Successful Workshops!

As mentioned in previous posts, the main propose of my mandate here is to assist the agriculture cooperative leaders to improve their business management and marketing skills. The first 4 months Nhung (the National Volunteer) and I spent conducting research to identify the training needs of the leaders and preparing a workshop on business planning and marketing.


During our research we discovered that the management capacity of the cooperative leaders varied greatly. We had to develop a training session that would benefit all the leaders. Our goals were to make the training interactive so that the leaders could share experiences with each other and to give them relevant examples so that they could apply the concepts to their own situation.


I must admit, I was a bit nervous about how well they would participate in a classroom setting. The majority of the coop leaders are male, aged 50+, agriculture background, and high school would be the highest level of education. Needless to say, the group demographics are not particularly used to sitting in a classroom for 8 hours!


We had planned many group activities, case studies, group discussions, etc. and some lecture. We held two 2-day workshops both with 18 leaders in attendance. To my pleasant surprise, they were very active.

We started the sessions with a cooperative game. They had to work silently in groups to work out a collective solution. It was a hit!






This group is brainstorming ways to sell vegetables to restaurants and the local markets!










And here they are presenting their ideas to the larger group! You can see they even got creative by drawing pictures to express the customers needs.

*Notice the Uncle Ho Chi Minh bust in the back. He sees over all conference rooms in government offices.





Here is Mrs. Mui, the only female coop leader out of the 25 coops in Da Nang. She is the head of a mushroom growing cooperative and it is one of the most successful in the region. She is presenting her groups analysis of a case study. They had to identify the sample cooperative's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.




Mr. Phuc shares his experiences with finding buyers for the rice and vegetable farmers of his coop.






These gentleman were having a difficult time understanding the need to treat specific customer groups differently. This exercise helped them understand that the needs of household customers are very different from the needs of restaurants and market vendors. They had to consider different pricing strategies, delivery, packaging, buying patterns, etc.





Overall the Coop leaders were very pleased with the training and afterward many of them spoke of getting together on a regular basis to share ideas amoung the group!!! I was hoping for this and the fact that they are taking the initiative themselves to form the group is excellent!

It wasn't only the coop leaders who learned something from these workshops. I learned a lot about the different teaching styles in Vietnam and Canada. In Canada, my experience with learning (especially adult learning) has been very interactive and the teacher facilitates discussion. Students are encouraged to ask questions, challenge theories, and add real life experiences. In Vietnam, the teaching style is much more authoritative. The teacher gives the information and the students study it, memorize it, and treat the teacher with the highest respect. So much so that questioning the teacher is often out of the question! During the workshops, I would ask the group if they had any questions, anything they didn't understand, anything they would like to add, etc. The room would always fall silent. Even when bribing them with treats and prizes to encourage discussion it was absolutely apparent that they were not accustomed to contributing in this way.

At the same time, in my Vietnamese language classes I often give suggestions for how I could learn better and always come to class with a list of questions. My teacher does not respond well to this and I could never understand why. Especially because I am paying for individual classes. It wasn't until after the workshops that I realized that I was probably insulting my teacher by doing this. And I thought I was being a conscientious student!!

While the Vietnamese can enhance their learning environments by encouraging students to ask questions and think creatively, I believe Canadians could also enhance learning environments by having a greater respect for the teacher, as we have been loosing this more and more over the years!! This is an excellent demonstration of how intercultural learning is often mutually beneficial!











Our next step is to choose 3 or 4 cooperatives to work with directly over the next 3 months to help them develop their own business and marketing plans. Stay tuned and feel free to make comments!!

Mid-Autumn Festival

The second most celebrated holiday in Vietnam, next to the Lunar New Year or Tet Holiday, passed through here a couple weekends ago. For business purposes and everyday planning the Vietnamese use the same calendar as we do in North America, however, for their holidays and traditional celebrations they use the lunar calendar.


On the 15th of August of the lunar calendar they celebrated the Mid-autumn Festival. The best way to explain it is a cross between our Halloween and Thanksgiving. It really is a holiday for children and a time to remember your ancestors. During the 2 days around the full moon, children practice the art of lion dancing in the streets. Much like dressing up in Halloween costumes and going door to door for treats; the children perform dances for the homes in their neighbourhood in exchange for some money. The children (most often boys from age 6-16) wear a two person lion costume. One boy is the head of the lion and one is the back half.













They are accompanied by a 'happy buddha' and drummers to create the beat for the dancers. The happy buddha fans the home owner while the lion is performing a dance.


When the they conduct the lion dance throughout your house they are said to be chasing the bad luck away for the rest of the year. The whole thing lasts about 5 to 10 minutes then you give them some change and they are off. Usually a crowd of spectators from the neighbourhood follow them from house to house. This all happened very quickly and I apologize for the poor photos but you get the idea.

Also, large stores, restaurants, or hotels will hire professional lion dancers to perform for their clients. I just happened to be at the supermarket at the right time to witness a spectacular dance. The streets were packed shoulder to shoulder.



For the full 2 days surrounding the full moon, there was an incredible energy in the streets. Everywhere you could hear the sounds of drums beating, people cheering for the lion dancers, and the youngest children running around in lion customes.

In the past, children would also be given small paper toys but within the last few years these small plastic toys from China have gained popularity.





This is also a time when families remember their ancestors and they burn incense, fake money and throw candy our on the streets for their ancestors to enjoy.



They place some fresh fruit, fake money, and/or flowers on the family alter. The tradition of placing food and gifts on the family ancestral alter is practiced at the full moon of every month, but for the Mid-Autumn Festival they will give some special seasonal fruit and maybe some extra gifts for their ancestors.



Families will enjoy and share mooncake. Gotta admit it isn't the most delicious of desserts but more of a traditional custom. Many families enjoy it in small portions with tea. I believe even the Vietnamese would admit that it is not eaten for its tasty attributes but more for the tradition. Kind of like when we hand out fruit cake at Christmas or grooms cake during a wedding. These cakes do take a lot of preparation and are quite expensive. Most families buy the cakes and give them as gifts to friends, family neighbours, or colleagues. The cakes are made of a heavy dense pastry (either from rice or flour) and the centres usually have a whole egg, durian fruit, coconut, or mung beans. These cakes can be purchased in many sizes and they are about $5-$10 for a small one of about 6 inches diameter.

Besides that I have been busy at work getting ready for our first training session for the coop leaders. Next few posts will be about some of the places I have been able to visit over the past few months and a report on how the training sessions turned out!!