Police Problems in Saigon

Hi,
i heard already that it is normal to give the police a "tip" so that they let u go or for example: if u drive to fast u have to give a "tip" or u get a ticket.
is it better to pay the ticket, or should i give a "tip"?
How much VND is a "tip"?
thanks Marco

I Drive now since 2006 my bike (150 & 300 ccm and yes I have a driverlicens - bike, big bike & car) and not one time get a ticket or get even stoped from the police...............

mattyw2 wrote:

Great thank-you and for the record, I believe my children will get a far better education in the public school system in Vietnam than in Australia.   It's partly a cultural thing but also a government priority thing.  The Vietnamese give education a much higher priority than Australia or the US.

From what I know from teachers who work in the public system, you are in for a big shock if you think the system here is good.

I can see the results, my wife and neighbour both went to the local school here in the suburbs of Da Nang and are both excelling.  Same with the neighbours' kids.  No shock here.

Ok. The professional teachers are wrong in their opinion.

And the government.

http://vietnamnews.vn/society/243867/vi … vrqjYt3.97

Link from 2013??

Wow 4 years, so old.

For Aussis realtime I know

colinoscapee wrote:

From what I know from teachers who work in the public system, you are in for a big shock if you think the system here is good.

Your beating a dead horse my friend.  It is all a matter of perspective and without experience, one cannot opine with substance, just opinion on what is known.

It was the teachers opinion that I quoted, they should have some idea as to how the system works.

colinoscapee wrote:

It was the teachers opinion that I quoted, they should have some idea as to how the system works.

My comment to you was about another's opinion about education in VN, not the teachers.

mattyw2 wrote:

... for the record, I believe my children will get a far better education in the public school system in Vietnam than in Australia. It's partly a cultural thing but also a government priority thing.  The Vietnamese give education a much higher priority than Australia or the US.

I don't know where you get the idea that the government gives education a high priority in this country.  If that's the truth, we wouldn't have thousands of locals who, after years blooming under the "far better education in the public school system", still couldn't manage to write an email in acceptable English, still had to pay for intermediate-level lessons from any English speaking expat, and still couldn't pass a Western-standard high school reading comprehension test even if their lives depended on it..

As I mentioned in one of my last posts, my classmates and I were under the old system and we wrote essays on French literature (in French language) as part of our classroom tests and homework (the ones who took English as their first foreign language wrote their essays on Mark Twain and Ernest Hemingway.)

Do you know any Vietnamese student, even a college grad, from this wonderful education system nowadays who can write a summary of To Kill A Mocking Bird?

mattyw2 wrote:

I can see the results, my wife and neighbour both went to the local school here in the suburbs of Da Nang and are both excelling.  Same with the neighbours' kids.  No shock here.

How do you define "excel"?

Ciambella wrote:

mattyw2 wrote:

... for the record, I believe my children will get a far better education in the public school system in Vietnam than in Australia. It's partly a cultural thing but also a government priority thing.  The Vietnamese give education a much higher priority than Australia or the US.

I don't know where you get the idea that the government gives education a high priority in this country.  If that's the truth, we wouldn't have thousands of locals who, after years blooming under the "far better education in the public school system", still couldn't manage to write an email in acceptable English, still had to pay for intermediate-level lessons from any English speaking expat, and still couldn't pass a Western-standard high school reading comprehension test even if their lives depended on it..

As I mentioned in one of my last posts, my classmates and I were under the old system and we wrote essays on French literature (in French language) as part of our classroom tests and homework (the ones who took English as their first foreign language wrote their essays on Mark Twain and Ernest Hemingway.)

Do you know any Vietnamese student, even a college grad, from this wonderful education system nowadays who can write a summary of To Kill A Mocking Bird?

mattyw2 wrote:

I can see the results, my wife and neighbour both went to the local school here in the suburbs of Da Nang and are both excelling.  Same with the neighbours' kids.  No shock here.

How do you define "excel"?

The VN government definitely gives education a high priority.  Actually a much higher proportion of Vietnamese do than Australians or New Zealanders (where I come from).   Whether someone can write an essay in English is a ridiculous yardstick.   In Australia there are very few people who could write an essay in another language.  ie 1/1000 is probably too higher proportion.  The President of the United States wouldn't even be able to put an essay together in English let alone another language.

It would be easier holding a fruitful conversation with a brick wall.

Goodbye, Matty.  I hope your children will flourish in the excellent education system that has enamored you so much.