Reflection #4 for week 9

Presentation #1:

            I thought it was interesting especially the presenter’s perspective about the why Vietnam seems to side with other communist countries like North Korea and view them as “brothers.”

            Like Professor Valverde stated in class, the presenter should take into account both the wider American community as well as just the Vietnamese American community when talking about freedom of speech because yes I do agree that there is more freedom of speech in the United States but at the same, when it comes to the point of not being afraid to express your own opinions just because the majority of the community is against that kind of thinking, then is it still really having freedom of speech?

            I like the little video clip that was shown in class as well. It went well with the topic, but it would have been a lot better if it talked more about Vietnam than China but then again, who’s the more powerful and better known country? China, of course, so it’s not surprising that its political opinions were expressed more. Something the presenter can consider or look more into is the comparison of China and Vietnam’s relationship before Vietnam became communist to the present Vietnam.

Presentation 2:

            I liked it. It was very informative and interesting at the same time. Never really thought about how certain things can equate to spending some quality family time. The presenter gave a really good outline and explanation about her research and it seems that she has a pretty decent amount of participants as well. However, I feel like the only flaw is that it’s not demographically inclusive like most of the people surveyed were from the Bay Area, but I understand that there are some limitations.

            Something that I wasn’t too keen on was when the presenter asked her subjects how many times a year/month/week they would watch Vietnamese variety shows. Is this looking just at this year alone? Or is it averaging it as a whole? I think it’s difficult to average something if you were exposed to it a lot more when you were younger than when you’re like off to college or something. Anyhow, it was a good presentation overall.

Presentation 3:

            I liked this presentation a lot because it challenges and compares the Western’s view of homosexuality with how it is viewed in Vietnam. I thought the presenter made many good points. It was A LOT of info but it was interesting nonetheless.

            The presenter did a really good job and covered a great deal of material so I don’t think there’s much for him to improve on except that he should definitely choose a specific focus for his paper. 

Pajkub Vahchuama