Kiem An

This week we interviewed a web developer. When we asked whether he did a different job before this, but he has been doing this since he graduated from college. I got surprised a little bit because mostly everyone I know, they have been doing many many jobs before the one they are doing now. It seems that the younger generation is able to pick the job they like and pursuit it while the older generation work because they have to make a living, so whatever job they can get their hands on, they will do it. Working have different meaning now than it is before. Our younger generation now when thinking about working, we thought about will we like the job we do? where should we work? how long will we be working? etc. More in the aspect of whether we will be comfortable and like the job or not. on the other hand, the older generation mostly work because they have to make a living. They cannot pick and choose whether it's a suitable job for them or not, if it puts food on the table, they will take it. The taxi driver I was talking to have been driving for 15 years. When I asked, "Did you do a different job before this?"He said, " I did everything, kiem an ma em." It's not uncommon to meet a Vietnamese person and hearing that they have done several jobs in their life. Since they have work a lot, they knew how to do a lot of things also. Before, I have always wonder why my dad knew so much about fixing things and doing everything. As I talked to him its because he have to do so to feed himself. He took photos, selling books, fixing motobikes, etc. He had to learn everything on his own. Before people are too worry about making enough money to eat, other aspects about working was unnecessary to think of. I felt privilege to be able to pick what I like to do knowing I will have my parents to back me up, so financially for now, I was not worried. Education is something that is not easy for everyone to access during his time due to financial issues. People have to go out and work to help and support the family, they don't have the time nor the money to go to school. The only way to make a living is to work. However the idea has changed. For our generation, the only way to make a living in the future is to go to school. Education, Education, Education. That is also the reason why my parents moved to America so my sisters and I can have a better education. 

As the standard of lifestyle changes, people's expectation changes. There's more "want" than "necessity." As for me, in the future I want to be able to live a comfortable life. Comfortable life meaning I will have a house, a car, be able to take vacation, work at my own schedule, own my own work place, etc. There's a lot of materialistic things that come into the picture of this future dream. I didn't thought of it much because I thought my dream was normal, just like everyone else. But this was not the case for my parents when he's visioning his dream. He wanted to be able to give us what we need and sometime want. He want to be able to afford education for us and make sure we live a "comfortable life" in which we can eat the food we want and not be restricted because of money. To my parents, food symbolizes the wealth of the family. My parents wont let us get everything we wanted, but they will give us all the food we wanted. I am sure this will be the case for most family. Their main purpose to work is to put food on the table for their family. If they have extra they will think about other spending, but otherwise, they can't. Now our  standard of living is increasing, the increase in salary allows the gap for us to spend on other spending like vacation, Iphone, etc. I guess we can call those thing more of "desire want" rather than "needed." I think its interesting to see the difference in definition of "kiem an" according to different people and different generation. Their social standing also influence how they define "working." A person in "poverty" will define it differently than the person who is more wealthy. It's important to be conscious of the changes in the meaning of how we do things.