Rika, saying there was someone who wanted to meet her. Rika went down to the reception desk and recognized the taxi driver yesterday, holding a small bouquet of flowers. He gave the flowers to Rika, said softly, a bit embarrassed: “I’m sorry I made you sad yesterday, I’m sorry”, gave the small bouquet to Rika, then he rushed out to the taxi his car, drove away, leaving the Japanese student girl awkwardly holding a small bouquet of flowers, not knowing what to say.

Rika then asked the receptionist why the taxi driver knew her name and room number. The receptionist said he didn’t know anything, just asked the receptionist if there was a girl like that, like that, at the hotel, and he wanted to give flowers only, so the receptionist guessed it was Rika, so he called Rika.

Calling a customer like that, without the customer’s consent, in Japan is absolutely forbidden, but in Vietnam, it seems that people live like in a village, relationships between people are quite simple.

And other girl Asami told me the same story about the rain in Hanoi as follows.

That day, she while walking near Hoan Kiem Lake, it was raining. She stood on the sidewalk to shelter from the rain and saw a woman carrying a child walking in the rain. That woman seemed to be in a hurry for something, so even though she didn’t have a raincoat, she still carried the baby in the rain.

Suddenly, a man on a motorbike approached and said loudly to her: “Honey, come up here and I’ll take you there, I’ll worry for your child,,,”. He said a few more words, but Asami didn’t understand. The woman hesitated for a moment, then carried the baby onto the man’s motorbike.

Asami told me that if that happened in Japan, then probably no one would run to help that woman, because Japanese people are afraid of troubling others. The Japanese personality of being afraid of bothering others sometimes becomes an indifference and lack of humanity.

Asami said that Vietnam will develop and change a lot, just like Japan, but she believes that the beautiful soul of Vietnamese people will never change.

And that’s what she feels she loves about Vietnam the most.///