A difference of manners, style, therefore of substance. (And how much of what I’m struck by is Asian, how much specifically Vietnamese, I am unlikely to find out on my first trip to Asia.) Clearly, they have a different way here of treating the guest, the stranger, the foreigner, not to mention the enemy. Also, I’m convinced, the Vietnamese have a different relation to language. The difference can’t just be due to the fact that my sentences, already slowed down and simplified, more often than not have to be mediated by a translator. For even when I’m in conversation with someone who speaks
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