That's what I read from a blog of a girl living in Sai Gon and the name of that entry is "An ugly Hanoi". So, is Hanoi ugly? Well, I believe that everyone has their own answer, especially, you- UC students, who have just come back from the South, it may be easy now for you guys to make comparison. Hanoi or Sai Gon / the North or the South, which one is better? I'm not finding the correct answer for anything in this entry but try to figure out the cause-effect relationship between Urbanization- Development and Ugly Hanoi.
Come back to the previous question: " Is there an ugly Hanoi?"
Yes! We see many ugly Hanoi people, hitting the horn continuously like crazy when the traffic red light still shows 3-4 seconds left and immediately yelling very bad words if you do not let them go first- just like they are super/ extremely busy people. But then, they- the same people- are also willing to stop right in the middle of the street and spend 2 hours on observing the traffic accidence curiously. That means Hanoian are not always in a rush, they're just simply angry, mean, annoyed and impolite sometimes.
Yes! We everyday see annoying faces of sellers, waiters, officials...in Hanoi. Once you don't buy anything from the vendor, he/she will "face off" right away- change from very welcoming to totally ignoring , even say bad words to you behind your back. That was never happened to me when I was in the South or in other countries, "Cam on", "Thank you", "shie shie"... are the most popular words all over the world except for Hanoi (?)
Yes! Some people in Hanoi are very 'nha que" (negatively rustic) because they mispronounce "n" to "l", "em" to "iem"... That should be the mistakes made by people in the countryside, not in the capital of a country
But, "Are Hanoian ugly?"
No, none of original/ traditional Hanoian is ugly. They are the most polite, gentle and knowledgeable people. my grandparents are traditional Hanoian, who were born and grew up in Hanoi, even before America- Vietnam War, before the Doi Moi along with urbanization. My grandparents and other old Hanoian are always the most beautiful people I have ever met. They're not ugly.
Definitely, original Hanoian don't say bad words and of course can not make wrong pronunciation like people in the countryside. New Hanoian like me and my friends also criticize impolite behaviors, bad words, annoying facial expressions to others...
So, "Who make Hanoi ugly?"
As I mentioned above, Hanoian are originally polite and gentle but urbanization has been bringing more and more people from different regions to Hanoi. The capital now is considered as the "hot pot" of so many cultures, mostly putting negative effects on local culture, image, tradition and therefore, making people misunderstand about Hanoi as well as Hanoian. Hanoi itself is not ugly but it day by day has to put on the dirty and patchy cloths as a result of urbanization.
The project of expanding Hanoi with the "ambition" of reducing the pressure from other provinces to Hanoi seems to be ineffective. People from other regions still have been coming to Hanoi to live, work and find their own way to survive in the big city. From the negative side, urbanization is destroying the culture. The most realistic and effective way Government should do is investing to develop good schools, colleges, state-own companies, factories...for students and workers equally in different provinces, so that people dont need to go to Hanoi but still are able to have good education, find good job and raise their living standard.Once the pressure- the burden that Hanoi is now carrying is reduced, culture will have chance to come back to the natural & beautiful origin - A lovely Hanoi
If you were in Hanoi during the Tet you would find a piece of old Hanoi. It is a very nice post, thank you!
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